Gender inequality in sports is a shame and a disgrace for our women athletes.
For instance, combat sports such as MMA and UFC, where women generally do not receive as much hype as male athletes.
In UFC, fighters generally make most of their money on ticket sales and revenue from the fight, which is why we see them create drama to entice the viewer to watch the climactic battle.
This type of strategy is successful amongst fighters of the sport, but it is mostly men who receive this amount of success and in turn receive the most money. This is a stark contrast to women who receive less hype and pay than their gender counterparts.
For example, the mega-fight with Conor McGregor and Donald Cerrone had earned McGregor around 80 million in total revenue combined with base wage by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
According to the World Economic Forum in the 241 UFC event, male fighters received over $700,000 as a base wage, excluding ticket sales and sponsorships from different athletic brands.
Compare this with female fighters, such as Paige VanZant and other high-profile names, who have earned under $30,000 base wage.
This is a disgrace to our women in sports who have worked hard to achieve their goals, only to be rejected by male plutocrats because of their outdated conservative views.
As male sports continue to dominate the views and clicks, we will never achieve gender-equal pay when a majority of sports and media are male-dominant plutocrats.
According to the World Economic Forum, it states that,“…Conversation around equal pay in professional sports has gained steam…arguing that their pay and working conditions amounted to gender discrimination…money for the women’s World Cup doubled to $30 million this year, but that was dwarfed by the $400 million…for the 2018 men’s tournament.”
According to Forbes, Nneka Ogwumike, the president of the Union for the Los Angeles Sparks, which competes in the WNBA, opted out of a collective bargaining agreement in November of last year.
“This is not purely about salaries. This is about small changes the league can make that will impact the players,” she said. “This is about a 6-foot-9 superstar taking a red-eye cross-country and having to sit in an economy seat instead of an exit row.”
Too long have we waited for change for our gender counterparts to make the same wages as males do. It is now we must take action and put pressure on the people with power to listen to our concerns and create a better path forward for our female athletes.
Otherwise, we will suffer economic consequences and social wrath from those being persecuted by this gender pay discrimination. It is time for us to control how our wages should be earned.
