The real cause for unequal pay for women in sports we don’t like to talk about.
What do soccer, women and equal pay have to do with content?
I’m talking about unequal pay in the context of content and mindfulness because I think that the core solution to this problem speaks to issues of content, marketing and capturing viewer attention.
Let me explain.
First, the obvious. Women SHOULD get paid the same as men for the same job.
This proposition is clear when you are comparing men and women in the same job at the same workplace. If a woman is making a widget and a man is making the same widget in the office. All things being equal, they would and should be paid the same.
The problem: we’re asking the wrong question about compensation.
Perhaps the real question to use in evaluating compensation between men and women is when we are talking about work in fields like sports, acting, or modeling is to first ask, “what’s the “real” job you’re being compensated for?
In the example of making a widget, that unit (the widget) is a measurement of how that man and woman create value for the company. One produced widget creates one unit of value for the company. If a man and a woman create the same amount of widgets, they create the same value and deserve the same compensation.
Sports compensation for women and men doesn’t work that way.
In sports, you don’t get paid by the goal or point. The lifeblood of professional sports revenue are tickets, TV broadcast contracts, sponsorships, product licensing, and endorsements. That’s where the real money and value for the organization is made. And that value (in the billions) makes it possible for all the sports professionals you see running down the field making oodles of cash.
So I say again, if you are in professional sports, is your true job scoring lots of goals or, it is putting people in stadium seats?
Is it getting people to watch a TV network in droves so ratings go up and networks can charge a lot for ads?
Is it becoming enough of an influencer to help advertisers convince people to buy beer, jerseys, your line of sneakers, or anything else you endorse?
Or are you getting your money for scoring points?
It’s not about points or even championships. If it was, in men’s sports, a team like the 2017 ArenaBowl champion Philly Soul (the who?) and players would be more famous. By the same token, more women would be better compensated and famous.
Women’s sports have been ignored. No doubt.
It’s one of the reasons for passing Title IX to ensure funding of women’s sports in education. But school funding isn’t enough.
Decades ago, sports came out of the shadows of the 4th Street steel-fenced courts, local venues, and education-focused schools to consummate its marriage with commercialism and the global reach of network TV. Coupled with business, sports’ values changed to align with its new partner, business. Now playing in “the big money league,” sports followed the best practices of business instead of the love of the game. Like a business, its key rule.
Money goes where the attention and audience is.
Golf Masters winner Tiger Woods was a godsend to the seemingly aloof (and white) world of golf. His mere participation in a golf tournament would boost TV ratings. He brought people who normally didn’t care for golf (including many African Americans) to watch and participate.
Some might see the field of golf that, at the least, set up barriers to African-American participation. However, the money and attention Tiger generated was welcomed in the industry. The result, they swallowed those feelings and resistance to follow him to get to the money.
When Tiger Woods stepped away from golf for a while years ago, golf viewers, revenue, and participation plummeted.
Was Tiger the only talented player in the PGA? Of course not. His value and sky-high compensation came from his ability to command attention and drive ratings. It was Christmas day (including ratings-wise) for the sport of golf to have Tiger come back to win the 2019 Masters.
In sports attention and talent are not related.
Women are more than 50% of the population. A sizable and natural potential audience for the WNBA. Yet, the WNBA has absolutely amazing players who live off of less than $50K annually. This while NBA rookies and backbenchers might see a $100K salary as embarrassing.
Sports will pay for that attention any way they can get. Superior talent need not apply.
Take now-retired tennis player Anna Kournikova. Famous but she never won a major singles WTA title throughout her whole career. She made a lot of money though. Why?
Because she drew crowds.
As a woman who has a computer virus named after her due to an email promising nude pictures of her prompted many men to open and click on a virus instead, she is a testament to the attention power that compliments her athletic star power as a tennis pro.
No big single tennis wins under her belt is a subtle dis to more talented and winning players constantly and demonstrability proving themselves better (Cough, the Williams sisters).
Sports doesn’t compensate based on equality talent. It discriminates based on attention.
The coaches of teams for both men and women do judge on talent. That’s because they, at their level, want to win games. For a coach, players that help them win is what keeps them employed. But above the coach, the bigger revenue draw for the sports organization is the ability to draw fan attention.
That’s what hurts the WNBA and sports like women’s soccer.
Last week’s World Cup win by the United States women’s national soccer team was incredible.
Yet despite an amazing win, such teams, the league, and its players are quickly forgotten. Especially without the promotional infrastructure like consistent TV network coverage and sponsors that sports like American football enjoy. As the hype and attention fade for women’s soccer, so does any desire to raise the salaries of those in the game.
What do we do? We ask ourselves a hard question…
Do you really want equal pay for women?
If the answer is “yes.” On to the next question…
If the job in sports is getting attention, are you drawing enough attention that creates that value for the business?
If the answer is yes. Demand your share of the revenue. If the answer is no, ask this question…
Who can we demand change from?
The easiest and first person to point the finger at are the sports organizations. To that, I’d say turn that finger around 180 degrees.
The real culprit to equal pay for women in sports is us the public.
In a business that is optimized to respond to the desires of the marketplace (that’s us), we are the ones truly driving the force for equality in sports. We vote with our attention and dollars and many of us say, “no.” We say it loud and clear in our actions, but in our verbal discussions about unequal pay, we don’t want to take responsibility for it. Instead, we blame those who quietly pick up on our true intentions or expressed actions: sports organizations and marketers.
Those groups see that we…
Don’t pay attention to women’s games.
Don’t follow women’s games through the year unless they are winning.
Don’t buy merchandise of the female soccer stars.
Like not watering a plant, it’s hard to be surprised it doesn’t end up growing well. And as we the public we don’t turn our attention to women sports, sports organizations read our lack of will and undependable enthusiasm loud and clear.
They are not going to invest because they see a public that speaks the words of equality but in action are unserious outside of virtue signaling. “Yea, I like the team. But not enough to watch it every time they play.”
That’s not something you hear from most NFL fans. And why advertisers throw money at the NFL.
Spending money for equal pay also demands spending equal attention. Spend some attention on sports you think should pay better and the money will follow.