Pay Equity in Women's Sports
As part of Women's History Month Bowman Library is exploring the issue of pay equity in women's sports and athletics. For decades women's sports have had a pay gap between what women athletes earn and men athletes earn in the same sport, at the same level. From this sports management article by Adelphi University:
"Whether professional players receive salaries or individual prize money from competitions, male athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, baseball and tennis make anywhere from 15% to nearly 100% more than female athletes. While compensation for women has improved over the past decade, the gap still extends to even the world’s highest-paid players." (Adelphi University, 2023).
While progress is being made recently, the pay equity gap in women's sports affects the lives and careers of top professionals and amateur athletes alike. Check out these articles and the books from our catalog to learn more. And read the interview with Coach Shannon Spataro as well for an inside perspective.
Male vs Female Professional Sports Salary Comparison
Equal pay in women's sports: The challenge for female athletes
Historic Win for Women’s Equality in Sports
Interview with Coach Shannon Spataro
by Hao Nina Li:
Coach Shannon Spataro kindly agreed to be interviewed about women’s pay equity in sports. Her first observation was that the biggest factor contributing to the gender pay gap in sport is that men’s sports have a bigger fan base, they play more games and have a more established professional league. For example, the NFL or the NBA teams sell out 100,000 seat stadiums and all the revenue they get will be passed along to the player. The more they play, the more people come to watch them, the more pay they get. Coach Spataro said though that, " [the] women’s fan base is still building and the amount of games women play in a season is less." For Coach Spataro, that's the difference in pay between men basketball players and women basketball players, men soccer players and women soccer players. Societal perception of women’s sports may also contribute to pay disparities. Fortunately, she says, it has changed a lot in the last 20 years. There are many more women’s professional leagues, a lot more opportunities for women to continue to play their sports after college, and the quality of women’s sports get better. It just takes time to change. When women’s sports get more exposure, the more people watch them and find they are really good and they really can play well.
Stand up and Shout Out by Call Number: GV 709 .S744 2020ISBN: 9781538125977Publication Date: 2020-03-11Stand Up and Shout Out: Women's Fight for Equality in Sports, Joan Steidinger explores the three crucial areas in sport that remain huge concerns for women: leadership, money, and media. Steidinger looks at the number of ways in which women experience vast inequalities by examining topics such as the politics of sport, sexual assault, the #MeToo movement, pay equity, women in coaching positions, and the experiences of women of color and LGBTQ athletes.
Invisible Seasons by Call Number: GV709.18.U6 B45 2016ISBN: 9780815634843Publication Date: 2017-01-03In Invisible Seasons, Belanger recalls the remarkable story of how the MSU women athletes helped change the landscape of higher education athletics. They learned the hard way that even groundbreaking civil rights laws are not self-executing. This behind-the-scenes look at a university sports program challenges us all to think about what it really means to put equality into practice, especially in the money-driven world of college sports.
