Gender Inequality in Sports Research Paper

For a really long time, women have attempted to achieve equality with men. From being denied their basic human right to vote in the early 1900s to not being paid equivalent for their work. Gender inequality happens because society has forced people to believe that men are simply just better at the job. This has been a problem for decades and inequalities start to show as high up with the government to even in professional sports. Gender inequalities have been a reoccurring issue in sports and they should be addressed once and for all.  The WNBA (women's national basketball association) was created in 1996 in contrast to the NBA (national basketball association) which was created in 1946. Which has a huge impact on why there is a very vast difference in pay when comparing the two. Men and women basketball players should be treated equally when it comes to paying wages. One possible solution that could resolve this issue can be more attention in the media for female athletes.  

According to the article, The equal pay act by Beth Rowen stated,” Men's and women's pay gap has been an issue since 1950.” As stated before this has been a reoccurring issue for many years, Women's and men’s pay wages have always been drastically different even for the same jobs.  Keith w. Chauvin in the article “Gender earnings differentials in total pay, base pay, and contingent.” state “The results indicate that within narrowly defined occupations and jobs, most of the unexplained difference in total pay between the men and women in the sample was due to gender differences in the portion of pay that was contingent on job performance.” as Stated before this is all based off peoples perception that men will perform better than females for the same jobs. Specifically, sports female athletes have never been paid the same amount. Women work just as hard as men. Do you believe they deserve equal pay? The article Gender Differences in the Pay of Professional Basketball Players by  Nola Agha said  “WNBA and National Basketball Association (NBA) are primarily profit-maximizing leagues, but NBA players have always been paid a higher percentage of league revenues than the women of the WNBA. This was even true when the NBA had a much lower level of revenue.”since the WNBA was created in 1996 the revenues are completely different. The women can perform and get accolades but they aren't getting paid enough for what they are doing. Would you as a worker at your everyday job work hard if you were getting paid nearly as much as your male counterparts? Many may argue that female athletes are getting paid enough however in the article, We Should Pay Female Athletes What They're Worth by Hope Racine stated “The average NBA player makes $4.9 million, and the highest-paid NBA player in 2015 was Kobe Bryant, who took home a cool $123.5 million. Now compare that to their female counterparts in the WNBA, who make an average of $72,000. Unlike the NBA, female basketball players' salaries cap at $105,000.” This is an unjust difference in pay. The top salary for a female in 2015 was not even remotely close to that of the top male athlete. These female athletes are doing pretty much the same exact thing as the men are doing. Many of these female athletes are getting the same accolades but just not the same exposure and support as the male athlete.

Furthermore, female athletes should receive more attention in the media to make the pay wages decrease. In the article, The Gender Pay Gap: Seeking Fairness for Women in Professional Sports by Taylor Gersch stated “In addition to lower pay, professional female athletes also receive fewer benefits “Female athletes get paid less because of the lack of attention and benefits. Female athletes are less likely to be on the tv channels than males. Walking into a sports bar you are more likely to see many male athletes than females. Many broadcasters are more likely to promote male stories than female athletes, even if they have those same achievements as stated in the articles by Alyssa Burt in the article Same Work but Different Pay: Gender Inequality in the Professional Sports Industry.

Many may also argue that female athletes are not entertaining enough and in the article Women Play Sport, But Not on TV: A Longitudinal Study of Televised News Media by  Cheryl Cooky argued “The ways sports events are produced, and in the case of this study, whether and how sports events are covered by the news media, can either reproduce or challenge the hegemonic ideology that women’s sports are less exciting. However, she also stated “ Indeed, other sports media scholars have argued that sports media coverage involves more than just the ‘‘action of athletes’’ (Greer, Hardin, & Homan, 2009, p. 173); the commentary and production values construct the viewing experience. Studying not only the amount of coverage but also the qualitative aspects of the coverage, including production values and commentary” In the article, she said that basically women may be less “interesting” but studies have shown that the way the, news and media covers them shows lack of attention but males get commentary and more coverages in general. Many news and sports media make sure there are techniques that intrigue that audience and make sure they are entertained. In that same article Gersch says “professional female sports in a similar way to professional male sports and gave professional female sports equal media exposure to professional male sports, then professional female athletes would have a much greater chance at achieving pay equality.”

In conclusion, female athletes deserve equal pay as their male counterparts for the simple fact of equality. People may argue that female athletes may get less because of the revenue of the WNBA and it is less entertaining. However, facts have proven the commentary that makes it more or less entertaining. A reasonable solution to get more attention in the media and get more/better commentary for female athletes.