While it is definitely a pastime that many enjoy and “just a game,” professional sports have become big business. And with the emergence of this as an industry in recent decades, many professional athletes demand salaries commensurate with such a burgeoning industry. That is, unless we are talking about women’s sports.
Women are drastically underpaid in the world of professional sports as compared to their male counterparts. In the recent Forbes 50 listing of professional sports athletes, only one of the fifty were women – professional tennis player Naomi Osaka stands alone in this group. Considering that she needed to take a break from the competitive standings due to mental health issues, it is enough pressure to compete at a competitive level without also needing to think about such an unfair pay imbalance.
There is hope for the future and things don’t need to stay in this negative and unfair pattern. If fans make sure to go to games and demand women’s sports on their streaming and cable providers, it will open the door and the eyes of sponsors to work together. Learn more about the business of women’s sports and what you can do in order to change the game for more fairness in the equality of pay between men and women in the visual deep dive below:
