From Locker Room to Boardroom: Women’s Struggle for Equality in Sports

This is a story about two young players, a boy and a girl, each with dozens of basketball achievements, but only one will go on to receive a multimillion-dollar rookie contract. It’s about a woman who competed in a marathon to disprove experts’ claims that distance running damaged women’s femininity, only to be physically assaulted while racing. It’s about a women’s soccer team that sued the United States Soccer Federation for being paid less than their male counterparts despite winning more games.

Given the history of oppression of women, it comes as no surprise that gender inequality exists in athletics. In the early 1900s, women were restricted to playing sports recreationally. While some colleges and universities began offering women’s sports, these athletic opportunities were out of reach to the majority of women. It wasn’t until the passage of Title IX in 1972, which prohibited gender discrimination in education activities, that women finally participated in collegiate-level sports and beyond. However, the Title IX amendment did not result in even close to equal opportunities for women. At an intercollegiate level, 92.7% of college and university athletic departments do not comply with Title IX, and women are shorted nearly $1.1 billion of athletic scholarships annually.

The reality is that the average woman makes far less than the average man in the same sport. The average salary of an NBA player is $10.7 million, while the average WNBA player only earns $113 thousand. The disparity is gaping; a professional women’s basketball player earns just 1% of the salary of a men’s basketball player. 

While the gender pay gap needs to be fixed, certain sports have been working to improve pay inequality in recent years. Specifically, tennis has made efforts to increase equal pay between their male and female players. In all four Grand Slam tournaments, both male and female competitors are offered equal prize money. Hence, Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams were among the top-paid tennis players in 2022, behind only Roger Federer. 

However, inequality doesn’t only exist in pay. Over the last decade, women’s sports received an average share of 4% of media coverage. This lack of media coverage means that women’s sports are less likely to gain fans, reducing the chances for people to show interest and support for women’s sports leagues and teams. Even when a women’s league has many fans, media coverage still prefers to show men’s sports. The NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship had over 10 million viewers in 2022. Yet, ESPN did not place the event in a prime-time slot for the 2023 season, while the average viewership for men’s sports is often lower, with only 1.5 and 1.7 million viewers for an MLB and NBA game, respectively. 

The lack of women in sports extends beyond just the athletes on the field or court. Women are also heavily underrepresented in coaching roles. Only 15% of Division I athletic director positions are held by women, and representation is even more lacking at significant events like the Olympics.

While the path to equality is never direct, this is just the beginning. Women and allies will continue to fight for equality in each and every sport, promoting participation and earning support from fans, and encouraging future generations of young girls to stand up for their rights as athletes. The number one trait of any player is perseverance, and that’s what we’ll do.

Works Cited

Adelphi University. “Male vs Female Professional Sports Salary Comparison.” Adelphi University Online, Adelphi University, 23 Oct. 2023, online.adelphi.edu/articles/male-female-sports-salary/. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Dr. Brittany Jacobs. “Is There Gender Discrimination in Sports? How to Fix It.” Apus.edu, American Public University, 31 Jan. 2024, www.apu.apus.edu/area-of-study/nursing-and-health-sciences/resources/is-there-gender-discrimination-in-sports. Accessed 11 Oct. 2024.

Knight, Brett. “Highest-Paid Tennis Players 2022: New Generation Taking Over From Federer and Serena.” Forbes, 21 Sept. 2002, www.forbes.com/sites/brettknight/2022/08/25/highest-paid-tennis-players-2022-new-generation-taking-over-from-federer-and-serena/.

Mervosh, Sarah, and Christina Caron. “8 Times Women in Sports Fought for Equality.” The New York Times, 8 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/sports/women-sports-equality.html.