Article comparing two famous sports women
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“Women get the attention when we get into the men’s arena, and that’s sad.”
As controversial it can be, these striking words of the famous Billie Jean King not only emphasised upon the status of women’s tennis in the 1970’s but also resounds with the current situation of women sports. And, if one would contemplate on those words for its true meaning, there would be a handful of interpretations; all of which reflect one terminology, ‘Gender Discrimination’.
Gender discrimination in Sports itself can be witnessed in various forms such as the gender pay gap between the male and female athletes, the sexist attitude towards female sportspersons or even sexual harassment incidents. No doubt facts and statistics endorse this discrimination, but the key to understanding the reasons for such inequality is essential.
Coming back to Billie Jean King, she was one of the first few to advocate for equality by pushing for equal prize money. In 1973, the 39 Grand Slam title holder had founded a separate Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in retort to her meagre U.S. Open prize money and shunned all taboos by beating Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” game.
As a result, the following edition of the U.S. Open had become the first ever major tournament to have offered equal prize money to women and men. But has a gender equality regime regarding daily wages and prize money been established in the current sports industries?
In the Gender Inequality Issue of the Global Sports Salaries Survey, 2017, it was duly noted that the gender pay gap in Sport is more than in politics, business, medicine or even academia. Currently, on an average, a male basketball athlete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) earns $7,147,217 which is equivalent to ninety-six times the salaries of their female counterparts.
This disparity speaks volumes especially when you consider the fact that the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is highest paid women’s league in the World. Another illustration can be seen in the ongoing FIFA Men’s World Cup, wherein the prize money is set at 400 million dollars compared to the 15-million-dollar prize for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Similarly, the average earners of the English Premier League get paid 100 times more than the women in the equivalent FA Women’s Super League. And finally, to top it all, the Forbes 2018 Highest Paid Athletes does not include a single sportswoman within its top 100.