Inequality within Professional sports

Gender inequality is greatly exaggerated in professional sports. This is best seen when

comparing male versus female athlete’s media exposure and salaries. Over 40% of men in

America watches female sports. Yet Sports Illustrated dedicated only 3 covers in 2011 to

woman, and one was the swimsuit issue.  I believe that, professional female athletes should be treated as equals and given equal recognition by the media and equal relative pay. Male professional sports are broadcasted more on television, radio and the internet than female sports. Sports like the NFL, NBA, MLB and NASCAR are among the top sports covered and top money producers.“Despite a sea of change in women’s athletics over the past three decades, men’s sports still receive more than 90% of the coverage on television; news and sports highlight shows, according to a study co-authored by a USC professor (Stutliff Ushua). Yes, I get that the media is not in it for some higher moral purpose like fairness or equality. Some say“why give women equal support when they don’t generate the big bucks that these male sports do”?I think that if female sports were to be given equal air time and news print, fans will watch more, and you would see a serious increase in revenues.Even now with the unequal media coverage 40% of males in American watch women's sport, that's a huge number considering how hard it is to find professional female athletes on magazines covers, television and radio. On almost any night you can find a football, basketball or baseball game on television or radio. Likewise, the local newspaper is filled with sports dominated males and their herculean feats. Female athletes tend to be found in a small forgotten corner of the sports section fighting with advertisement space. The only women's sports you can possibly see on the major television channels are tennis and sometimes golf. Over the past 20 years women have gotten more recognition and been thrown a few scraps of media coverage (on the air and in print), but not as much as men. Maybe it’s time we did. Just think about how many more men and woman would watch and become fans of women's sports if they had better access to watch, and not just stuck on some obscure cable channel.

Another gender inequality can be highlighted when looking at salaries of male versus female athletes. Granted, taking into account the differing types of sports, the punishment the athlete takes in relation to that sport, and the revenues the sports produce; the discrepancies are just to great. For example, a WNBA player in the 2005 season, had a minimum salary of $31,200, and a maximum salary of $89,000, with the team salary cap at $673,000. Their male counterparts in the NBA had a minimum salary of $385,277 and a maximum salary of $15.3 million, and a team cap of $46 million. Another example would be in the world of soccer. The U.S womans soccer team took 3^rd in the 2003 World Cup and each player was given $25,000, if they had won the Cup they each would have received $58,000. The U.S. men’s soccer team in 2002 reached the quarterfinals in the world Cup and received $200,000 each (www.Womensportsfoundation.com). The Networks, media and our on attitudes about true equality is what allow certain sports to thrive.

I have a personal passion for softball, and enjoy the fact that the professional softball leagues have seen resurgence in television air time. I don’t appreciate the fact that the average female softball professional is paid roughly $25,000 a year when her counterpart in baseball can be paid into the millions. The lack of a respectable salary limits the careers for female softball players, like in other female sports. We like to talk about the rights and wrongs of equality, but we look the other way when it comes to sports and our sports heroes. It’s time that the media helped elevate professional female athletes by making our own female heroes. Women in sports are making huge strides to become equal, and they need to be given the proper recognition that they deserve. Who knows, maybe the next Babe Ruth of woman's softball is just sitting out there, wanting something to be passionate about and sees a professional softball. This may not happen if we don't continue to stress the importance of equal recognition on television, radio, print and blogs like these for women.  We need to get this ball rolling, but it’s going to be hard, especially if there is no one there to push it.