Women In Sport

Should women in sport be on equal earnings to their male counterparts? Absolutely not. This is of course a matter that must be approached with caution because I am not advocating inequality between the sexes beyond the simple fact that as sports stars they are not in the same league. I do not want to say that women should be denied the opportunity to partake in all the sports men do, for example, not allowing women to box because it is deemed ‘too brutal’ is wrong. Nevertheless the point remains that women should not be earning the same amount as men.

For the most part women in sport would not even attempt to claim they warrant the high levels of pay as male sport stars. Yet this is topic for debate in which female onlookers do believe there is a gross injustice. In reality the sporting arena is a business and pay works on supply and demand. What do the people want to see? This is the question which explains why women’s pay aren’t, shouldn’t be and probably never will be anywhere near rivalling men in sport.

Men are superior athletes. Women can, in some sports, match them technically, but this is rare and these are sports when the physical demand in much lower allowing them play on a more even keel. Tennis, for example, is the one sport in which females and males can earn similar money. This is still undeserved. Who would rather watch women’s tennis then men’s tennis? There may be some but the demand is still for the top male players to be shown on TV. This is why all the events broadcast through the year, other than the Grand Slams, are mainly of the all male competitions. Women play fewer minutes, at a lower standard, which fewer people want to watch so to demand equal pay is surely unfair, for me it is purely for the sake of sexual equality and not out of actual merit.

This may sound fair to most but I disagree. Female models (x-rated and otherwise) earn much more then their male equivalents, does anyone argue with this. No because everyone knows that no one cares to see the men – supply and demand. As long as male sports attract the attention then wages and prize money will be dramatically higher.

Look at England’s women cricket team, they have been winning tournaments and ashes competitions regularly recently and have only received a fraction of the attention on the TV or in the papers compared to the men in Bangladesh. Whether football, rugby, basketball or almost any other sport the fact remains that people will always want to watch the men play over the women. They are better athletes and the matches are contested at a faster pace and a better quality making them far more entertaining.

This is not sexist; this is a simple observation that few would deny. Women’s sports have come a long way and the standard of them is improving all the time but gender limitations means that even if it sounds unfair that men earn huge amounts more than the women in the same sport, as they invariably do, in reality is very fair.

Thoughts, comments and opinions please…