Gender in sports
With gender inequality awareness now more active than ever before, it can be seen that female athletes are being treated unfairly in comparison to male athletes. Although women’s sports have gained popularity, which can be seen through the record-breaking women’s World Cup 15.6 million views in 2019 according to the L.A Times. the difference of treatment between female and male are massive in terms of wages, media coverages and how they’re subjected to discrimination by viewers and broadcasters.
Wages and prizes for female athletes are considered to be pocket money in comparison to how much money male athlete makes. To put it into perspective, the men’s World Cup winners in 2014, Germany, not only walked away with the title of the best in the world but also roughly $35 million as a prize for winning the World Cup. In 2015, the U.S. Women’s National Team walked away with the title but only $2 million for the whole team after winning the World Cup. In fact, the 11th place U.S. Men’s National Team, who was eliminated in the round of 16, won $9 million which is $7 million more than the women’s World Cup winner.
Female athletes normally do not get the media coverage that they’ve deserved. If you were to turn on the TV and switched to a sports channel, men’s sports would generally be what you would see on TV. Some people debate that men’s sports are generally more interesting to watch than female’s sports due to the difference between the level of athleticism. Although that may be true in certain aspects, the media is completely discrediting female athletes off their abilities in the sporting world.
With the media and the general population discrediting female athletes, it is often true that female faces discrimination and objectification by viewers and broadcasters, making them feel as if they don’t belong. Whenever a women’s game is being focused on, the media and viewers tend to sexualize and objectify women in sports. The media needs to understand that female athletes, after all, are athletes and that they play the exact same sports as men
Although female equality in sports has made some improvements, it is nowhere near the standards of what men’s sports are getting. The fact that what women make in sports is penny change for men, how they get little to no media coverage and how female athletes tend to be sexualized and objectified. These are a few of the issues that female athletes must face as they hope for change in the future in terms of equal treatment between male and female athletes.
