The gender inequalities, discussing the wage gap between female and male athletes.
Damian Nytko
American Politics
Professor Jenkins
March 10, 2022
Blog Post 1
There is a noticeable wage gap between men and women’s sports teams. A good example, and the one I will be mainly focusing on, is between the NBA and the WNBA. The average salary of an NBA player for the 2020-2021 season was $7.9 million, whereas the average salary for a WNBA player was only $120,650. The gap, although already large, is amplified when you look at each sports highest paid player's salary. The NBA’s highest paid player has a salary of $45 million and the WNBA’s highest player makes $228,100. This wage gap is larger than it is in other sports, which has obviously been causing controversy in the basketball community. As the men’s sports community continues to grow and bring in more money, it has become more obvious how the women’s team is treated as a lesser value than the men’s teams.
The wage gap between men and women’s sports is often perceived as a misogynistic issue. Some people claim the men’s teams deserve to make more money because of their “physical abilities” compared to that of a woman, people saying they aren’t capable of as much, or it’s just an “inappropriate” field for a woman. This perspective, although it could be possible, is often put to sleep by the matter of money. If you look at the money each team brings in, it makes sense that the women’s team would be paid less, as they bring in less. Taking into account all sources of revenue, such as merchandise and ticket sales, endorsements, and the overall fan base, the men’s team is more profitable. The NBA produced $8.3 billion in the 2019-2020 season, whereas the WNBA only produced $60 million. These numbers show a drastic difference in profitability and are often brought up to justify the low wages and lesser quality facilities and equipment provided to the women’s teams. Going back to the misogynistic idea, women’s sports are often marketed less. They receive less air time, as well as fewer camera angles, which may not seem like a big deal, but it causes the women’s games to seem less exciting. This is believed to be a big factor in the low interest in women’s sports and why the WNBA is a less popular sporting event than the NBA. The men’s events are often perceived as more exciting and entertaining than the women’s. The men’s teams get overall better treatment, all the way down to the size of their facilities and the way their games are aired on TV.
In order to make this issue subside, there are several steps the NBA could take. As the world grows, and feminism does too, the market for the WNBA could also increase. As this generation of girls grow up, they will continue to fight the decades old fight for women’s equality. The WNBA could rebrand, and push it’s popularity, marketing more overall, but having a heavy focus of marketing towards young girls. They could push the next generation of children to have a deeper interest in women’s sports. As these girls grow up, seeing other women on TV, playing a professional sport, they could become interested in watching, or even playing the sport, hoping one day to be on TV themselves. If they can rebrand and increase its popularity, the WNBA would have potential to increase their income. If the income from the organization increases, so could the players salaries. If the sports community does not fix this issue, I could see the world of women’s sports fading out completely. As I said before, as the world and feminism grows, less and less women are going to be willing to take this type of discrimination. If the industry was willing to invest more into the women’s teams, giving them sufficient marketing, quality of facilities and equipment, and just overall the same treatment as the men’s teams, it could be more profitable.
In recent years, this issue has been brought to light in a large way. Women’s teams have been taking big steps to fight for equal pay. Throughout a wide variety of women’s teams, throughout the world, female athletes have begun protesting the industry, in some cases they won’t even play until their demands are met. There is a lot of movement in the industry, in hopes that one day there will be equal pay, regardless of gender. If the sports industry would be willing to invest the necessary time and money into women’s sports, the changes could be incredible. The teams could grow and become more profitable, allowing the wages to be more fair.