Female Athletes Argument Essay

On the Forbes 2015 Top 100 highest paid athletes list, only two women appear. They are tennis players: Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Tennis is one of the few sports in the world where men and women are paid equal prize money. However, when it comes to endorsement deals there are still major differences. Serena Williams is one of the most dominant athletes in the world, but one would not know it from her endorsement deals. According to Forbes, the 33-year-old tennis star ranks number 47 on its World’s Highest Paid Athletes list (Bergson). Serena Williams should have so many more endorsements such as Rolex, or a car brand, but she does not. Compared to her male counterparts, like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, she has many fewer endorsements.

Why does this inequality in promotion exist between male and female tennis players?
For a better view into the endorsement gap, look what David Beckham earns compared to Serena Williams. Both are amazing athletes in their respective fields, but the difference of $52 million dollars in endorsements is just staggering (Arshed). David Beckham is now a retired soccer player, but he is still one of the richest athletes in the world. Beckham made endorsements with many brands like Adidas, H&M, Gillette, Sainsbury, Samsung, Motorola, and Giorgio Armani (Arshed). Beckham has made earnings of $75 million in endorsements with Adidas giving the most to Beckham through a lifetime endorsement and accounting for his endorsement dollars (Arshed). Serena Williams, on the other hand, has made endorsements with the likes of Nike, JPMorgan Chase, Wilson Sporting Goods, Gatorade, and Pepsi but only makes about $23 million in endorsements (Arshed). Serena does not have bad endorsement brands, but the money she earns from those brands compared to others with those same brands is not comparable. Along with this endorsement problem, Serena is often paid less than other male tennis players yet she deserves to be paid more based on her accomplishments on the tennis court.
Serena is not the only female tennis player to experience this difference in earnings. In recent years, tennis has tried to make a conscientious effort to award equal prize money for men and women at the Grand Slams. Tennis, however, still shows differences in money earned outside the slams by male and female tennis players. A 2009 study, showed that women tennis players earned on average 23.5% less in net income compared to male tennis players on the season (Flake et. al). Diving further into numbers, it is shown that for every non-Grand Slam tournament win, results indicated that women earned almost a quarter less than their male counterparts (Hallihan). Endorsements will never be equal if prize money does not become equal. In order for this to happen, there must be equal TV coverage of female and male tennis players. There is a myth that women’s tennis is less viewed than men’s, when in fact, women’s tennis actually attracts around the same amount of viewers (Hallihan). In some instances, like this year’s US Open, the female’s singles finals were sold out before the men’s final. It is believed that this occurred since Serena Williams was working to win the calendar grand slam and her 22nd major win of her career. The Associated Press reported that US Open tournament officials believed that this was the first time this had happened. The women’s final attracted more attention than the men’s and sold out faster, but it did not seem to help with the financial issue. Again, this was seen in the 2013 US Open finals on CBS where the final between Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka attracted more viewers than the men’s final. The women’s final drew the highest overnight rating for a US Open women’s final in 11 years with a 4.9 rating. Matt Cronin, a tennis correspondent, said that this rating was higher than the men’s final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic also airing on CBS, which earned an overnight rating of 2.8.
This was progress for women’s tennis but a small step in equal endorsements between genders. Tennis is not just an American sport, it is an international sport, and in other countries, tennis coverage is also not shown equally between the men and women. Between the two major broadcasters of tennis in the United States, ESPN and Tennis Channel claim to show balanced coverage of women and men’s tennis. ESPN is known to be slightly biased towards the men showing them 62% of the time, whereas Tennis Channel edges towards being biased with the women showing them 66% of the time (O’Callahan). This is important in exposing both genders to the media and by making their matches more accessible to the public. It helps create interest and draw endorsements for the players not only in the United States, but also in other countries as well.
As pointed out earlier, there is not equal coverage of men and women’s tennis with an obvious bias towards airing the men’s tour. Kait O’Callahan from Tennis Now found through observations that in the month of August 2010, Australia’s Foxtel network was scheduled to do a mix of live tennis and replays 53 times. This was a lot of tennis, but diving into the schedule of matches to be shown, O’Callahan found that there were only 12 women’s matches on the list, making a mere 23% of tennis airtime. With unequal tennis coverage women’s tennis cannot grow and cannot step onto the same platform as men’s tennis. Without equal coverage, equal endorsements cannot occur because no one will be paying attention to the women with the constant media sexualization.
The media’s sexualization of female athletes may also worsen the gap in endorsements between men and women and higher and lesser talented female athletes. Selling sexiness could explain why Russian Maria Sharapova, who is Serena’s far less talented rival, came in at number 26 on the Forbes list of highest paid athletes, much higher than Serena (Bergson). Sharapova is noted for her long blond hair and lean good looks perhaps making her more appealing to the sponsors.
In the last forty years, the gap has closed, but there is still much discrepancy. A documentary film titled Branded about a female snowboarder named Hannah Tetter, explores the double standard that is placed on female athletes. Branded discussed how women not only have to be the best in their sport, but also the most attractive in order to get any attention. Women should get attention based on what they accomplish and not because of their looks. Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady directed the film and expressed that female athletes “…have worked in equal parts talent and sex appeal …clearly, winning or being the best is not enough for a woman to rise to the top of the high stakes world of sports marketing.” Looks are not the most important part of a person. The most important part of a person is who they are and what they do on court, not how sexy they appear.
Women who win constantly and do not get their deserved endorsements because of lack of “sex appeal” is ridiculous. The aspect of sex appeal over accomplishments can explain why Maria Sharapova makes more than Serena Williams, who is the greatest female tennis player of all time. Serena Williams does not look like other female tennis players, or for that matter most women you see on the cover of magazines, TV commercials, or endorsing products. She is not white, tall, slim and blond like Sharapova, which may limit the endorsements she earns (Bergson). This could hinder Serena’s endorsement possibilities. In today’s world, body image is far more important than accomplishments for female athletes.
Female athletes are learning to embrace sexualization to make money and in the process lowering their self esteem. The sad fact of the matter is there is a correlation between the amount of endorsements a female athlete receives and the sexualization she encourages. Female athletes become encouraged to prioritize sex appeal over strength, brought on by the media not only degrade the athlete's’ accomplishments and self-esteem but also alienate viewers (Liang). Female athletes’ reputations become tarnished by the media and therefore the American public, as well as most of the world, view women’s sports as lesser counterparts to males. The media's push to publicize body appearance over athlete’s prowess hurt not just the athlete, but also the sport (Liang). There are many people including myself who would rather see female athletes trying not to show off their body, but rather just watch them play well and confidently. Female athletes should not put through the media wringer just for some extra cash.
The sexualization of female athletes is one of the biggest media issues today.

Unlike male athletes, who are portrayed to be athletic and meant for performance, female athletes are shown through their beauty and sex appeal overshadowing court performances (Liang). Susan K. Cahn, professor at the University of Buffalo, who researches the history of women in sports, would agree with Liang and say that female athletes who inherently express strength and independence which are not traditionally feminine qualities, are often categorized as masculine and lesbian. Dr. Kahn explains asserts their femininity through the media. Only a few female athletes will earn large salaries from playing sports, which causes many to embrace the media’s sexualization. Females can show off their bodies to obtain more exposure and endorsements (Corbett). If the female athlete is stooping this low for a little extra attention to get endorsements, and money, maybe sports should start considering giving more money to its female athletes. For example, Anna Kournikova does not actually make a lot of money from playing tennis, and in fact, has never won a major tournament. Instead, she has become the world’s most highly paid women’s tennis player through endorsements that emphasize her sex appeal over her athleticism (Corbett). Showing off the female body in sexual ways in public is becoming the norm, and it should not

be.
Tennis has truly become a global sport growing more in popularity than ever before. It is becoming a leader of change in helping create equal grounds for both male and female players. Tennis began as a white man’s country club sport, and still today people perceive it this way. The sad fact of the matter is that women are still placed below men. In recent years, the popularity of tennis in the US has declined as there have been fewer US men’s champions. However, the ongoing popularity of American tennis has been linked to the success of people, like the William’s sisters, and other young up and coming female Americans. The American women are single handedly the support system of tennis. In the U.S. Support of women in tennis is essential to keep the American public interested. Without change to equality, the female tennis players may remove themselves from the professional tour. Since women tennis players make up such an interest for the American viewers, this could cause a decline in the interest of the public audience. This change won’t happen until there is equal television coverage and these professional women are treated with more respect.