Women
6 Sports that Pay Women Shamefully Less Than Men
6 Sports that Pay Women Shamefully Less Than Men
It's a disgusting cycle we can break.
July 08 2015 4:11 PM EST
November 08 2024 5:53 AM EST
In the wake of Team USA's victory in Vancouver, our newsfeeds have been dominated by the wretched but unsurprising news that our women were paid a fraction of what the German men were paid after winning in 2014. As this has fueled my fire, I started wondering about the pay gap in other sports. I found a wealth (pun intended) of information that shows the World Cup women are not alone, not by a long shot. There's a whole host of factors that go into how much an athlete is paid for their effort and results.
There is a perception of women's sports as being somehow less than men's sports, even that men's sports are the default and women's an afterthought. This influences how much is invested in marketing and which channels host games. In turn that affects how many people turn in to watch, which affects how much ad revenue a game or match or tournament can expect to bring in, which affects the perception of how many people want to watch women's sports.
It's a cycle. We can break that cycle!
So after you go through this slideshow, go watch Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers take downSports Illustrated's Andy Benoit for being critical of women's sports. Then after you watch that, help break the cycle that keeps women's sports on the second tier. Go to a WNBA game. Support companies that sponsor women's sports. Ask your local bars to put on a women's soccer match. Rock a sweet Abby Wambach or Megan Rapinoe (or Carli Lloyd or Meghan Klingenberg or... okay USWNT's talent is really deep) jersey. Make your fandom heard!
Soccer
FIFA actually increased the prize money for the Women's World Cup by almost 50% before 2015's event. A number of people have argued that the women are paid less because they bring in less revenue for FIFA than the men do. The 2014 Men's World Cup generated a $2.6 billion profit for FIFA ($4.8bil in revenue, $2.2bil in cost). It hasn't been announced yet how much the 2015 Women's World Cup brought in. Either way, it absolutely would be within the realm of financial possibility for FIFA to level the soccer-playing field if they're raking in that kind of money.
Men's 2014 winners: $35,000,000
Women's 2015 winners: $2,000,000
Germany's prize was 17.5 times as much as USA's.
Golf
Founded in 1950, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is the oldest continuing professional women's sports organization in the United States. The second major tournament of this year's LPGA Tour took place from June 11-14 in New York. The winner, Inbee Park of South Korea (pictured above), was awarded $525,000. The total purse was $3.5 million. Contrast that with the men's tournaments, and another zero or two gets added. The PGA Championship, which will be played in Wisconsin next month, had an overall purse of $10 million in 2014. The winner, Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, earned $1.8 million. That's 3.4 times more than what Inbee Park earned.
Basketball
The NBA and the WNBA employ salary caps to make sure no team says, "hey LeBron, we will pay you a gazillion dollars to play for us." Instead, they can say, "hey LeBron, we will pay you $67.1 million to play for us." Meanwhile, the most any team in the WNBA can offer to a woman is $878,000. That's an order of magnitude of 76. The most an NBA star can make is seventy-six times what a WNBA star can make this year. Next year, the NBA salary cap will increase to $89 million. The year after, to $108 million. I can't even.
Mixed Martial Arts
The UFC brand dominates mixed martial arts right now, and one of its biggest stars is a woman named Ronda Rousey (pictured). She's undefeated and her last match could be uploaded to Instagram with a whole second to spare. She's brought a ton of new fans and new revenue to the UFC, and yet even after her next fight in August she probably still won't be in the top 10 highest earning UFC fighters of 2015.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
BJJ is another sport within the martial arts category that has a shameful gender equality issue, which is ironic given that it's designed to help someone defeat a stronger opponent. The creator of a major tournament called Metamoris recently said he doesn't generally put women fighters in his tournament on purpose, and the International Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) offered a BJJ Pros tournament recently where the men's total purse was nearly 12 times that of the women's, despite entry fees being equal. Dominyka Obelenyte (pictured above), the black belt behind the #equalpayforbjj movement, says, "It's really unfortunate the treatment women receive in BJJ. Female competitors put the same amount of dedication and effort into training and competing, and to be disregarded simply for gender is upsetting. Devaluing a woman's position in this sport gives her no encouragement to continue on with this path, which is already riddled with obstacles. We have to deal with sexism, harassment and the objectification of our physical appearance. Now pay equality has been added to the list. This has to end." Happily, some promoters agree; Five Grappling has decided to buck the trend by offering equal purses to men and women at the first tournament of its kind next month.
Tennis
I wanted to end all of this with some great news. In 2007, Wimbledon announced that they would provide equal prize purses to men and women who compete. Now all four Grand Slam events do the same.
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