Equal Pay for Athletes - Persuasive Essay

This quote was acquired from LET'S EQUAL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR WOMEN IN SPORT by author Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, her quote is tremendously impactful to readers because it displays how much change there has been for female athletes throughout the generations. However, Mlambo-Ngcuka mentions there still is not equal pay for women succeeding enormously in their respected sports. As female athletes are still being belittled and underpaid (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2015). This academic journal examines the growing topic of women earning significantly less than men in professional sports. Mlambo-Ngcuka attempts to asserts her opinion on the reader of this growing problem. In doing so, Mlambo-Ngcuka educates the reader on the amount changes that have taken place for women (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2015). She shows how it could be possible to have equal pay for female athletes due to the success women have had in society prior past. “Similarly, even though progress has been made, women remain underrepresented in the leadership positions of sporting organizations, sport outfitters and marketers” (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2015). Although Mlambo-Ngcuka mentions the several positives women have achieved. Her purpose is to exhibit to the reader that there is still a lot of work to be done for female athletes. As women have made a lot of progress through the years due to many advocates such as Mlambo- Ngcuka

Gender inequality in professional tennis is a real and alarming issue, from the pay gap between mens' and womens' tennis players to the low media coverage of women's professional tennis. This issue even goes as far as how differently tennis commentators discuss and analyze mens tennis as opposed to how they discuss and analyze womens tennis. When commentators discuss men's tennis they solely focus on the skill of the players, but when they discuss women's tennis they place more importance on the appearance of the female players, rather than their skill. This instance of gender inequality in professional tennis is further exacerbated by the differences in advertisements for male tennis players and female tennis players. The advertisements involving male tennis players display their athleticism and tennis abilities, whereas the advertisements including female tennis players are appearance-focused, with the females often wearing little clothing. This is corroborated by the popular belief that focusing on the physical appearance of female athletes is the only way in which generating money from women's professional sports is distinctly possible (Fink, 2015, p. 338). Female professional tennis players train just as hard as the men do, thus the gender inequality that exists in the sport is not necessarily a result of how women perform on the court. It is rather a result of how society perceives women playing in professional sports overall, which the mass media is partially to blame

Women in professional sports fits into the Sex and Power: Global Gender Inequality class because many female athletes have experienced the inequalities in a professional sports setting. Female athletes are being put down by gender inequalities, causing less females participating in athletic programs. Women athletes are being paid less than their male counterparts. Along with being paid less, female and males are receiving unequal benefits in the form of scholarship, media coverage, transportation, and stadium conditions. The professional sport’s world is filled with the obsession of body image and sexuality. Through this obsession, female athletes have been abused from the people they trust the most. There is an increasing inequality in women’s professional sports in the form of pay, sexuality, and abuse.

Traditionally men have dominated the world of sports however in recent year’s women’s sports have become popular and with their new found popularity, women’s sports have evolved into marketable leagues of their own. Although women’s sports took a huge leap forward, women players still don’t receive the same financial compensation for playing the same sports in the same arenas as their male counterparts. In Purse Snatching by Donna Lopiano, she points out sexism may have a huge effect on this financial discrepancy between women and men athletes. Analyzing sports economics may point to a different reason why women are receiving such a compensation disparity.

“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work” -Susan B. Anthony. Countless women, even here in the U.S. have some sort of the wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between the median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. In this case, women earn a significant amount less than men. Although the wage gap has gotten smaller over the years, the wage gap still has a long way to go. Women deserve better than just minimum earnings. Full time, working women should obtain the best promotions and benefits. Women that work just as tough and have the equivalent qualifications as men do still earn less, and that is just unacceptable. The wage gap should be abolished on behalf of women of color and their struggle, equal pay is a global problem, equal pay benefits employers and workers, and the wage gap accumulates over time.

Due to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules and regulations no college athlete is able to receive any compensation or endorsement while participating in college athletics. These rules have long been challenged, however no changes have been made by the NCAA. With universities grossing close to $200 million a year college athletics has turned into one of the top industries in the world. The NCAA is a governing body of college athletics, but without people questioning the NCAA and demanding changes to the monopoly that the NCAA is nothing will happen to the unfairness to college athletes like it is currently.

Imagine what an extra 20%, or more, in your paycheck could do for you. Maybe it would be the difference between just scraping by and having a little discretionary income. Now, imagine being paid based on your own merit, and not some sliding scale which has historically favored men as the breadwinners of the family. Unfortunately, for most women, equal pay is still a dream. Today, as throughout history, there exists a gender pay gap where women are paid $0.79 to every dollar a man makes. Minority women make even less. Women, of course, have always known this gap exists, but they have had little power to change it.

(Attention Getter) What if I told you that for decades, students have worked over 40 hours a week and received absolutely no pay. College athletes are expected to balance the immense workload of school work and represent their school well in athletics.

The NCAA is one of the most profitable organizations in the world due to their monopoly on major college sports. Across the country there are over one thousand colleges and universities in the NCAA separated into 3 divisions, with a total of 89 different sporting events, and a staggering four hundred thousand student athletes in the organization. The NCAA makes money in primarily one way and that’s ad revenue for the commercials played during an event. In the Men’s NCAA Basketball tournament a 30 second add cost over seven hundred thousand dollars to run. The NCAA is a big business with millions of fans, so it is surprising that so few want to hold them accountable for the damages that they cause in their “amateur athletes”. The only difference

Michael Vick, quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, was convicted of operating a massive dog fighting ring and was sentenced to 23 months in jail in 2007.

In today’s world, men’s sports seem to always be in the spotlight while women’s sports do not draw much attention, as if women who play sports are not taken seriously. This happens on all levels of sports, and I have personally experienced it myself through basketball in high school. While the gym would be full for any of the boys’ games, our games had very little support with almost empty bleachers. When it comes to the professional level, when women’s sports do get covered by the media, most people judge female athletes more on their looks rather than their athletic skill, which is negative and unfair.

“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work” -Susan B. Anthony. Countless women, even here in the U.S. have some sort of the wage gap. The wage gap is the difference between the median earnings of women relative to median earnings of men. In this case, women earn a significant amount less than men. Although the wage gap has gotten smaller over the years, the wage gap still has a long way to go. Women deserve better than just minimum earnings. Full time, working women should obtain the best promotions and benefits. Women that work just as tough and have the qualifications as men do still earn less, and that is just unacceptable. The wage gap should be abolished on behalf of women of color and their struggle, equal pay is a global problem, equal pay benefits employers and workers, and the wage gap accumulates over time.

The Women’s Sport and Fitness Foundation reported that in 2013 women’s sports received 7% of coverage and 0.4% of the total value of commercial sponsorships. Which is incredibly low compared to men’s sports. This is why female athletes are ‘sold with sex’. Due to female sports not bringing in huge attention, advertisements must interest and attract audiences with a different approach and that is where targeting the sex appeal comes into play. The world’s no.1 highest paid female athlete, Maria Sharapova, is proof of this. According to Forbes in 2010 her earnings were over $24.5 million, of which $23.5 million came from endorsements many including sensual

Ellis provides a new approach to assess the impact of organizational changes performance related pay schemes and other relevant trends in personnel policy on the gender wage gap. The results indicate that innovative human resource practices tend to negotiate salary. Studies have shown that men are more likely to do. I will use this source for conditional rebuttal for evidence for wage discrimination in the workplace. It provides the useful data for the earning gap between men and women. Busteed shows that the former female student-athletes outperform other college graduates on important career and life outcomes. They are significantly more likely to be engaged in their work and thrive in several areas of well-being compared with college graduates including their male student-athlete counterparts. These findings are according to a new analysis based on the Gallup-Purdue Index. In a day and age in which gender inequality continues to exist on so many levels, it is greatly encouraging to see indicators of real success on which female athletes achieve better outcomes than their college graduate counterparts. I will use this source for valid conditions of rebuttal. It will shows how females are capable in the workplace and perform better than males do. Covert explores how women are discriminated against in the workplace. He shows 30 percent of women report experiences of discrimination by using a new poll data from the Center for

Have you ever felt unappreciated for what you do? Felt like you were being used and or not getting credit for what you did? Working yourself so hard that you pass out or cause injury to your own self? You try so hard and do so much, dedicating all your time and effort but still feel you’re not getting rewarded enough? On top of that when you do get home, you still worry about making ends meet. Worrying yourself about trying to put food in your belly, but don’t have enough to spend it on food and all the other necessities you need to be a successful college student. Keep this in mind as my articles and facts express to you my opinion on why college athletes get paid.