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Argumentative Essay on Inequality Based on Gender in the Professional Sports Industry
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Taylor Foster Miranda Findlay EN 211 09 November 2019
The reason women don’t have equal pay and opportunities is obvious, isn’t Do Men and Women Really Experience Level Playing Fields? it? If women’s sports produced as much money and attracted as many viewers as men’s sporting events they would be paid the same. The programs just don’t generate enough money to pay women at the same rate. Females should just understand, right? While I understand that there is a large difference in the audience size when it comes to the gender of sport, I cannot accept that there is nothing we can do, as individuals, to allow men and women equal opportunities, and wages in the sports industry. Subsequently, I refuse to ignore that the problem exists as a whole. Inequality in the sports industry, at all levels, has been an issue since the introduction of sports themselves. In order to continue making strides towards equal treatment, we must represent women’s sports in the media at the same frequency as we do men’s, show more support to women’s athletics on an individual scale, encourage and support young girls with an interest in participating in sports, and eliminate the seemingly harmless, but sexist phrases used in reference to female athletes. When narrowing the issue of inequality down to just the wage differences, there is still some work to be done, and strides to be taken. Much of the general public may assume that because there has been progress made in the right direction with the payment of female athletes that it isn’t still an ongoing issue. By focusing on the progress we have made towards
the solution, we overlook the ultimate goal of full equality and the progress we have yet to make. According to an article written by BBC News, there are still nine of the forty four sports that award prize money that don’t pay females at the same rate that they pay their male winners. This may not seem like a large number in comparison to how many sports have taken the responsibility and initiative to pay equally, but the difference in the payments of these nine sports is disquieting. For example, according to the Women's Sports Foundation, the WNBA only pays their athletes around twenty two percent of the income they receive in a season, in comparison to the forty nine to fifty percent a player in the NBA makes off of their revenues. This debunks the argument that the only reason female athletes get paid less is because their sports have a lower income. Without just looking at the percentage of the income the programs do make, females still don’t even get an equal percentage let alone an equal dollar amount. A Social affairs correspondent for BBC News, Valeria Perasso, stated “For the US women's football team, their win in the 2015 World Cup got them a $2m (£1) reward. Meanwhile in the male version of the tournament, the winners were handed $35m (£26) just a year earlier.” (Perasso) The only difference in these World Cup games was the gender of the players. However, wage differences aren’t the only reason women are facing issues of inequality. Another contributor to the issue is the lack of opportunity faced by females. For example, take a look at football. Females do not have an equivalent to men’s football to participate. To compensate, they give less aggressive and physical options such as volleyball and field hockey. However, “Options do not always mean equal” (United States Sports Academy). This means, giving girls other alternatives to hopefully subside their interest to play sports they may not be able to partake in is not the same as allowing them that opportunity. Absence of women’s
view. Just as individuals buy cruelty free products in order to avoid supporting companies they don’t morally agree with, we can apply the same concept to supporting media outlets and events that contribute to the issue of sexism and discrimination towards women and women’s athletics. Being conscious of the outlets we support and the messages they distribute is extremely important. “News stories that focus on the supposed “diva” behavior, outfits, hair and parenting of female athletes trivialize their athletic accomplishments and make them seem less powerful―and ultimately less valuable”. (Frisby, Cynthia M.) Supporting the content and messages Frisby mentioned gives media creators and brands the impression that the types of negative connotations displayed in their content is acceptable and what viewers want to see more of. Media influences billions of people every hour, so inevitably the sports covered will gain much more momentum and popularity than those that are not. Unfortunately for female athletes, a majority of sports that are covered are male events. A Sport’s Digest article focusing on gender bias in American Sports stated, “Messner found during the 1993 basketball tournaments, for example, that 41 stories ran for the men, and only 10 for the women, the men’s stories ran longer than the women’s, were more in depth, and had more video footage” (United States Sports Academy). Additionally, according to Athlete’s Assessments, an online sports profiling website, only approximately six to eight percent of sports coverage in the media is of female athletes. Some may say that athletes such as tennis player, Serena Williams, get plenty of media coverage. There are exceptions to every situation, but this isn’t the case when it comes to most other female athletes. We expect female sporting events to generate the same amount of income, gain the same amount of sponsors and generate the same size fan
base as male teams do without support from the media. If outlets covered more women’s sports, they would ultimately gain more fans and thus make more profit, making it easier for the nine sports who find it difficult to pay women the same as men the same wage. Coverage itself isn’t the only problematic factor when it comes to the media and women’s sports. The language they use when discussing sports for male and females is opposite. When the media is writing an article on a male athlete they are more likely to present a photo of said athlete partaking in his respective sport, however if the article was on a female athlete it is rare that the photos used are of her in her sport. Usually, photographs used to display female athletes are pictures of them in the home, or with their families. When this doesn’t happen, women athletes are still more likely to be sexualized in the coverage they receive. A quote from a research summary conducted by a professor at the University of Missouri, Cynthia M. Frisby, read “Recall that Fink and Kensicki (2002) found that the majority of the photographs in Sports Illustrated were of female athletes in non-sport settings such as at home with their family (55% compared to 23% of similar photographs of male athletes), about a third depicted female athletes performing a sport (34% compared to 66% of similar photographs of male athletes), and 5% of photographs were considered pornographic or sexually suggestive (compared to 0% of such photographs of male athletes).”(Frisby, Cynthia M.) Women shouldn’t feel like the only way people will recognize their athletic ability is to include their family or sexually suggestive photographs in articles or any other media coverage about them in their sport. Alternatively, the media should emphasize women participating in their sports just as they would a male athlete. When I was in high school, I was a pretty good athlete for my area. I
addressing this specific part of prejudice against women really began in 2014 when a SuperBowl advertisement called “Like A Girl” was produced by the feminine product brand Always. Focusing on redefining the quote “like a girl”, was something that American’s hadn’t considered harmful, let alone thinking twice before saying it themselves. The advertisement began by asking a group of participants to do something like a girl for example, run like a girl. After seeing the reaction and actions of those, they asked the same question to a group of young girls. The response was vastly different. The first group of participants performed the task in a stereotypical feminine and highly staged fashion, while the young girls just performed like they would normally. The stereotype that doing things “like a girl” is a bad connotation and humiliating is detrimental to the confidence and self appearance to young girls interested in pursuing sports and thus makes it less likely for them to participate in them as they grow older. Girls should be proud of being girls, and that’s exactly what the creator of this ad believes. "'Like a Girl' should never be used as an insult," Greenfield said. "It means being strong, talented and downright amazing" (Khan). This is the type of encouragement we should focus on directing towards young girls. So, have we made progress in terms of equality for women in sports? Yes. However, there is so much more we can do to help provide equality for these hard working women. We may not be single handedly able to decide how much to compensate these athletes, but we can’t turn a blind eye to what is still an issue and there are some things we can do as individuals. If we start covering women appropriately and more frequently, encourage and empower our younger female generations to continue participating in sports, and redefine the language surrounding women’s sports, we will be so much closer to achieving that goal of
equality. If you have any young girls in your life, make sure they know how strong, powerful, and capable they are of doing anything they put their mind to. Make an effort to attend local female sporting events, whether it be little league, high school, college, or professional teams. Lastly, hold the organizations you support accountable for themselves. If they aren’t treating their female athletes in the manner they deserve, don’t be afraid to shoot an email, tell a friend, organize an online petition. The only way to keep making headway on this issue is to speak up, because silence hasn’t worked this far and never will.
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Course : Writing & Literature (EN 211A)
University : northern michigan university.
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