What's the Issue?
Information about the various types of inequalities women in sport face
Women in sport experience all different forms of inequality ranging from wage disparity to lack of media coverage, to discrimination in commentary, to limited funding and a significant decrease in scholarship opportunities. This demonstrates the severity of the issue of gender inequality in sport and that it needs attention and change. There is not just one thing that must be addressed and fixed but the entire concept and approach to women in sport must be reevaluated seeing as they are treated unreservedly differently in comparison to male counterparts on unwarranted premises.
The root of why women face inequality in sport can be linked to the inherent sexism within society. The sexism women have to deal with in all shapes and forms throughout life is emulated into the sporting community and therefore considered ‘the norm’. The issue is bigger than sport or a game but is about how women are treated within our communities and have been at a disadvantage in many aspects of life for decades. The sexism prevalent within sport is because of the sexism for women prevalent in all aspects of life. There is no other reason but the ingrained habits of society being contextualised into a sporting context.
How Does it affect women?
The reality of this equality on women
The inequality women face in sport on all fronts have significant impacts on them. Wage disparity significantly affects women throughout multiple different sports. Professional sport is often viewed as a full-time career, however, it has been found that women in sports such as basketball and ice hockey have to additionally have full-time jobs in order to sustain a living. The women in these teams have a passion and love for the sport they play and aren't asking for multimillion-dollar contracts but simply enough to live with, however are not provided with this regardless of the tireless effort they put into their sport as if it was a full-time career.
In the most extreme cases, the toll that the inequality in the industry has on women is on their livelihood. It was also interesting to see that inequality in the sporting industry does not affect every woman and does vary from sport to sport. The degree of inequality will change depending on various factors, however as a whole, there are patterns showing that most women in sport have experienced at least some form of inequality, even if it be small.
What is Being Done?
The changes being made to societal attitudes
Efforts have been made to address the issues that women face in sport. Over the last 10 years, the voices of those women who have been treated unfairly have begun to be heard and recognised. Instead of being silenced, the conversation has been brought to fruition over the inequality faced by women in sport. These are the first steps to change.
There have even been tangible changes made as a result, including equal pay in tennis for the Open championships and the US women's soccer team filing a lawsuit that although was denied, broadcasted to the world that they wouldn’t be silenced. This demonstrated that there has been an evolution of not viewing women as lesser than men in sport approaching 2021. It was also interesting to see that further steps were going to be taken to minimise inequalities, especially in New Zealand.
The issue is larger than just inequality within the sporting industry but inequality in society. The only way to make change is to stop the inherent sexist society which means changing societal norms. This will be done with help from everyone and making small steps towards equality. On a bigger scale, organisations that fund sporting events and advertise games are going to have to make the decision to treat women equally in sport and finally reject treating women as lesser than.