Although the salary gap between men and women in sports is gradually getting narrower, it is still a crucial issue in today’s world. Why could this be? In the modern European world, women and men are “equal.” According to the BBC article, “100 Women: Is the gender pay gap in sport really closing,” Real Madrid received almost $18 million for winning the 2017 Champions League, while the female team of Lyon from France received less than $300,000. How could a female team of athletes playing the same sport and same competition earn less than 2% of the amount that the men’s champions received? This is not equality to me.
Female Lyon team celebrating 2017 Champions League victory
Aside from the money earned from tournament, which is established by the sporting government bodies, men earn more than women from sponsorship deals. For example, Ronaldo earned $58 million in salary and bonuses plus an additional $35 million from sponsors, endorsements, and public appearances.
KFC advertisement with sponsor, Christiano Ronaldo
The vast majority of female athletes unfortunately do not gain the popularity and fan base to receive these sponsorship deals. Even though 83% of sports reward men and women equal prize money, we still have a long way to go for total equality in wages in sports.
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ReplyDeleteHello, Great Info!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your take on gender discrimination in wages across all sports. Another sport that was not mentioned above, and has seen inconsistencies in wages among genders is tennis. Female tennis players earn significantly less than male tennis players. For example, after winning both the Western and Southern Open, Roger Federer earned 731,000, while Serena Williams earned 495,000 for winning those same titles. Considering that these men and women compete alongside one another at the same stadiums all around the world, this is extremely unfair, and there needs to be new policies and to change this discrepancy.
-- Zach Jay
Zach,
DeleteI didn't come across this in my research but it's very interesting as well! Thank you for sharing something new with me. I also agree new policies need to be put into place and I hope we see a change soon.