Spotlight: Who Gets The Money In Sports? ⛹️♀️
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Description
⛹️♀️ We're bringing you an additional episode this week to highlight the recent discussion around inequality in men's and women's sports, after Oregon Ducks player Sedona Prince filmed a viral video in the Women's NCAA basketball workout room during March Madness. ⛹️♂️ Where else is there a difference? Listen to correspondent Kenny Curtis shine a spotlight on the gender pay gap in sports. 💰
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⛹️♀️ See the vast difference between the men's and women's weight rooms during March Madness 2021
✍️ Find a copy of the transcript for today's episode here
TranscriptSound Bit 0:00
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Bethany Van Delft 0:08
Hey Ten'ners. This week there's been a lot of talk about the money behind men and women's sports. Let's get caught up in today's bonus episode.
It all started this past week with a video from basketball center Sedona Prince. Her team, the Oregon Ducks is competing in the women's NCAA basketball tournament. The internet was abuzz after she shared a video highlighting the difference between the men's and women's weight rooms at the tournament.
Sedona Prince 0:43
This is our weight room. Let me show you all the men's weight room.
Bethany Van Delft 0:48
What was the big deal? Well, in her video, the men's side had a full room of weight machines and workout setups. While the women side only had a small set of hand weights. It was quite a big difference and served as a reminder that there's still a lot of work to do towards equality in resources and support across men's and women's sports. So what does this mean? It means we need to work together to achieve equality in sports for everyone. By using our voices and supporting each other. It won't be easy, but let's hope Prince's video kick started that important conversation. Back in October, our sports correspondent Kenny Curtis talked about the gender pay gap. Let's listen as Kenny gives us the full scoop.
Kenny Curtis 1:41
Okay, today we're gonna talk about a very important issue in the world of sports, the gender pay gap. Yeah. Okay. I know, it's not exactly what you were expecting. I will not be discussing LeBron or Tom Brady or anything like that. Instead, we're going to look at the difference between what male and female athletes get paid, because it's a big deal. Now, it's easy to assume that equal pay isn't really an issue anymore. You might think that in this day and age, women will be paid exactly the same as men. But that's not exactly the case, especially in the sports industry. This is still a thing people. Take basketball for example, in 2019, the highest paid player in the Women's National Basketball Association, the WNBA, made $113,500 a year. Okay, now what did the top player in the men's league, the NBA, make? $40 million dollars. To be fair, the WNBA has a much shorter season and the NBA does generate a lot more interest from fans and makes a lot more money. But should the best male basketball player be making 300 times more than the best female basketball player? And of course, there's soccer, a sport that's really popular and commonly played by kids all over the world today. You might remember that the US women's national team won the Women's World Cup, the biggest soccer tournament in the world back-to-back in tournament's, in both 2015 and 2019. The US men's national team unfortunately failed to qualify for the 2018 men's World Cup and didn't even get to play. So you think that in this case, especially the women athletes would have to be paid the same, if not better than the male athletes? After all, the women have won way more games and are indisputably the better franchise right? Wrong. The women's team continues to get paid lower bonuses for friendlies, tournament's and other World Cup qualifying matches. And in 2019, the highest salary in the National Women's Soccer League was $46,200 compared to $7.2 million in the men's national league.
A Kid 4:01
Are you kidding me?
Kenny Curtis 4:02
The US women's national team brought the issue of equal pay back into the spotlight when they sued the US Soccer Federation for discrimination over pay, but in May, a judge ruled against them and dismissed the charges. The USWFC plans to appeal that decision. So it seems like we're headed in the right direction. But there's still a long way to go before we achieve equality among men and women athletes.
Bethany Van Delft 4:38
Thanks for listening to The Ten News. Look out for our new episodes Tuesdays, Thursdays and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a co production of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and it's distributed by iHeart Radio. Our editorial director is Tracey Crooks editing and sound design by Pete Musto and Andrew Hall. Our creative producer is Jenner Pascua. Stephen Tompkins is our head of audience development and our production assistant is Sarah Olender. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle. And The Ten News is executive produced by Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. Do you want to be part of the show? Have a grown up help you record a question or a joke or a fun fact you want to share and email it to us at hello@thetennews.com and show your love for The Ten News by going to your favorite podcast app and submitting a rating and review. It helps others find the show so they can join the fun too. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to The Ten News. I gotta bounce.
Sources for this episode:
Sedona Prince Video:
https://twitter.com/sedonaprince_/status/1372736231562342402
Gender Pay Gap:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/whats-behind-the-gender-pay-gap-in-sports-11603807200
https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/article234425642.html
https://www.si.com/soccer/2020/06/24/uswnt-equal-pay-case-judgment-appeal-delay-us-soccer
https://ussoccerplayers.com/2020/02/statement-about-the-uswnt-2017-2021-cba.html
https://www.wsn.com/nba/nba-vs-wnba/
