Do the names Elaine Thompson, Katie Ledecky, Carli Lloyd, or Breanna Stewart ring a bell? Those are the names of some of the most athletic and decorated female athletes of all time. Elaine Thompson is the 2016 Rio Olympics 100m & 200m Gold Medalist. Katie won gold medals in Rio in the 200, 400, and 800 meter freestyle while setting world records in the 400 and 800. Carli Lloyd is one of the most decorated soccer players of all time. Breanna is one of the many players that helped to create the dynasty that is UCONN Women's Basketball with their multiple consecutive national championships. On the other hand, their male counterparts such as Usain Bolt, Nathan Adrian, Jozy Altidore, and Joakim Noah typically do not need an introduction. I believe there is an inequality between men and women in sports at every level from high school through professional. I think socially, financially, and physically women are viewed and treated different than males. Even though the genetic ceiling for males is higher than females, there are circumstances that arise that are just unacceptable in 2017 for females to still be dealing with.
In today's society male athletes always seem to be set upon a pedestal with the amount of exposure and praise they receive in comparison to females. This holds truest on our sports networks as USC and Purdue held a 20 year study through 2009 in which they looked at the gender of every news topic and concluded that 96% of news was about a male athlete. Even more staggering was the research that showed women's sport only make up 2% of the network such as ESPN SportsCenter. The athletes are putting in all of the work but yet the media decides to not show them competing, unless it is a conference championship or a national title match. One prime example of that is the WNBA. Whenever I am flipping through TV I very rarely see any of those regular season games, except when it comes to championship. And that is even with the sport of women's professional basketball on the rise ever since 2005.
A few critiques I have of the way female athletes are treated in comparison with males is another reason I believe there is in fact an inequality in sport. Physically as I stated earlier, there is scientifically a ceiling that females reach that restricts them from competing at the same level as males. But why should that ceiling completely alter the sports that they compete in? An example is in NCAA cross country. During championship season the men compete with a 10k races meanwhile the women race a 8k. Women are perfectly capable of running a 10k, so why don't they? In track and field men and women race the same distances and have the exact same parameters in every event (besides the tall hurdles 110m for men and 100m for women, simply because males are taller and have a longer stride which amounts to 10 extra meters). Another jprime example is the decathlon. Are women physically not capable of competing in 10 events and are only strong enough to compete in the 7 event heptathlon? In the sport of baseball and softball, these grueling seasons span approximately 4.5 months. When it comes to post season in the college world series softball players who play from the 1st round through the championship play roughly 6 games in 6 days if they go all the way to win the championship. In baseball however for a team to go from the 1st round of the college world series to the championship game, they are given double the amount of days to play a similar amount of games at around 7. Why are the men fortunate enough for the opportunity to have extra rest days so that they may rest and play at their potential while the girls have 1 day off max before their next game? It's almost as if the softball college world series is rushed just to finish the season and not drag it out.
Financially, I do not know if females of the same sport will ever come close to making the type of money that males do who participate in the same sport. One of the hottest topics in discussion recently with this issue is how much the United States men and women national soccer team's make. It is no secret that the men's soccer games are frequently more viewed than the women's. But with having less viewers, the women's national team has been more "successful" in recent years. The following website lists the story in its entirety for those who are interested to get more of a grasp of the situation: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-women-soccer-team-usa-gender-discrimination-equal-pay/. Its crazy to see how in recent years the men's soccer team has not finished higher than 12th in the world cup. Meanwhile the women have finished top 3 with multiple titles to their names EVERY YEAR SINCE 1991! The following graph depicts the exact amounts that the men and women are paid, which includes any wins, loses, and bonuses. Now incase you didn't look at the graph clearly, if the women won every international cap and the men lost every match, they would still bring home more money than the women's club just because they are males. In the United States where we are supposed to be the land of opportunity I cannot say this holds true for female professional soccer players.
Even worse than that, for those female collegiate basketball players who decide to go pro, the pay is so little that many times even the top prospects must play oversees in the offseason just to make enough money to sustain themselves. In 2014 the average amount a WNBA player received as salary was 72,000, with a maximum salary of approximately 107,000. Meanwhile in the NBA the average salary was 4.9 million with the highest paid player being Kobe Bryant at $30.45 million.
I think it is good for women in sports to see them taking steps and being more active in the men's professional setting, such as reffing games and being assistant coaches. I do not believe that is where women will cease their participation in the men's game. Next there will be more females taking administration roles at power five schools in athletic departments. I believe it is only a building block for future success of females in a male dominated athletic world.
I would like you all to reflect on any personal experience where you witnessed or were a victim in which you felt you were not treated fairly strictly due to your gender and active participation in sport.
Are there any areas you feel that inequality occurs that I did not touch on?
Do you feel there are circumstances where Title IX is unfair?
Internationally, how if possible, can female collegiate and professional sports be treated as an equal to male sports?
