Gender discrimination is a problem
Gender discrimination is a problem that still exists in the world, despite all the developments that have taken place, and the means that have been applied to tackle the problem. Globally, the population of women is greater than that of men, but still, women are the ones who are most affected by gender discrimination. Gender discrimination happens in organizations, families, schools, sports, and also in the political sector. In the sports sector, women get different treatment compared to men and yet they do the same activities the men do. Most of the sports that exist in the world have both the men’s team and the women’s team. However, more attention is paid to the men’s team in relation to the women’s team of the same type of sport. This paper will tackle an argument pertaining to the unequal pay between female and male athletes. A few athletes’ potential interviewees points will be stated to help shed light on the matter. The paper will also elaborate on other inequalities that exist between male and female athletes.
Concerning unequal pay between male and female athletes and other inequalities, I interviewed Nelly Korda and Ian Desmond. These two people are famous athletes who are well known in the particular sports they play. Nelly Korda is currently known as the second-best female golfer all over the world, while Ian Desmond is a professional outfielder and infielder of the baseball team of Colorado. Both of these people give their opinion concerning inequalities that exist in their field of work. All the time Ian has been in sports, he has witnessed women working very hard, and at some point, they work harder than the top male athletes. Despite female athletes working this hard, Ian states that their efforts go unrecognized and unappreciated. “It would be nice to see female athletes make more headline and get recognized for their achievements as well as the credit they deserved from their hard work.” To create a better society in the sports sector, women should be recognized for their achievements and appreciated for the hard work they do. “Many female athletes I know work just as hard if not harder than a lot of the top male athletes to try to make a difference and inspire more females to choose the path of becoming a professional athlete”.
In the interview with Nelly, she appreciates that more sponsors have come forth to aid financially in the operations of Ladies Professional Golf Association tour. The organization was formed to bring together female professional golfers together, through carrying out weekly series of golf tournaments for elite lady golfers from around the world via the tour. Even though more sponsors have come forth to offer financial support to the LPGA, it is not yet enough support (Davies et al., 2019). Nelly states that more people need to come forth and support the female golfers during the tour. The support is not entirely financial, but people can give support by viewing the female matches, just as they do for the men’s golf. “It is nice to see the LPGA Tour starting to attract more sponsors and bringing in more money for female golfers, but I would like to see more people, in general, supporting our sport. Aren’t like men’s golf, our game does not get watched nearly as much.” (Davies et al., 2019). Through being an influential person, Nelly is confident that more girls all over the world will be encouraged to join the golf club and take part in the sport. “I hope I can become someone influential and improve the game of golf as well as make a difference and inspire more girls to pick up a golf club and get involved with the sport.”
Soccer players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are among the highest paid players in the world. Their payment matches the effort that they put on the field as they are known to be the best in soccer. However, if soccer players are paid according to their efforts, then the American women team is underpaid. The United States Women’s National Team has been able to outperform the male counterparts and has four Olympic gold medals to prove their great performance. Even though other women are paid more than their counterpart male team for participating in the league, they have restricted everything else that the male players get (Baldwin, 2017). Male footballers get bonuses just for showing up for a game, while for the female footballers, they are required to play in 20 friendlies to achieve the same bonus. The gap increases in the international competitions where the women are given only $15000 and a $60 daily allowance, while the men receive $50000 and a $75 daily allowance (Baldwin, 2017). In the 2018 fiscal year, the coach of the USWNT was paid less than other coaches who were in charge of the men’s soccer. However, despite equality being far away from the female footballers, they are striving until everything feels equal.
In basketball, the pay gap is huge, with women basketballers receiving $79000 while the male basketballers receive $115500. From research done, the worst player of male basketball team earns more than the best woman in the basketball team can earn (Baldwin, 2017). Concerning the hockey team, the women threatened to boycott the 2017 IIHF world championships, as a way of fighting for equal pay (Baldwin, 2017). The US Women’s National Ice Hockey team participated in the IIHF World Championship, and they won against their rivals from Canada. The win encouraged them to continue pursuing equal pay also offered them a chance of consideration. In 2006, six women from the big wave surfers formed an organization that increased the number of events and awards for women. The organization also offered equal prize money as a way of achieving equality in competitive surfing (Baldwin, 2017). In 2018, the effort of the organization paid off as the World Surf League agreed to equal prize money. Since 2007, tennis tournaments have been able to reward both male and female players’ equality. When it comes to equal pay, the women from the tennis team have helped to fight for equal pay by speaking out. The fighting of equal pay is not only for them but also for the women to come.
Another inequality that exists between male and female athletes is the fact that more attention is given to male athletes in relation to female athletes. When it comes to the audience, the men athletes have more, unlike the female athletes. The reason for this inequality is that female sports do not have the same capture that the men sport has. Therefore, the media also finds it difficult to invest their time and money on the women’s sport because of the claim that it is not interesting. However, all the reason why women sport is not interesting starts with the media. The sport must be covered by the media through interesting commercials. Through the media coverage, the inequality of the audience will reduce. It is without a doubt that the female soccer team has more appeal in comparison with their counterpart team, but because the team is not covered by the media, it becomes difficult to gain an audience.
The women athletes have limited sponsors compared to the men athletes. Sponsors pay less attention to individuals who lack lots of media exposure; therefore, female athletes are highly affected (Nogueira at al., 2018). Very few women are covered in the media compared to male athletes. Through media coverage, the athletes are exposed to numerous opportunities for attaining sponsors. That is the reason why most male athletes have sponsors compared to female athletes. For instance, Women’s sport and fitness foundation only receive 7% of media coverage, which is the reason why the foundation has only 0.4% commercial sponsorship (Nogueira at al., 2018). Because of the lack of sponsorship, the female athletes are forced to work and fix their training sessions in their work schedule. Compared to many male athletes who are professionals because of sports, the female athletes struggle a lot to service in the competitive sports environment.
Women athletes are more viewed as caregivers and less as athletes. Instead of appreciating and celebrating the skills of female athletes, they are diminished and urged to go back and be the daughter, and mothers they were before their sport career (Moore et al., 2016). Instead of people appreciation the skills the female athletes portray, they appreciate them according to their bodies (Moore et al., 2016). The kind of objectification that the female athletes undergo is extreme to an extend of a list being created in some website. While the male athletes are ranked according to the skills they possess and show in the field, the women are not given the same treatment.
Women are given different conditions to play in compared to the male athletes. While male athletes play under constant conditions that are favorable to them, the women athletes are at times expected to play under different conditions that are unmanageable at some point. FIFA has ever made a decision to host the Women’s World Cup on an artificial turf, a difficult condition where the female athletes complained of physical injuries such as burns (Moore et al., 2016). The experience of playing in the turf was also inadequate, and considering that no such thing has ever happened to the male athletes, it made it feel disappointing. Some of the women athletes filed suit claiming that the decision was made as a cause of gender discrimination, because the male athletes would have never been forced to play on the turf.
In conclusion, there exist inequality pay between the male and the female athletes. Even though both the female and the male athletes undergo the same training, male athletes are paid more. Male footballers earn more than the female footballers, and yet the performance of the female are better than that of their counterpart when the US Women’s Soccer National Team is concerned. In basketball, the case is worst since the poorest male basketballer can earn more than what the best female basketballer can. Tennis has been able to equal the tables as both the male and the female athletes are paid equally. Other inequalities between female and male athletes include the fact that more attention is given to the male athletes in relation to the female athletes. Male athletes have more audience compared to the female athletes. Female athletes have limited media coverage, which means they also have limited sponsors. Additionally, women athletes are more viewed as caregivers and less as athletes and are given different conditions to play in compared to the male athletes.
References
Moore, M., Player, W. N. B. A., Bouchard, E., & Player, T. (2016). Women Matter, Too.
Nogueira, A., Molinero, O., Salguero, A., Lucidi, F., & Márquez, S. (2018). Identification of gender discrimination in sports: Training of agents of change. Revista de psicología del deporte, 27(3), 0043-49.
Baldwin, M. J. (2017). The Gender Pay Gap Magnified in Professional Sports.
Davies, M., & Hungenberg, E. (2019). Management of professional women’s golf in the United States. Routledge Handbook of the Business of Women’s Sport.