Equal Representation in Athletics

Equal Representation In Sports

In our second unit of our SDGs or Sustainable Development Goals class we started talking about gender equality. At the start we mainly talked about the United States, being the country we live in, and discussed the gender pay gap. That led on to our Field Experiences like going to the Center on Halsted in Chicago. This center is a place or comfort for all people no matter their sex, race, or otherwise. It specialized in helping the LGBT community and additionally helped people in need. We found out that they are also helping people that need housing and helping them with finding jobs and being able to live their lives. We then began to think of gender representation in the other countries and the media. We talked about Burka Avenger which was about a teacher who uses pens and books as weapons to fight against the evil of unequal rights for women. We also watched the documentary, Miss Representation and had discussions about that. Still thinking of other countries we looked at the amount of women in parliament around the world. Rwanda is the country that has the highest amount of female representatives in parliament. Their law states that at least one third of the parliament must be women. This led to our final project. Our final project of this unit was to create an essay talking about gender equality in a certain area of our choice. I chose to talk about equal representation in sports. The essay had to include comparing to countries. One that was given, the United States, and one that we chose. I decided to talk about the United Kingdom. It turns out that the U.S. and U.K. are very similar when it comes to equal representation in sports. The hard part is finding the differences and confirming which country is the best at providing gender equality.

Many people would say that sports are not gender equal and that is true. There are many sports in the U.S. and the U.K. The most common sports that people know of are football, baseball, basketball, hockey and so on. However, some of the most common sports are only for male athletes. There is only a small number of sports that are considered as feminine sports. These are gymnastics, field hockey, softball, volleyball, and more common than the others but still not thought about women’s soccer and basketball. In the United States there is not a female or male and female football, baseball, and hockey. There are sports that are also qualified as mixed-sex sports and those include tennis, badminton, and more. The fight for gender equality has expanded. A large issue of gender inequality for athletes is not equal pay, it’s actually more about the marketing and promotion of the players. Women athletes are not getting as much promotion as male athletes and that can be because they are not able to establish a foundation where they can show off their talent. The United States and the United Kingdom are highly populated countries and the population is mostly invested in sports. The truth is not many people watching a sports game think about whether the sport is actually fair to the players no matter what sex the are. The United States and the United Kingdom have a lot in common when it comes to sports. They are on the path to ending gender inequality in sports by making sure all athletes are being paid the same, getting fair and equal media coverage and ending discrimination of genders, all in order to create equal representation in sports.

Over a few years the fight for equal representation in U.S. sports has continued. Before and still going after the women’s U.S. soccer team is fighting for equal pay against the United States Soccer Federation or USSF. The team has sued the USSF for the lack of equal pay in salary between the men’s and women’s team, working conditions, and reigniting the issue of gender pay equity around the world. Megan Rapinoe, one of the team’s most known players said, “We’re not willing to compromise on what we know is right and what we know we deserve and have already earned” (Tennery). Not only are these athletes being paid less, overall women’s sports are additionally not represented equally in the media. Most televised sport events are of male athletes and only about seven percent of the media coverage is devoted to women. Televised female sport events are normally games of significance and championship games such as FIFA Women’s World Cup. Even with the passing of Title XI, which was released in 1972 as a federal civil rights law passed as part of the Education Amendments, people are still not allowing certain people to play different sports through school where there are separate sports for opposite genders. The law states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (Harvard). This means that no person can be discriminated based on sex in educational programs and activities. As many people agree, there must be a change within the basis of equal representation of sports in the United States because of the lack of fair pay of athletes, coverage of media, and more representation of the Title XI law. We need to make it so any person of any sex can play a sport that they would like to and eventually organize professional levels of these sports enhancing equal coverage in the media and same amount salaries. Do other countries want to achieve this or have they already done it and want to improve on their accomplishment? What countries are the ones that have stepped up to make a change in sports between sexes?

Like the United States, the United Kingdom has problems with equal representation in sports. Although they do seem to be doing a better job. In the U.K. sport officiators are recognizing and removing the barriers faced by people involved, or wanting to be involved in sport. They are also trying to eradicate all forms of discrimination over genders relating to sports in media and outside of the games that the player is involved in. This means that any athlete should not be discriminated for being a certain gender and playing a sport or involvement in relation to sports. The United Kingdom has also tried to make every sport playable for people of different sexes. While some sports like badminton, with doubles, include both women and men in the same game and even team, there are other sports like football, boxing, cricket, and so on that are mixed gender but not for team standards. This would mean women’s soccer and men’s soccer. The This Girl Can campaign was started in the U.K. and was established to empower girls to get moving no matter their size, shape, or ability. In fact, the main goal was, “ … to challenge the conventional idea of what exercise looks like” (Sport). The United Kingdom and the United States are very similar on the basis of equal representation in sports. Unfortunately, the United Kingdom, like the United States has a problem with equal salaries. The action of making all sports available to be played by men and women athletes was the first step and now they need to focus on making the pay and earnings from those sports the same for men and women athletes. By doing this, a world benchmark can be placed and other countries can follow the lead of the U.K. This can also bring people, that were originally discouraged about being an athlete because they would get less pay, back into a form of satisfaction that they can still follow what they could have dreamed about. If the United States were to make its way up the ladder as the U.K. has and is, gender equality on a much broader spectrum, such as in the workplace, can begin to get more action. They have the same picture in their heads but the effect and time for this to happen is not there in the U.S. just yet. The good thing is that the United States can take what the results of gender equality in the U.K. and make it similar. Because of being inclusive for people of all genders to play a sport, the U.K. has done a better job to equally represent people of all sexes in athletics.

GS, Oct. 2019

This graph shows the average salary of Olympic athletes including sponsorship and endorsements. All four of these athletes are Olympic snowboarders that participated in the past winter Olympics. Shaun White and Hannah Teter are on team USA and Ben Kilner and Aimee Fuller are on Team Great Britain. Olympic athletes do not make money while they are there unless their team supports medal bonuses. The United States does but the United Kingdom does not. In general, athletes that do not win any medals during the games walk away with nothing. The average salary of a professional snowboarder is around $17,000 but with endorsements and donations, these athletes can produce a lot of money. As shown in the graph, the women athletes are not pulling in as much money aside from their male counterparts. Popularity is also a factor of these pay amounts. Normally, athletes who are not that well known get a low amount of pay from sponsors and donations. The graph clearly shows that there is a large pay gap in the two countries. But, if you look at the numbers, the United States’ pay gap is lower than the pay gap for the United Kingdom. This shows that the United States are doing better than the United Kingdom in creating the same amount of pay for men and women athletes. If you were a woman athlete and not getting fair pay it would be best to stay and play in the United States because their pay gap is smaller than the United Kingdom's.

United States and the United Kingdom have similarities and differences over gender equality in sports. They both have highly televised sporting events that are both transmitted through other large parts of media. Most of sporting events are shown internationally as well however there is not a lot of women’s sport events that are televised. They are both trying to achieve gender equality and by doing that other countries including these can focus on gender equality in other areas such as in offices. In the U.K. athletes of any sex can play any sport whereas athletes in the United States have designated sports that they can play. There are some sports that are mixed gender but only some allow women and men athletes on the same team. From recent Olympic games, there is a lower amount of athletes on team Great Britain than athletes on team USA. This means that some athletes cannot show as much skill as others in their field of athletics or area of events. The problem with Olympic athletes is that they do not make any money from the Olympics. From the last Olympics, “The 2,952 athletes competing at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang aren’t getting paid to be there. But, if they perform well, they can bring home some cash” (CNBC). The athletes are only getting money if their country has medal bonuses and they win a medal at the games. Some countries or teams, like the United Kingdom, do not give medal bonuses. This leaves the athletes to only being able to use money from their salary, which can be pretty high depending on the player, and endorsements. In both countries there is a pay gap between men and women athletes. For some the pay only matters for salaries but other athletes might get more business from a certain sponsor and drop one of the other athletes that are not helping as much with the company’s profits.

In conclusion, It isn’t just the difference in pay that enrages athletes that are fighting for gender equality. There is the lack of screen time that women athletes and their sort events are getting, popularity, and even how their country works. The fight for gender equality specifically in sports or athletics has been going on for quite a while now. And it does not happen in one country, or two, or three. This movement for change is happening all around the globe. Some people choose to not think about this inequality in a person’s career and lifestyle. Instead they go about their lives and do not fight for a change that can help pave a new path around the world. Everyone can agree that we need money to live our lives. We need to purchase things like food, water, and other materials. People need to get paid and if they are not getting that, they can’t do things that they would have been able to do with that money. Gender inequality exists everywhere, offices, sports, etc. But by taking action and getting a start on this global problem we can begin to work towards ending gender inequality everywhere.



Works Cited

Elkins, Kathleen. “Here's How Much US Olympic Medalists Get Paid.” CNBC, CNBC, 22 Oct.
        2019

Harvard University, “What Is Title IX?” Title IX Office, 20 Oct. 2019

Sport England, “This Girl Can.” This Girl Can - Sport England, 21 Oct. 2019

Tennery, Amy. “Rapinoe Hoping for Settlement but Holding Ground in Discrimination Suit.”
        Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 16 Oct. 2019