Wo(men) Sports
By: Kenz & Meg
Although gender equality has come a long way, even with UNESCO recognizing sports and physical activity as a human right in 1978, it still hasn’t come far enough. In America 40% of the people in sports are women, however only 6-8% of the total sports media coverage is devoted to them. And women-only sports stories add up to just 3.5% of all sports stories in the four major US newspapers. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, male athletes get $179 million more in athletic scholarships each year than females do. Additionally, collegiate institutions spend just 24% of their athletic operating budgets on female sports, as well as just 16% of recruiting budgets and 33% of scholarship budgets on female athletes. Over the years the popularity of women’s sports has grown, unfortunately the media coverage and sponsorship dollars haven’t followed through and gender equality remains an issue. For example, last July’s Women’s World Cup soccer finale was the most watched soccer match. For men and women. In the US nearly 25.4 million viewers were watching these strong women. Yet the players were far less paid than their male peers. There are 2 million more men than women taking part in sport at least once per week. 0.4% of the total commercial investment in sport goes into women’s sport. Coaches in women’s team sports at college level earn 63 cents for every dollar earned by head Coaches of men’s teams.
What it boils down to is that we, collectively, men and women, need to do more about gender equality. We need to pave the way for our daughters, just as we do our sons. There should be no inequality in sports, in the workplace, or in life. Women and men should be seen as, and treated as, equals in all respects. Gender should not be the thing that defines us or separates us from our fellow athletes.
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