What do you think
about this article? Do
you watch sport live?
Or on tv? Also women’s
sports events?
I usually watch sport, live or on TV, and even if I
have no preference of sport regarding the gender
of athletes, for some type of sports, I prefer
watching some games depending on the gender of athletes. For instance, I prefer watching
men’s soccer than women’s soccer because I find
men’s soccer more attractive and spectacular. In
addition, there is more suspense in men’s soccer
because it is not easy for each team to goal or
to win. In women’s soccer, as we have seen in
7th edition of World Cup for Women organized
in Canada this year, some matches demonstrate
that women’s soccer is far from boring. It is possible to have scores like 20 to 0 and in that case,
the game becomes unpleasant. On the other
hand, I like seeing women doing artistic sports
(e.g. classic dance, artistic pati) because they
demonstrate stylishness, good self-control and
prettiness in figures than men.
In all cases, I think that gender disparities can
be reduced if each gender (men or women) can
demonstrate his ability to perform in each sport,
in order to attract the public as well as sport
business companies. At the present time, the
importance of any sport or the probability of any
athlete to be notorious and to earn a high wage,
depends on sport marketing bodies, including
sponsors and public. As mentioned in the article
on sport en gender, Alfonsina Strada has been
celebrated because she has been the first woman
who cycled the Giro d’Italia. Also, Mrs Billy Jean
King has been notorious in the history because
she won a race face to her male opponent Bobby
Riggs in 1973. In both cases, these women have
done an effort to realize their dreams and both
events were broadcasted and covered by newspapers! Subsequently, I think that in any sport,
if someone did his best to succeed, his notoriety
and his earnings can be improved positively
because our society has changed. Many efforts
have been done to reduce gender disparities in
all sector, and in the view of these improvements,
it is possible to reduce also gender disparities in
Sport.
If sport broadcasting is demand driven (they
only broadcast what people want to see), do
10
you think it is not a problem that it’s mostly
only men’s soccer, men’s cycling, … on TV …
as the viewer is always right ?
Certainly, sport broadcasting is influenced by
demand, since the broadcast channels first want
to make money. Today, sport is governed by
corporate marketing and companies sponsoring
the players. Therefore, these organizations are
encouraged to influence television channels in
order that they broadcast more sport events for
which they can earn a lot of money. Unfortunately, these are sports where men are more present
(such as soccer, basketball, tennis...) that are
the most broadcasted, as the viewer has more
interest in them. So, we could say that actually
the viewer is always right because it is him who
pays the sports broadcasting royalties that
make the profits of broadcast channels, as well
as the products of sponsors that are promoted
by players and athletes. However, in a further
analysis, it appears that it is really the sponsors
and TV channels that are always right because
they are the ones who choose what to broadcast and when to do it. Spectators are only end
consumers, and often they only consume what is
available. Also, even if these actors decide to distribute more sport where women are highlighted,
certainly that spectators will have any choice but
to watch them, especially with all the publicity
made around the sport. So there is hope to see a
reduction in gender disparities in the distribution
of sports programming, if we can raise awareness
and convince these sponsors and TV channels to
give more attention for women players in their
promotional activities.
Do you think the wage difference between top
female and male athletes is justified? Or not?
What about the fact that women are allowed
to participate in all athletic disciplines in the
Olympic games, while men are not allowed to
enter synchronized swimming?
For my opinion, even if the gender wage gap in
sport seems to be high, the level of disparities between the wages of top female and male athletes
depends on the type of sport, the perception of
the importance of this sport by the public and the
sponsoring related. In tennis for instance, women athletes got notoriety, and the public seems
to appreciate roughly at the same value women’s
men’s tennis. In that case, sponsors, marketing
and broadcast companies are obliged to pay
more attention to women athletes engaged
in tennis competitions (like the two American
sisters, Serena and Venus Williams; the Russian
tennis woman, Maria Sharapova, etc.). This
attention increases the opportunities for these
women athletes to have more sponsors, more
spectators for games, as well as a good remuneration if they play very well. In other sports
like athletics, figure skating, women athletes
have gained good reputation as men. For example, the public seems to appreciate watching
women’s athletics as much as men’s athletics,
and many women athletes for this sport like
Shelly-Ann Fraser (Jamaican), Alyson Felix
(American), Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopian) are
more and more known by the public. However,
in many sports like soccer, basketball, cycling,
men’s games have more attention of the public
than women’s games. Historically, this situation
remains since many years and, even if women’s
soccer for instance is currently improved in comparison to the past years, it is too far to have the
notoriety of men’s soccer.
Concerning gender, disparities in participating
in some disciplines in the Olympic Games like
athletics for women and synchronized swimming for men, it seems that this comes from
cultural and traditional ste