Although the difference between male and female may merely be two letters; in sports it means millions of dollars. Sports and athletics are an influential part of many people’s lives. From a young age, boys and girls are raised around sports; some of these little stars continue on with their passions to become professional athletes. Sadly, today only one group of these people are respected how they deserve to be. A portion of these athletes, more specifically women athletes, are facing unfair discrimination. Although some may argue women's sports lack relevance they are in need of a major moral culture shift. Female athletes deserve equal pay, because gender discrimination is unethical, they work just as hard if not harder, and they are …show more content…
Being a strong successful athletes requires a lot of hard work and dedication no matter gender, still women are not receiving the same amount of financial appreciation as men. Carli Lloyd is a very influential player whom has played for the Unites States Soccer team for over 12 years. Along with multiple teammates she has filed complaints against U.S. Soccer because of wage discrimination. Clearly stated by Carli Lloyd, “Each year, the United States men’s and women’s national teams each play a minimum of 20 friendly matches. The top five players on the men’s team make an average of $406,000 each year from these games. The top five women are guaranteed only $72,000 each year”(1). This shows even though women and men are playing the same minimum amount of games, men are still much paid much better. The range from women's top five to men's top five in unacceptable. All ten of these players are putting in tremendous amounts of work, meanwhile only half of them are being properly compensated. Additionally Carli Lloyd explained, “If I were a male soccer player who won a World Cup for the United States, my bonus would be $390,000. Because I am a female soccer player, the bonus I got for our World Cup victory last summer was $75,000”(1). It is completely unfair; women are being treated completely different for achieving the same accomplishment simply because of …show more content…
While women's sports are just as important as men's they are not seen in this manner. Many think that men's are more interesting so decide to only watch them, but women's have a rapid amount of followers and viewers. According to John Walters, “last July’s Women’s World Cup final was the most watched soccer match—men’s or women’s—ever in the U.S., with some 25.4 million viewers”(1).Women's sports are receiving a huge amount of viewers, in soccer even more than their male counterparts. Although the women's soccer team broke a record for soccer viewers, they still will not make as much money as the men’s team. It is completely absurd how women are not being paid as much as men for bringing in even more of an audience. These issues are very common across soccer. Similarly Carli Lloyd explained, “even though U.S. Soccer’s financials confirm that we are the driving force that generates a majority of the revenue for the federation... U.S. Soccer told us, on more than one occasion, that our proposal was not rational”(1). Women are creating a crucial amount of revenue, yet are still not being properly recognized. It is clear to see how women are being short changed; although making an impact they are not being paid equally.As women's sports evolve by creating more revenue and getting more attention the gender pay gap needs to
Turn on ESPN, and there are many female sports reporters, and many reports on female athletes. Flip through Sports Illustrated, and female athletes are dotted throughout the magazine. Female athletes star in the commercials. Female athletes are on the cover of newspapers. Millions of books have been sold about hundreds of female athletes. However, this has not always been the case. The number of females playing sports nowadays compared to even twenty years ago is staggering, and the number just keeps rising. All the women athletes of today have people and events from past generations that inspired them, like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the All-American Professional Girls Baseball League, Billie Jean King, and the 1999 United States Women’s World
Should college athletes get paid an additional salary? They are an important assets to universities and colleges, so why should they not? How else would universities justify taking advantage of these young men and women? These are questions that arise when pondering the issue. This has been a large controversy over the years of rather or not college athletes should be paid, more specifically football and basketball players. However, they fail to mention that colleges are only considering paying a select few, the stars of the sports. Every single sport in colleges is making revenue for those campuses, making colleges money hungry. Thus, if they decide to only pay a select few, would that leave out women sports all together? Why pay college athletes more on top of everything they already receive? Most college athletes receive free tuition, medical care, meal plans and room and board, which can acquaint to more than a quarter million dollars for their entire college career (Scoop, 2013). Why ask for more? What is this teaching our youth? They should appreciate their chance to do what they love and value the education they are receiving, because that education is far more valuable than a potential sports salary. Even though colleges and college athletes have a few good points on why they believe they should get paid, over all the issue is larger than that, college athletes already make their share of “money” through free education and much more.
Women have progressed from house wives to business women over the past hundred years. In 1948, 28.6% of the people in the work force were women. In 2015, this percentage has increased to 46.8% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). Progression is visible and very possible, but it seems that our chances for equal pay are very improbable. From a person perspective, I had the opportunity to focus on basketball, let my efforts and love for the sport pay for college, and continue on playing in the WNBA. With in-depth research, I quickly reconsidered. Phoenix Mercury’s Diana Taurasi made a maximum salary of $107,800 one season after winning the championship. The NBA team, Phoenix Suns, picked up Dionte Christmas who only played for 198 minutes during the whole season and he obtained the minimum payment of $490,800 just for being a bench warmer (Berri, 2015). It is bad enough that he made $300,000 more than Taurasi, but it is more inconceivable that an NBA starter will receive $14.7 million a
For the most part, women are considered prominent over men, which causes women to act in a certain behavior in which will function to get them to events such as frat parties. In today’s society, women are constructed to act well mannered to which they greatly differ from men. According to the Women's Sports Foundation, they claim that paying men more for the same sport gives women in the sport less incentive to push themselves and discourages future female participation in the sport. Which is true, why would women want to play the same sport as men and get paid less money?
Traditionally men have dominated the world of sports however in recent year’s women’s sports have become popular and with their new found popularity, women’s sports have evolved into marketable leagues of their own. Although women’s sports took a huge leap forward, women players still don’t receive the same financial compensation for playing the same sports in the same arenas as their male counterparts. In Purse Snatching by Donna Lopiano, she points out sexism may have a huge effect on this financial discrepancy between women and men athletes. Analyzing sports economics may point to a different reason why women are receiving such a compensation disparity.
Mark Murphy, Director of Athletics at Northwestern University, who participated in an ESPN debate on the topic of paying student-athletes, argues that these athletes currently receive scholarships, whose value, in some instances, totals close to $200,000 over four years. He stated that all student-athletes have made similar commitments to the schools, and that football and basketball players should not be treated any different than other athletes, who participate in sports that are not as popular and lucrative. Paying athletes anything beyond a scholarship, argues Murphy, would cause problems, particularly from a gender equity standpoint. What Murphy seems to referring to when he says "gender equity" is Title IX federal regulations, which cut off federal funding of colleges if those colleges discriminate on the basis of sex. Paying male student athletes more than female student-athletes could possibly be construed as discrimination.
In “2014 and 2015… zero women were head coaches of Division 1 men… teams”(Price E.1). This shows that they thought that women could not be head coaches for men or thought they might be a distraction to them. In “2015, a women earn 80 cents” for every dollar a man earned (Zhai). Men are still give women lower pay. Female workers with the same college degree as men “earn an average hourly wage of $16.58” and the men earn $20.94 (Zhai). Women are still getting lower pay although they have the same degree. The”Women's Policy Research in september[of 2016] found that if [this] continue, women will not receive equal pay until 2059”(Zhai). This shows that women has a long way to go before they earn equal pay. It is clear that for women that they have a long way to go before the glass ceiling in Jobs is shattered for
Women have forever had this label on their back of being too small, too weak, too feminine, and too boring. The traditional gender roles of the female interfere with the extortionate nature of competing in sports. Men are usually the ones to go 100% and give whatever they got, and to show masculinity while doing it. The standard masculinity of being strong, smart, and taking charge over dues the feminine traits of being soft, gentle, and polite. That’s what society has taught us to learn and accept. But the traditional female gender role is diminished when participating in athletics and people may think it’s weird to see females compete at the same level as males do. Men have always had the upper hand in the professional, collegian, and high
Gender in sports has been a controversial issue ever since sports were invented. In the early years, sports were played only by the men, and the women were to sit on the sidelines and watch. This was another area of life exemplifying the sexism of people in which women were not allowed to do something that men could. However, over the last century in particular, things have begun to change.
The first perspective is that women are disadvantaged at any sport. Some people reiterate the difference of men and women in sports. This is influenced by strength and the natural power men hold, comparable to women. Rodriguez questions “Is this because female athletes don’t have what it takes to make it in the world of sports or could it be more of a social issue?” This perspective seems to be a social issue based on the notable skills women acquire vs. the apparent judgments of gender issues. The second perspective is the idea that women deserve and inherently earn their right of equal attention and equal pay. “Sometimes, the secret to equality is not positive discrimination, it 's equal terms. It 's the shrug of the shoulders that says "what 's the difference?" The moment worth aspiring for is not seeing people celebrate the world-class female cricketer who competes at comparatively low-level male professional cricket, but the day when people are aware that she does, and don 't find it notable at all” (Lawson). Lawson makes it a point to confirm the biased notions against women in sports and relay an alternative worth working toward and fighting for. Both outlooks can be biased but only one has factual evidence to back it up. The second perspective reviews an ongoing gender issue. This problem is welcome for change depending on society’s
In summary, Despite opponents argue, fans want to see thunderous dunks and incredible athleticism over the lesser abilities of females, male competitions is more intense and there is more at risk, and male driven associations produce more revenue than female driven associations. It is apparent that male and females are built differently therefore they have different abilities, females go through the same types of events and often have more on the line, and female athletics aren 't given the same recognition or praise. Then, maybe one day female will receive the same amount of pay as their male counterparts. As, Vera Nazarian once implied, “A woman is human. She is not better, wiser, stronger, more intelligent, more creative, or more responsible than a man. Likewise, she is never less. Equality is a given. A woman is human.”
For many years in the United States, equal salary pay for women has been a major issue that women have been fighting for decades. This began back in World War II, when the National Labor Board urged equalize the salary rates for women with the same rates that males were getting the same professions. (Rowen) Although, traditionally most women do not work to provide for their family and there are not so many independent women during World War II. After World War II more women lost their jobs to veterans returning to the workforce. Women in the workforce after the war have been discriminated ever since. The idea of women as weak and cannot perform their jobs still embedded in the mind of some men and were not considered equals to their male counterparts. Women need to fight for equal pay because, women in the work force today is dramatically different from women that was working during World War II. (Rowen) Through studies as well, it shows that women are also more educated during 2002 and still was getting paid less than men. Even though in the 1960 's, the Equal Pay act was, in effect, it still did not help benefit women in the long run.
Some people may blame the lack of coverage of women's sport is because not enough people like the game to push to get more broadcast games. While reading an article written by Nathan Keil, he raised a point I found very interesting as to what will help lead to women’s sport earning television rights, starts with money. According to the article, Nathan Keil said; “Money will go to women’s sports as soon as an audience wants to watch women, so the best way to support these women athletes is by attending women’s
Gender inequality in the United States is a serious problem, and it is often overlooked. It is a big issue, especially within sports. We live in a society where our culture prefers men 's sports over women 's. Labeling activities as feminine and masculine is a social construction based on stereotyped expectations regarding gender and perceived gender differences (McCullick, 2012). In 1972 Title IX was passed stating that, no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. This opened up athletics to women and girls (Education Amendment Act of 1972, 1972). Although
Women’s right to equal pay or gender pay gap has been a subject of discussion over the years in the united states, women perform similar jobs to men, but are paid