Should sportswomen get the same pay/prize money as men?

Tywin Lannister

No.

Before throwing rotten tomatoes at me, please hear my argument !!

Men are physically stronger than women - this translates directly into their performance in sports and other athletic activities. Here is a chart that depicts the same (source).

People are willing to pay far more to watch Usain Bolt sprint than to watch Florence Griffith-Joyner (I didn’t even know her name prior to searching for “World’s fastest woman”). Similarly, Federer’s matches would draw a far bigger crowd than Serena’s.

Wimbledon has equal prize money for both the men’s and women’s singles. However, on their own website, they have the viewership figures which are starkly different.

The Gentleman’s Singles Final had a peak of 6.4m and the Ladies’ Singles Final peaked at 4.7m.

The peak here is maximum people watching the match at any given point. More people watching the same thing implies higher ad impressions, translating to higher price for the advertisement slots. This in turn would bring in more revenue for the organizers. However, they are both paid equally.

This is one of those instances where the concept of “equality” has been abused. Equality doesn’t mean equal outcomes or rewards. It refers to equal opportunities and equitable treatment.

Female models make far more than their male counterparts. For example, Gisele Bundchen raked in >$30 mn last year, while the highest paid male model earned just 5% of that. That is natural since there the female figure is considered more attractive and brings in more viewers.

We can either have equal monetary outcome for both or neither. Just let us not be hypocritical here.

pearkydarlz

What does pay have to do with gender..it's the talent that matters if they are talented then they deserve that pay.

parivijesh100

Yes...as sports women also practice as harder as men dispute having their gender limitations.

sachinjoshi

Yes. Even they put in the same effort for playing. Besides in every other field women are being paid equally if not more.

soothsayer

They deserve the same pay and rewards. what has gender got to do with this? the sport is the same and dedication the same. so why not remuneration?

Arkitekt

Why not? They work as hard and at times harder.

surekh

Remember, these people are in spectator sports and telecasting of spectator sports is done by media houses that do not glamorize the effort and hard work of athletes. Though sports governing bodies govern the sports and encourage gender parity, media rights decide the pay and rewards based on the estimated revenue from telecast rights. It's an established fact that women's sports events don't aren't much viewership. Hence they get paid less. It's unfortunate but true.

ebookreader

Do they get medals that weigh less? Or do 2 golds in woman sports equal 1 gold in man? Therefore I think, rewards should be same. Now for professional events, it should be based on the popularity of the event? Hypothetically, if women soccer is more popular than men soccer game, then they should get paid more. But that decision should be gender neutral.

keshav

Should be equal but it will never happen. Most of these events are governed by media houses.

psnair

equality requires that all sportspersons are treated equally and this goes for the pay too