I recently watched a debate between two people asking whether or not Women athletes should be paid as much as males. The way the first debater framed the argument was that it was a pay gap issue based on sex and the way the second person framed it was that it was simply a money issue. I personally completely agree with the second person, in fact I don’t think gender should even be taken into consideration in this context, let me explain why.
Overall the issue comes down to how much money you bring in through viewers, ticket sales, advertising, ect. We need to think of athletes like a job that is based on commission. You are good at your skill so you are compensated for that level of ability. There is a reason why Stephan Curry just signed the largest NBA deal in history, it is because he is very good at what he does. If we take gender out of it and say, should AAA teams in baseball make as much as those in the MLB? Very quickly people obviously say no because they don’t get any viewers.
When it comes down to it, the issue is far less about gender. Let’s use an analogy in the business world. So you have two traders on Wall Street, one which brings in 2 million a year for a company and one which brings in 300,000 for that company. Should their end of the year bonuses be the same? Most people would say no because you get compensated for the amount of money you bring in. There is no difference when it comes to male sports, female sports, dog shows, professional gaming, ect. They all run on the amount of money that the viewing public brings in. As viewers rise, so will their salaries.
If you want to make this a gender issue the question you should be asking shouldn’t be, why aren’t the women making the same, but rather, why aren’t people watching them as much as the men? I think much of this does have to do with skill levels, but I think that the difference isn’t that great to the point where the salary difference is. Plus people love watching college basketball and many of the college basketball teams would probably get beat by WNBA teams.
Perhaps there is a deeper seeded psychological perception where it is hard for men to watch women do something better than they can. I am not a psychologist, but anything is possible. I know for some men the WNBA makes them feel like less of a man because many of the women out there exhibit more “manliness” than them. There is also the fact that many of the women in the WNBA are often believed to be lesbian or derogatorily called “dykes”. The public as a whole might not be able to accept this yet, as we saw what happens in the last few years when a few openly homosexual NFL players came out, many lost their minds.
Overall I think the money debate is not the root of the problem, but rather an effect of why more people aren’t watching women’s leagues. We all have our opinions but ultimately paying someone more for no other reason than for their gender is the same as paying them less for that same reason. It is sexist and goes completely against meritocracy, which is a system we all want. I would love to hear your opinion on the matter.
