All around the world sports is played, whether it be grass roots or for the Olympics. From a young age, boys are encouraged to play football or rugby and girls are encouraged to participate in netball or gymnastics. No matter what sport it is they choose to play, they are always laughing and having a good time. However, why is it that when these children grow up its more of the boys that continue to play than the girls? Why aren’t we seeing these athletes grow up with that same smile on their face as they did when they were children? It is time to dig deep into the reasoning behind why there is a lack of female athletes compared to male competing for glory in this generation. It’s a socially accepted norm that hasn’t been resolved since many years. Our generation needs to raise this question with absolute honesty
Unfair or unfortunate?
Let’s talk money, in particular wages. Ever since male and female athletes started earning wages from being a full-time athlete there has always been a gap between how much a males and females are worth for the same amount of effort in their respective sports. In 2018, the highest paid male athlete was Floyd Mayweather (boxing) with an annual earnings of £224 million as to compared to that the highest paid female athlete, Serena Williams (tennis) with annual earnings of £14.2 million.
However, these earnings will be from sponsorships and endorsements, for example, Serena and Floyd were sponsored to wear branded sportswear during their competitive appearances. It is more than likely that half of their earnings are from advertisements and endorsements backed by global brands rather than a monthly or yearly salary from their club. Serena, 39, and Floyd, 44, would have made more money than upcoming athletes like Naomi Osaka, 23, due to their years of experience in their respective sports. At the age of 23, Osaka already has a net worth of over £18 million and with more achievements over the years, we can only see her !
These unbelievable stats could be a possible highlight for young, aspiring athletes who are especially females as they may not feel like they have equal opportunities as compared to males. It could impact their motivations due to feeling unworthy. Being a professional athlete shouldn’t have anything to do with how much money you get paid but when there is such a huge difference in simply being a male or female then it seems to be unfair. However, the lack of female sports could be down to other factors like participation rates or female sports viewership
When interviewing a sports lecturer at Cirencester College, Nicholas Peare, said that female athletes should be given the same wages as male athletes but on a ‘percentage standpoint’ meaning that male and female athletes should be paid based on percentage of the overall income that is made from their sport. Of course, that still means that female athletes will be paid much less than male athletes but that is because of male sports getting more advertising and views. Furthermore, a different conclusion to the same question really made sense when Rhian Robbins and Paul Hewitt, agreed that wages are down to ‘advertisement of the sport’ which is determined by the popularity of the sport overall
For example, football in the UK will bring in a lot more money than cricket. In reality, 25.2 million people within the UK watched Premier League football when it returned in June 2020 in comparison to cricket in which 2.8 million people viewed when it returned last year. However, could this be down to the fact that football is broadcasted all year round whereas cricket isn’t?
Striving towards a Cultural Shift
Internet, television, radio and newspapers are all ways of advertising sports but the problem that separates male and female sports is the fact that the majority of media platforms, tv programmes that are sport related, only highlight male sports. Whenever I go through the newspaper, I always find male sports on the front page in bold letters! Is our culture failing to give female athletes equal appreciation in sports? In 2011 when the women’s football world cup was being broadcasted on the BBC, it had over 750 million views worldwide in comparison to the males world cup that had over 3 billion views!
So the main question here is, how can female sports gain more advertisement? Well, advertising sport costs money and in order for the money to come in, sports need views. When looking at the bigger picture, we need more talented female athletes to continue their sport without dropping out due to a lack of equal sponsorship opportunities. How do we bring in more female athletes? Sports Lecturer, Rhian Robbins believes that doing ‘female only courses’ could be a possible encouragement for more females to get into coaching.
For example, females won’t enrol on FA courses as they know that the majority of the course will mainly consist of males. However, if there was to be a ‘Females Only FA course’ then that could bring in more numbers as they won’t have that sense of embarrassment and fear of being exclude in a ‘majority male’ setting. In this way, we could welcome new female coaches into the world of sport who can drive and encourage other females to potentially pursue a career in sports and reduce female dropout rates in sports.
On the other hand, will these female coaches want to coach male sports? When asking Rhian a similar question her response was ‘no’, simply because of the abuse female coaches might experience’ which makes sense because no female coach would want to experience being abused for coaching a male team. Therefore, female coaches will stay coaching female only teams. Likewise, Paul said that there is a lack of female coaches in male football because of the ‘attitudes of others’ meaning people will just think that a female coach in male sports is lucky which would not be the case. It shows how our culture often neglects a female’s credentials and sees them as ‘lucky’ outliers in male-dominant industries.
There has always been a gap between male and female sports, whether that be with money, advertisement or participation. However, it’s important for me to emphasize that things are changing: more female sports are being viewed, for example, over the next 3 seasons Sky Sports and the BBC will be showing the women’s super league (WSL) for the very first time (WSL confirms “game-changing” domestic TV deal with BBC and Sky Sports – SportsPro Media). Hopefully, this will boost the economy in the female football industry and encourage fair wages for female footballer. My overall opinion is that female sports will get the views it deserves and in time, it will eventually become as popular as male sports. Now that female sports is getting more recognition, female athletes will have equal sponsorship opportunities as males.
The world of sports is heading towards its biggest change yet!
SOURCES
- https://www.thefemaleleadsociety.com/revealed-the-real-difference-between-male-and-female-sports
- https://www.soccerbetting365.com/female-and-male-athletes-compared/
- https://www.sportspromedia.com/news/womens-super-league-tv-rights-sky-sports-bbc
About the Author
Keiran Sharp is an enthusiastic football player and future sports psychologist. He will be pursuing sports psychology at university in 2022.
Growing up I had always been interested in sports, in particular football. I trained as a footballer for most of my life. I don’t see football as just a game, I see it as a distraction from everything around me. I have seen how sport can impact the world in various ways and I want to understand how it can potentially change lives. I am inspired to explore what athletes do ‘behind the scenes to reach new heights. As a future sports psychologist, I am keen to find the deeper meaning of different sports