The inequality between male and female sports is still prevalent in today’s American society which is causing detrimental damage to the future of sports. For years now, female sports teams have been damaged due to this because there is not just inequality in the wage gap. As we continue to try and understand this, we have to examine why this is an issue for thousands of female athletes across the nation and why this is an ongoing issue.
“Although women are equal to men under the law, they are not equal in the world of sports’’ (Valarie). Throughout time women have been deemed inferior to men and this started years ago. The women’s right movement was just an introduction to understanding the foundation of gender inequality. The women’s right movement was the start of granting women equity across the United States. Gender inequality began years ago, and this movement was the beginning of making a change to let women vote in the 1960’s. This movement was a decade long movement all in hopes to win the right for women to vote and run for office. Eventually the congress passed the 19th amendment in 1919 which gave women the right to vote. The movement continued on for years though as women fought for equal rights of women. For decades now we are still fighting for equal rights and we are still experiencing gender discrimination/inequality. This movement was just the introduction to understanding the function of gender inequality and here is why.
As we continue to examine this issue, we have to understand why this is an ongoing issue through the years and look at some of the inequality gaps between male and female in sports. A big issue between the inequality is media coverage between male and female sports. In the early 2000s, it was recorded that nearly only 8% of female sports was covered through the media. “Women did not even constitute a tenth of media coverage in sports, even though they represented almost half of all participation” (Valarie). Media coverage gives the ability to promote sponsorships for sports teams which then raises awareness of their team’s program. With the help of media coverage and sponsorships, teams can bring in millions of dollars for their players and teams. Again, women account for a big percentage of sports around the world so while they only account for a very small amount of media coverage, male athletes are over here making millions from the coverage they are receiving. While this produces an unfair advantage of pay between the two, it also largely ignores women and their athletic abilities. “With scientific evidence indicating that men are biologically programmed to be stronger and faster, coverage of their sports is considered to be more entertaining, filled with greater excitement and action” (Valarie). While men are being depicted as more exciting, stronger, and powerful the coverage of women in sports is often dominated based on their appearance rather than their ability to play. A powerful quote says, “The issue of difference is highlighted by the fact that in media coverage, girls and women may be athletes, but they are female first” (Buysse 68). This quote highly emphasizes the big idea that media coverage contributes stereotypes that are very harmful to the female sports community. A case study that contributes to this issue is the case study of Brazilian women who play sports. The purpose of this case study is to help educate the audience about the gender inequality that is taking place in Brazil sports (especially soccer), and how the media is contributing highly to this gender discrimination and inequality. A huge issue in Brazil is, rather than the media covering the women’s abilities to play the sports the media is focusing on their femininity. “Stereotypes are reinforced by the way the media often broadcast sports news covering women, not focusing on the talents and achievements of women athletes but, rather, focusing on perceived sensuality and beauty, and even in ‘femininity’” (Knijnik). Brazil has always been a very popular area for the sport of soccer and holding very popular events like the World Cups and Olympics. For having such a high area of interest in sports, one would think the media coverage on women’s soccer would be full of positive images in hopes to influence others across the nation. However, women in sports in Brazil are portrayed much differently through the media. “The media plays a crucial role in forming the public’s image of athletes. Men are presented as possessing great competitiveness, strength and courage, while women are mostly mentioned in terms of their appearance, femininity, non-competitive behavior or personal relationships” (Kolnes). It’s often found that in order to achieve in sports one needs to be strong, show aggression, build a certain way and because of that people believe that those characteristics are only found in males when playing sports, while females are believed to be to feminine or “weak” to have the ability to play a sport. While people believed to look at it this way, the media did as well as they continued to discriminate their appearances rather than their ability to play. Another story of gender discrimination that happened was in 1967 when women were allowed to run or sign up for the Boston Marathon. “Women had been barred from road races since 1961, as experts claimed distance running was damaging to their health and femininity” (Minsberg). There were even reports that a woman’s uterus would fall out if they ran long distance runs like the Boston Marathon. Another prime example of gender discrimination towards women. This issue sparked when in 1967 Katherine Switzer became the first female to run the Boston Marathon, but she was pushed out of the course by a man. Eventually a law passed that allowed women to run the marathon, but they would have to start 10 mins before or after the men. When the race began the women immediately protested for the 10 minutes to the Amateur Athletic Union to make a non-separate but equal race for both men and women to do at the same time.
A big inequality issue between male and female sports is the financial gap between professional sports teams. There a lot of questions regarding this financial gap and whether this inequality of pay is from sex discrimination, inexorable market forces or a mixture of both the Wall Street Journal says. Many professional female leagues like the women’s national basketball leagues, U.S women’s soccer national team and U.S women’s tennis team suffer revenue shortfalls compared to male teams and because of that female teams are paid millions of dollars less. This is a great example of how inexorable marketplaces are creating a pay gap between male and female sports. A prime example of unequal pay and a financial gap is the issue between the U.S women’s and men’s soccer national team. The USWNT (United States Women’s National Team) have won more world cups, entered the tournament more than the men’s team and overall, the team has accomplished a lot more than the men’s team. While the USMNT generates nearly 8+ million dollars for being a part of the world cup, the USWNT only generates $4 million dollars even after they win the entire world cup. While both teams are given the same opportunity to play in a World Cup, the USMNT in the end is given a better pay while both teams have equal play but not pay. Sex discrimination on the other hand is another big problem to this issue. “Women are expected to exhibit the “pink traits,” meaning to be kind, nurturing caretakers. Men are expected to exhibit “blue traits,” meaning to be tough, demanding, driven, intense” (Daniel). When women do show the characteristics of the “blue traits”, a sign of leadership, they are then held to a higher metric.
A very recent event that took place in March of 2021 involving the inequality between male and female sports was at the 2021 March Madness tournament. March Madness is an event that takes place every year for male and female college basketball teams that is normally a fun and exciting single -elimination event. This year however was very different for the female basketball teams. A normal March Madness tournament consists of both the male and female teams splitting a workout room, the same meals and gear but this year was much different. This year the female programs were given less access to weight rooms, equipment as well as tournament apparel. “While the men’s tournament has a full weight room, the women’s programs have access to six set of dumbbells, yoga mats and single stationary bike until the sweet 16” (Coleman). Although the teams would be given better equipment once they reached the sweet 16, the equipment would still be less than the men’s programs as Sports Illustrated said. This issue was immediately brought to attention when the women’s programs were posting it all over social media like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok. Immediately after fans saw what was going on, they began leaving hateful comments on NCAA social media, sending emails and sending videos back to the NCAA about how unfair the women’s programs were being treated. It was very soon after all the comments and video when the NCAA had made different accommodations for the women’s programs. In this situation, things were only changed when it was brought to light through social media. Despite this issue, another issue regarding unequal accommodations recently took place during the NCAA playoffs for male and female soccer teams this past month. Not only is there a huge wage gap between male and female sports but there is also a huge gap regarding unequal accommodations for an event that happens yearly for both genders.
As these issues continue to damage the future of female athletes and their sports programs, steps are slowly being taken to make a change in this problem and here is how. Every day, thousands of young athletes watch their heroes on and off the field. Sports have always been an environment for young children to have fun, make new friends, get involved, and to learn something new. In the world of sports today, professional athletes are working their hardest to keep the idea of sports that way for the generations below. Everyday these female athlete programs deal with the issue of inequality while they are also informing thousands of other athletes and younger generations about what equal pay really means. “Equal play means equal pay for the same amount of work under the same boss” (Box). This fight back is in hopes to give equal opportunities and pay to sports programs with the same workload, same level of play and the same experiences the equal pay both programs deserve. With the help of educating young generations about this inequality gap soon athletes all around the world will be recognized and treated as equals regardless of gender.
The effort to solve this ongoing issue is going to take time, but as professional athletes continue to raise awareness of this issue to younger generations, the goal of equal pay and equal opportunities will soon take action. The inequality between male and females will continue to be prevalent in today’s American society, but as we continue to try and understand this issue for thousands of athletes the idea of inequality should no longer be an issue.
Works Cited:
Akst, Daniel. “What’s Behind the Gender Pay Gap in Sports?” WSJ, 27 Oct. 2020, www.wsj.com/articles/whats-behind-the-gender-pay-gap-in-sports-11603807200.
Box, Rebekah. “The Gender Equality Debate: A Boost for Women in Sport.” Athlete Assessments, 30 Mar. 2017, www.athleteassessments.com/gender-equality-debate.
Buysse, Jo Ann M., and Melissa Sheridan Embser-Herbert. “Constructions of Gender in Sport.” Gender & Society, vol. 18, no. 1, 2004, pp. 66–81. Crossref, doi:10.1177/0891243203257914.
Coleman, Madeline. “NCAA Acknowledges Unequal Accommodations at Women’s Tournament.” Sports Illustrated, 19 Mar. 2021, www.si.com/college/2021/03/19/ncaa-acknowledges-unequal-accommodations-at-womens-tournament.
Hanson, Valarie. “The Inequality of Sport: Women < Men.” The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research 13 (2012): 15–22. Web. [date of access]. <https://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol13/iss1/5>.
Knijnik, Jorge D., and Juliana Sturmer Soares de Souza. “Brazilian Women in the Sports Press: A Case Study.” Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, vol. 6, no. 1, 2011, pp. 12–26. Crossref, doi:10.4100/jhse.2011.61.02.
KOLNES LJ. Heterosexuality as an organizing principle in women’s sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport. 1995
Minsberg, Talya. “How 6 Women Changed the New York City Marathon Forever.” The New York Times, 4 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/sports/women-new-york-marathon.html.
