How much of a difference is there really?

Well women are generally paid way less in professional sports while men are paid way more. Women’s sports are less noticed which leads to the companies not being able to pay them more, but that can change if we make an effort to go watch women’s sports too.

Women’s Sports Foundation uses the U.S.’s national soccer teams as an example, “For  winning the 2015 Women’s World Cup, the U.S. Women’s National Team won $2 million. Germany’s men’s team took home $35 million for winning the 2014 World Cup. The U.S. men’s team finished in 11th place and collected $9 million, and each men’s team that was eliminated in the first round of the 2014 World Cup got $8 million each, which is four times as much as the 2015 women’s championship team.”

The men’s U.S national team made over $7 million more than the women for getting 11th place when the U.S women’s team won the championship.

In the article Taking a Closer Look at The Gender Pay Gap in Sports, John Walters states, “WNBA players are paupers next to their NBA counterparts. The league minimum in the NBA this season is $525,000. The WNBA league minimum last summer was $38,000.”

The Men’s NBA player that is payed the least still gets payed over $487,000 more than the highest payed WNBA player. Women’s sports are generally payed less than men’s by as much as thousands of dollars to even millions.

Tim Wigmore discusses this common issue in his article Sport’s Gender Pay Gap: why are women still payed less than men?, “Women’s treatment in sport has always been a manifestation of wider gender inequality and, as sports evolved and professionalised, became self-perpetuating. The huge funding disparity between male and female sport means that women have had fewer opportunities to play sport, have suffered from inadequate coaching and facilities compared with those enjoyed by men, and have been paid meagre sums, even for playing international sport.”

Tim also includes, “This has damaged the quality of sport – and therefore the attractiveness of the product to fans and broadcasters – in two ways. Those that have played have often not been professional, so had less chance to hone their skills; and the lack of financial rewards mean that many leading players have retired prematurely.”

The pay gap is damaging the purpose and meaning to sports and women having the right to play them.

Everyone is supposed to be treated equal, but the gap between women’s pay and men’s pay is not proving that men and women are equal.

Wigmore shares information he found from a survey in 2014, “Globally, 25 out of 35 major sports pay equal prize money to men and women, found a BBC survey in 2014. Olympians are still not paid prize money by the Games, although most countries offer their medal winners prize money, and sums are equal for men and women.”

The Olympic Games is one of the most widely known sports events throughout the world, In Tim Wigmore’s article about gender pay gap he gathers an opinion from Collins, “In many ways the Olympic Games in Rio represent a significant staging post in the rise of female sport: 47.7 per cent of competing athletes are women, a record for a summer Games. Yet true pay equality in sport is still far away. “Until there is a fundamental shift towards gender equality across society,” Collins says, “women in sport will always be treated as under-paid second-class citizens.”

The gender pay gap is noticed by a lot of people all around the world , but will it ever actually change?

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] Women play the same sports as men but are paid less for it.   [/perfectpullquote]

MasterTux / Pixabay. Featured image by master tux

Kelsey Clark expresses her opinion in her article Gender Pay Gap For Women Athletes. She explains that the U.S. as a country should strive to make women sports more noticed so they get the chance at equal pay. Some female athletes like Alex Morgan take on modeling jobs just to earn close to what the men make for just playing the sports. Clark states, “Morgan commented during an interview that “Scoring a goal in a World Cup was my dream as a little girl. I didn’t really dream of being in Maxim when I was 5.” Yet it is these very endorsements that have given her, and many other female athletes, the ability to keep up with male professionals.” Clark uses the women’s U.S. National soccer team as an example because that is one of the most widely known gender pay equality stories.

Women have to take on other jobs just to make the same amount or even just close to what the men make for just playing the sports. The women should be payed equal to what men are getting payed, but in order for that to happen the women need more supporters at their games.

Mandy Antoniacci reminds readers of the “Equal Pay Act” that President John F. Kennedy issued in 1963 in the article The Wage Gap in Sports. Antoniacci says in the article, “Sadly, the wage gap in sports isn’t a newly surfaced topic. In 1963 President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act . Yet 53 years later statistics show America’s working woman still only earns 79 cents for every dollar that her male coworker earns.” Male athletes are still being payed way more than women even with the act passed in 1963.

Tim Wigmore states later into his article Sport’s gender pay gap: why are women still paid less than men?, “Women’s sport has been shaped by administration being almost exclusively a male preserve. This explains why, from 1928 to 1960, women were not allowed to compete in races of more than 200 metres, because it was felt that running for longer made them too tired. It took until 1984 for women to make up one-fifth of competing athletes in the Olympics.” The women of the world’s sports are looked at as less or weaker than the men’s sports so they pay them less. Wigmore also states, “Other bodies have been no more welcoming to female athletes. “Let’s get women to play in different and more feminine garb than the men,” Sepp Blatter, who was president of FIFA for 17 years, said in 2004. He wanted women to play “in tighter shorts,” because “beautiful women play football nowadays, excuse me for saying so.” Some men feel that women in sports are just objects to look at and that they should dress in more scandalous uniforms but they don’t see the true meaning of women’s sports which is women want the chance to make money by playing a sport that they have loved their whole lives.

Women who are in professional sports should get payed the same amount as the men.

Pexels / Pixabay