Equal Pay for Female & Male Pro Athletes: The Fight for Fairness

Abstract

Name: Topic: Why professional female athletes should have an equal payment as male athletes in the same sport General Purpose: To inform and persuade Specific Purpose: To inform my target audience on the gender wage gap in sports and persuade them to advocate and support my argument on equal pay for professional female athlete engaging in the same sport as male athletes. Main Ideas: Defining gender wage gap in sports and what makes it a problem, The causes of the gender wage gap in sports and its effects on the professional female athletes, The solution/effective remedies to the gender wage gap in sports to enhance equal pays amongst professional athletes engaging in the same sports regardless of gender. Introduction (Attention Gainer): Runcie (2019) defines the gender wage gap as an "average difference between the wages of men and women who are working". Such a definition portrays a vivid picture of what it means to experience the gender wage gap in sports, which leaves many professional female athletes surviving under the mercies of peanut payment while their male counterparts enjoy luxurious amount through engaging in the same jokes. Male athletes are not superior to female athletes as each gender is exposed to adequate exercise and practice to perfect their abilities in a given sport before engaging in any competition, which defines the need for equal pay for engaging in the same sport regardless of gender. However, having been a strong football fan, I can confirm that male football and baseball sports receive vastly more media coverage, sponsorship deals and television licenses, which in return enhance more revenue generation exposing male athletes to higher payments as opposed to female sports which experience limited attention making their sport generate little revenue which adversely affects their basic pays. Unfortunately, Female athletes, even those representing their countries, lack scholarship as compared to the male athletes exposing them to fit training around payment which in return sucks the little they earn in sport, making many lead a desperate poor life as compared to the male athlete which openly defines the need for equal pay for female and male athletes engaging in the same sport as a potential remedy to the stated problems. (Thesis Statement): Equal pay for professional female and male athletes engaging in the same sport is essential as both genders prove able to deliver in the same professional area, thus not correct to discriminate either gender in terms of rewarding them. However, due to the inferiority stereotype coined around the female gender, the professional female athletes remain subjected to less pays due to societal assumption that associate male gender to determination and seriousness in sports, defining their competition as more fun and enjoyable to watch and support as compared to female gender whose role in sports remains un-acknowledged. For this reason, the need to understand the meaning of gender wage gaps in sport, the causes of gender wage gaps in sports and their effects on the professional female athletes who serve as the primary victims is the key to finding and recommending potential remedies that would explain the need for equal pay for professional female and male athletes engaging in the same sport. The need to advocate for female gender rights in sports is essential as it will enable society to understand better female contributions in sports, which can enhance a change in their attitude towards this genders involvement in sports. (Preview)- My three main points of discussion will be: defining gender wage gaps in sports and what makes it a problem, the causes of the gender wage gap in sports and its effects on the professional female athletes, and finally, solution/effective remedies to the gender wage gap in sports to enhance equal pays amongst professional athletes engaging in same sports regardless of gender. (Transition): Before defining the gender wage gap in sports as a problem to professional athletes, it is imperative to begin by defining the term gender wage gap to offer a clear overview of its effects on the target population within the sporting or any income generating environment. Main Point I: (Definition, Problem/Harms) – Sport is among the most recognized income-generating ventures that many professional and non-professional male and females like engaging in globally. However, gender inequalities in rewarding the athletes for the same sports has adversely resulted in athletes burnouts or leading challenging lives, especially for the professional female athletes who, ever since time immemorial, remains subjected to less pays as compared to male athletes upon engaging in the same sport which defines gender wage gap as a controversial problem that calls for immediate address. One can define the gender wage gap as the average difference in paying the professional athletes as attributed to their gender, making the male enjoy higher pays and the female poorly paid regardless of both genders’ abilities to deliver in the same sport. The gender wage gap in sport is a natural phenomenon that exists in the sporting world, negatively affecting the female athletes, most especially in America where male dominancy remains well defined in all odds of life, which leaves the female athletes receiving peanut payment as compared to the male athletes in the same sport (Runcie, 2019). According to Perras (2019), equal pay legislation has been in existence within the United States of America for over fifty years, yet equal pay gaps continue registering an upward trend with an insignificant percentage of female athletes expressing their urge to sue the sport’s governing bodies to obtain equal pays. Such an attitude poses a question on whether the female athletes remains attached to the inferior stereotype that defines this gender subjecting the males to dominate them even in the same sports where each individuals performance remains statistically recorded to allow for a better analysis of each athletes ability to deliver in a given sport which defines the relevance of equity in rewarding both genders. However, one can argue that paying professional female athletes less than the male athletes cannot be justified by such a stereotype since performance is the key in sports, and if females athletes perform as better as the male athletes in the same sport, then the rising gender wage gap remains as a controversial issue whose remedy is coined around transparency in rewarding athletes based on their abilities to deliver. The gender wage gap in sports exposes professional female athletes to leaping little regardless of their hard work and determination to deliver in sports and maintain a balance as their family caregivers. Leano (2020) fails to associate limited fans as a contributing factor of American female athletes less pays but, on the contrary, argues that " Football in America is unusual as women's team is paid less than men despite more people tuning in to watch them; it takes 1693 women to match one man's salary " Regardless of how much fun a female athlete may experience upon engaging in sport, consistency in unequal pay may contribute to a negative attitude towards the same sport as such an athlete may feel unappreciated or of no value to the sporting fraternity which in return would force them to detach from sporting. I have mentioned that the gender wage gap in sports can adversely affect the female athletes' attitude towards sports in an outstanding manner leading to burnouts, yet men athlete cannot afford to take part in their sport and occupy the position of female athletes in the female sports...