The Gender Equality Debate: A Boost for Women in Sport

Helen Ishmael · 2022-04-22T10:17:58.418Z

Education and information surrounding gender equality and equal rights has been on the rise, more accessible, and discussed by the broader community. As a young woman myself, I can’t remember a time from my adolescence where equality wasn’t an important topic of discussion being had around me. Moving into my adult years, I have had the opportunity to critically analyze and reflect on my time growing up, both in and out of the realms of sport, and upon reflection have been able to see times where inequality was prevalent, both in my own and other’s experiences. Most kids are encouraged to try most sports at least once. Sport provides a unique environment for kids to play, learn, get involved, and make friends that they otherwise would not have. But currently, despite the encouragement to get involved in sport, should a little girl choose to take her sport further one day and potentially pursue it as a career, the opportunities available are lacking when compared to those of her male counterparts in all but a few sports. The debate around gender equality in sports remains a controversial topic, unfortunately. Even the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, said in 1896, “No matter how toughened a sportswoman may be, her organism is not cut out to sustain certain shocks.” Now we’ll be the first to say that the sporting industry is making steps towards an equal future. However, there is still a way to go. Sport has long mirrored society, so the discrepancy in equal pay between men and women has persisted within sport, just as it has in other professions. 2019 was a defining year in soccer for the conversation as the public showed their support for gender equality and in return we were provided with an insight from female athletes into the jobs and lives they must lead outside of their professional sporting career. The debate that had been simmering under the surface and was often confined as a topic of family barbeques or gatherings amongst friends, was ignited and reinvigorated globally in 2019 after the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) won the World Cup and the crowd chanted “Equal Pay!”. That same year, the Women’s Sport Foundation highlighted some of the women in sport leading the charge in the fight for equal pay. In advance of their World Cup win, the USWNT took a stand against ‘institutionalized gender discrimination’ against the team. The women’s team has performed exceedingly better than their male counterparts, who in 2018 failed to even qualify for the men’s World Cup. While the women have placed in the top three in every women’s World Cup since 1991 when the tournament began. Looking to hockey, the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team, prior to their historic gold medal in the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, were fighting for equal pay and treatment to that of the men’s team. The New York Times reported that at that time the women were barely scraping a living wage and were left out of pre-Olympic marketing plans despite their continued success as a team. Their star forward Hilary Knight said: “We’re passionately pursuing something for the greater good.” One of the most well-known and on-going debates, even today in 2021, are the salaries of the WNBA and their NBA counterparts. It is known that most professional women basketball players, in order to make a sustainable income playing basketball, need to compete in numerous different national leagues. This creates an extreme physical demand on the athletes by not having an off-season as they are playing in Europe, Russia, China, and Australia to make ends meet. However, it is really important to note that the WNBA players are not asking for the multimillion-dollar figure incomes that their NBA counterparts receive, they are asking for percentage equity (more on this later). Close to home, I remember having the conversation with one of my childhood friends who has gone on to play in the AFLW. We were discussing her training and game schedule, in and out of season, and I was shocked to learn that despite her and her teammates being required to train and play the same amount of times a week as their male AFL counterparts, they were being paid 20% of what their average male counterpart was earning per game, however they were not being paid a salary for training at all, meaning they all needed to sustain full-time jobs outside of their full-time training and playing schedule. Whereas their male counterparts are being paid as full-time athletes. In that same year, the AFLW Grand Final broke their attendance record with more than 53,000 fans rolling into the stadium to watch. It was also the biggest audience for a women’s sporting event in Australia, ever.

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