Gender Pay Gaps in Sport

The Gender Pay Gap in Sport

Teddy shin Y8

The Tokyo Olympics started a new era for female sports players in South Korea. We witnessed the endless fandoms and supporters of female athletes, especially in volleyball and archery. Despite this spike of fame, the reality that female sports players face is still devastating. Regardless of the players’ talent and the team’s accomplishments, the gender pay gap in the sports industry remains a major obstacle. Female players are the victims of gender pay gaps, receiving lower salaries, no matter how well they play. This is a clear obstacle towards gender equality, which must acknowledge both genders’ competence and potential in all fields, regardless of their differences and similarities. Therefore, the movement towards equal pay and equal opportunity in sports can be the first step towards feminism, which is empowering women and encouraging them to voice out and stand up for themselves in order to be aware of the difficulties they face. According to the ‘Average Player Compensation per Sport, 2019’ , male athletes in various fields, such as basketball, golf, football, and tennis earned 15% to nearly 100% more salaries than female players. This isn’t surprising to those who have witnessed women NBA players receiving 70 times less than their male counterparts and the US Women’s Football team’s lawsuit against gender discrimination. However, this is not a matter of talent or competitiveness. In 2018, Kim Yeon Koung, a famous volleyball player in Korea problematized the discrepancies in salary caps for male and female athletes. As a matter of fact, while the salary cap for female athletes in the 2020-2021 season was 2.3 billion won, the males’ were 3.1 billion won. Considering that the female volleyball team ranked 4th place during the Tokyo Olympics while male volleyball players failed to proceed to the elimination rounds, this proves blatant gender discrimination in sports. Then what causes this type of discrimination? First of all, the stereotypes of the public, which is that male sports are more extreme and exciting compared to female sports, has continued from the past. Many sports fans consider male sports more aggressive, speedy, and competitive. Considering the fact that the size of tournaments and campaigns for male sports are colossal compared to female sports, the stereotypical view perpetuates. Also, sports has been considered a male dominant field where the types of sports females can participate in were very limited. The history of sports culture has been developed by men and for men more than a century ago. This is why females have only been legally allowed to play formal sports in the 20th century, while some countries still ban female participation today.

This indicates the difficulty of sports industries debunking the fallacy that female sports are equally valuable. This fallacy is reflected by the low level of support, such as funding, sponsorships, college sports teams, and media coverage. To be more specific, according to UNESCO, even though women’s sports accounted for 40% of the Tokyo Olympics, their screen time on media was only 4%. Screen time is the tool for the sports teams to promote themselves and advertise the sale of their tickets. Since female sports players never receive this coverage, it is impossible to lure the interest of fans. To add to this, financial support is the tool for enhancing the quality of the game by escalating the competition, raising the prize money, and expanding the size of the audience. But, if there is a difference in screen time and financial support, it is inevitable for the public to feel that male sports are more exciting. In addition, CNN reported that college-level sports teams allocate 63,000 more slots for male athletes than females. Thus, this stereotypical structure perpetuates the severe gender pay gaps in the sports industry. The popularity of a player or a team decides the salary that an athlete will receive, which means the difference in popularity between males and females will link to the gender pay gap. It is crucial to point out the ignorance towards gender discrimination in the sports industry. For the improvement of the sports environment for all genders, it is essential to provide equal facilities, opportunities, and recognition. In order to succeed in this aspect, an equity policy is needed. The equity policy can bring a better compensation system to encourage female sports industries, it can prevent stereotypical views towards female sports teams, and provide a legal background for solving the gender pay gap. This solution will prevent any more expansion of gender pay gaps and the discriminating stereotypes that follow. Sports is the only field that connects people from all genders, ages and nationalities. Therefore, a biased sports industry will lead to nothing but an insensitive global community.