The document discusses the significant pay gap between male and female professional athletes. While women now have professional leagues for many of the same sports as men, their salaries are much lower. For example, a starter in MLB may earn millions per contract, while a starter in women's pro softball earns around $30,000. It argues this pay inequality is unfair given that female athletes dedicate as much time and effort to their sport as males. It also claims that lower viewership and sponsorship of women's sports is partly due to lack of coverage on TV and online, making it difficult for female athletes to gain more fans and financial support. The document concludes more should be invested in female athletes to help close the gender pay gap in

1. Female’s Professional Pay
A demand for better contracts and
higher salaries
By: Bailee St urgeon
ports in the United States, as
we all know, make up a huge
portion of the populations
favorite kind of entertainment. As an
athlete, it is a dream to be a professional
super star, to make lots of money and
become famous. When it comes to the
professional sports world, there are women
and men’s professional sports leagues. For
the most part, whatever professional sports
league the males have, the females have the
same professional sport as well. This is great
for female athletes, as it gives everyone the
opportunity to play the same sport. What the
problem is the salary difference between
female and male professional athletes. Turn
on your favorite sports broadcasting network
now a days and you will see a new contract
that was made with another male athlete for
millions of dollars. While on the other hand,
you will never see even a mention about the
newest contract made for a female
professional athlete and you hardly even see
a game broadcasted to even get to know
female super stars in the female sports
world. Even though it is said that women
professional sports are never watched as
much as male sports, there are many reasons
to support that female professional athletes
are paid way less than male professional
athletes, and that a change needs to be made.
Why should you care? Why do I
care? Not only is this inequality of pay
happening in the sports world, it is also
happening outside of the sport world, and
into everyday careers for women as well.
Most viewers probably do not even know
much about the difference in pay between
male and female athlete’s salaries. One
could say that a starter in the MLB has a
contract that is worth millions, but switch
over to Women’s Professional Softball, and
a starter usually has a contract worth
30,000$ or more. But there is not one single
women making close to even one million for
their contract. Female’s then seek making up
for loss money through sponsorship and
modeling and sometimes picking up a
regular job. How can this possibly be fair?
Female athletes work just as hard as a male
would at a professional level to succeed in
their sport. Not only that, but just like a male
athlete, the females are taking time away
from their families, friends, and home to go
pursue a dream of theirs. It is an insult to
believe that females do not deserve the same
type of salaries that males are getting
because they do the same and sometimes
even more
work to get
the money
they do for
their career.
Having to
get a second
job aside
from the
professional
career they
have
S
VOL. 2 ISSUE 8
1 NOV 2015
“Women are using the
product of their hard work
and dedication for the
wrong reasons to make
enough money to raise
their income because that
is what the public takes
interest in, rather than their
athletic ability.”

2. already to create a bigger salary is
something you do not see male athletes
having to do. Yes they do it, but it is not
because they are low on
income, and have to find
something else to have
cushion financially. Most
females resort to modeling to
boost their income. Selling
their bodies could you say?
Women are using the product
of their hard work and
dedication for the wrong
reasons to make enough
money to raise their income
because that is what the public takes interest
in, rather than their athletic ability. It would
never dawn on one enjoying the picture of
the female athlete on a sports magazine
cover could potentially be an amazing
athlete. Kelsey Clark states in her article that
this leads to even more disrespect than what
female athletes have already because of the
sexist tweets that will be made towards
them. Female athletes deserve a change in
salaries, as they are cut short of all the hard
work and dedication they not only put into
the sport but outside of their sport as well to
create their dream income.
Like I stated previously, turn on any
sports broadcasting network and what do
you see? Male sports, male sports, oh, and
more male sports. So anybody could make
the statement that female professional sports
are not watched as much as male’s. It is said
that women’s sports are boring, slow,
dramatic, and many other negative
descriptions. But how would one know that
truly without actually sitting down to
understand and watch a female professional
sports game. So is it truly the females fault
for why they are not broadcasted? Or is it
the sports networks that are so consumed in
the male views of sports and will never give
the time of day to a bunch of girls who “will
not go hard because they are afraid to mess
their hair up,” as stated in Kelsey
Clarks article. Little does the
nation know that more and more
viewers are starting to pay
attention to female athletics. The
most recent example is the
Women’s World, Cup that
happened this year. Kelsey Clark
stated that the 2015 Women’s
World Cup Final match drew
between 20-24 million viewers,
making it the most watched soccer
game in US history. This impressive amount
fell just short of the 28 million who watched
the NCAA Men’s Basketball Finals. The
women’s pay—and respect for them as
athletes—should grow accordingly. You get
online and research this debate, and you will
see countless amounts of people who try to
reason that whatever proof they have is why
it is fair that females are paid less. In
“Here’s why it’s fair that female athletes
make less than men,” Shane Ferro goes onto
state that females do not have enough
sponsorship, and fans to be paid at the level
male’s do and for that reason it is fair. Due
to the fact that sponsorship and fans will
increase when more games become
broadcasted, female’s ability to increase
their fan base and sponsorship will only
happen once something is actually done to
create a fair basis of games broadcasted on
live television networks. So that reasoning is
something that females cannot control.
Rather if it takes making a sports network
strictly to sports, or having major sports
broadcaster’s take a certain amount of time
every day to talk about what is going on in
the females professional sports world,
something needs to be done. Kelsey Clark

3. states that professional sports brings in a
ridiculous amount of money in general, so
we should find a
way to invest
more in our
female athletes
and then pay
them the same as
their male
counterparts.
Whatever it
takes, something
needs to be done because female
professional athletes deserve a raise in their
salaries so they can start enjoying their
dream just like a male professional athlete
can enjoy his.
“Professional sports brings in a
ridiculous amount of money in
general, so we should find a
way to invest more in our
female athletes and then pay
them the same as their male
counterparts.”
Works Cited
Clark, Kelsey. "Gender Pay for Women Athletes." Inequality.org. N.p., 30 July 2015. Web. 31
Oct. 2015.
Ferro, Shane. "Here's Why It's Fair That Female Athletes Make Less than Men." Business
Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 7 July 2015. Web. 31 Oct. 2015.