Despite living in the most gender equal times of history, some inequalities still affect some groups of society all the time. One of the forms of injustice is the gender pay gap. In this article, attention will be brought to the sports industry.

Unequal wages in sports affect mostly female athletes, who in general receive lower revenue, compared to the male ones. For example, the US women's national soccer team in 2019 earned almost four times less than the men's team, despite winning the World Cup tournament in 2014. Furthermore, in basketball, in 2021 the maximum salary for a Women's National Basketball Player (WNBA) player was $111,500 while for the National Basketball Association (NBA), the minimum salary was $525,093.

The same problem is seen in sports disciplines such as golf, skiing, baseball, ice hockey and many many others. Some sports associations, such as the World Surf League or International Volleyball Federation, intend to make the wages equal, but the problem is still vital.

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Women in Sport- History

One of the reasons for the existence of the gender pay gaps in sport is the history of women's participation in sports. Historically, being a professional athlete was reserved to men. For a long time practicing sport was something inappropriate for girls and women's activity tended to be informal and have only recreational character.

Keep in mind that for centuries it wasn’t normal for women in the western world to wear trousers, so doing sport in long skirts was challenging. Sport was a form of emancipation of women, especially during the suffragette era.

In the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, women started forming official associations of female athletes. Also women could compete during the Olympics. Their first appearance was in the parisian Olympic Games back in 1900. Of course they were a minority there and competed only in five categories.

Throughout the 20th century women's sport had many ups and downs, but in general the situation was improving and girls were more and more visible at the sports events and in general physical activity was becoming more common among women. Important changes happened in the 70s. In 1972 the United States Congress passed the Title IX legislation. It stated that no one shall be discriminated against or excluded from participating in any educational program of activities, because of their gender.

No person shall on the basis of [censored], be excluded from participating in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance- Title IX legislation, additional Amendment Act to the 1964 Civil Rights Act

An important figure advocating women’s right to equal pay in sports was Billie Jean King, former world's number one female tennis player. In the early 70s she brought attention to the problem of being paid less than her male counterparts. Unfortunately, despite fighting for equality, the situation is still not perfect in modern sport's world.

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The Popularity of Women's Sport

Another reason for the inequality is the popularity of women's sport. In general the attendance at the events for female athletes is much lower than for the men's competitions. In the 2022/23 NBA season, the average attendance for an NBA game was approximately 18,000 fans. In the WNBA, it was just a third of that, approximately 6,000.

Furthermore, female's sport gets less media coverage. Also, it has lesser production values, for example no before and after game interviews, less popular, and often less charismatic commentators and little audience engaging materials in the coverage.

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Without a doubt the popularity of some events determines the commercial value of the sport. It is quite obvious that television stations don’t want to invest in high-end production of a broadcast that only a small amount of people will watch. But this is a never ending cycle- how to increase viewership without increasing the quality of production, and how to increase the equality of production without increasing the viewership?

Stereotypes and Sexism

Another important factor is the stereotypes and how female athletes are perceived, especially by male audience. Women in sports industries are often sexualised, which drives attention away from their skills and athletic performance. Sports industry, including the sports media, is a male dominated environment, so the portrayal of women may be biased.

Also in social media, female athletes aren't treated the same way as their male colleagues. They often face criticism of their sports abilities by comparing their results and achievements to men, which is pointless, as the differences are caused by biological reasons and not because they train less or don't work hard on improving themselves.

Conclusion

The problem of unequal wages in sport is not only an economical problem, but it also is affecting the popularity of sports participation among women. If a young boy was asked about his male sports idols the answer could be given right away and the choice of athletes would be broad- Lebron James, Christiano Ronaldo, Sidney Crosby, Lewis Hamilton etc.

If a girl was asked about her sports female role models the time of answer would be longer and with less variety, because women's sport is not popular and it isn't promoted enough. Many girls drop their athlete career because they aren't paid enough and often have other jobs to survive, even at a professional level.

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The situation won't change unless we- the audience, won't show the support to women in sport. The easiest way to help the industry is by watching games of women's sports leagues, following the profiles of women's teams and athletes on social media platforms. Another option, if you're a girl, is to just pick up your girl friends and start practicing sports together, at clubs or amateurly. Other important thing to do is to put pressure on sport associations and events who still make the wages unequal.