In 1950, there was a restrictive stereotype that prevented women from playing baseball, so Kathryn Johnston cut her hair and went by the pseudonym “Tubby” in order to try-out for an all-male Little League team. She ended up making the team, but when they found out she was a girl the Little League made a rule banning all girls from playing. They called it “The Tubby Rule.”
There are many organizations, collaborations and more that have been fighting for gender equality. Although there have been large strides towards gender equality, the sports industry is falling behind the trend with female athletes still having to fight for equal pay among other rights.
Women’s tennis has shown a positive shift in their marketing industry, leading to a 17% greater viewership than men’s tennis. On the other hand, 5.47 million people watch the National Basketball Association (NBA), while only 627,000 watch the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The disparity in viewership between the two sports shows the effect that marketing can have on the popularity of female sports.
Junior Sarah Currie believes that people are naturally attracted to watching mens sports opposed to womens.
“You can look at the statistics, obviously men are paid more in sports, but I feel like it has a lot to do with the fact that people watch men’s sports way more than female sports,” Currie said.
The viewership for many sports helps with the amount of money athletes get, although tennis is not one. The 2023 US Open tournament was watched around the world, and many traveled to New York to watch it. This year the women’s finalist match had 3.4 million viewers from everywhere compared to the men’s match which had only 2.3 million viewers.
This year the Us Open celebrated 50 years of equal pay. In 1973, Billy Jean King, a tennis player, fought for female players to earn equal pay.. According to a 2021 The History Channel study, she threatened to boycott the US Open unless the women’s prizes were equal to the men’s.
The average income for an NBA player is 8.5 million dollars without sponsorships while the average income for a WNBA player is only 102,000 dollars. Director of Speech and Debate Benjamin Gaddis argues that sponsorship also comes with viewership.
“Nobody wants to sponsor something that’s not watched,” Gaddis said.
Sponsorships helps to increase viewership because having a product or a brand represent a person or a team it will help people who support that brand or product want to watch more of who is sponsoring it. According to an OpenSponsership study, Lebron James was sponsored by Nike in 2021. Lebron James is a well known basketball player who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.
According to a 2021 Sports Illustrated study, only 5.7% of all ESPN’s broadcasting is women’s sports, and 5.1% of that is shown between the hours of 6-11pm. Yet most of these games take place during the day, which means it’s not the actual live broadcast of the game. The reason behind this could be because of the lack of viewership female sports have.
Like women’s soccer, the US Women’s National Team (USWNT) is another team that is underpaid despite attaining more viewers than their male counterparts. The USWNT sold more tickets than the men’s team and made it farther in the World Cup; they are still underfunded.
“When women get knocked out early, we call them complainers,” Gaddis said. “We say that we shouldn’t pay them. Yet when male athletes do the same, you’re not seeing people say, let’s cut their pay.”
The average income for a player on the USWNT is $54,000, when the men’s team makes around $263-294,000. According to a 2023 Capital One study, the average salary for someone in their late 20’s and early 30’s is $54,184.
The fight for equal pay is still being fought, and female athletes will continue to push for this right.
“At the end of the day, men and women are both putting in the work to be the best athlete they possibly can,” Currie said.
