While obtaining equal pay for the women’s national soccer team is valuable toward gender equality in sports, it should be the first step, not the last one. 

The first reason that professional sports are not equal for all genders is that male athletes get paid more than female athletes. For example, in the most recent World Cup, the men were paid way more than the women. The men made it to the first round and the women still won the championship. One of the reasons that males get paid more is because they get more media coverage than females. That means that people watching get to see their sponsors more often and therefore males get more sponsorships. The same thing happens in tennis like in 2005 

Venus Williams spoke to the Grand Slam board. The board is in charge of the four biggest tennis events in the world. Williams said they didn’t pay women, tennis players, enough. Men were paid more than women. “ Men and women should make the same amount of money,” she said. “All of our hearts beat the same. When your eyes are closed you really can’t tell, next to you, who’s the man who’s a woman,” Williams said. There is a similar problem in basketball. The commissioner of the NBA doesn’t want people to change the payment on one gender because it would be too much work.

My second point of view is that there are more professional sports for male athletes than women athletes. There are 6 male professional sports and 4 professional sports for women. There is professional lacrosse for male athletes and not for female athletes. There are more sports teams for male athletes. A girl named Tess Usher said as she watched a softball game once. ” It was just too slow,” she said. “I love playing baseball, but girls can only play softball professionally. That is not going to change,” she said.

My last claim is that many sports are not welcoming to certain genders. Like there is no female version of football. Rules are different for lacrosse depending on your gender. For example, if you are a male you can hit the other person with your stick, and if you are female you can’t hit people with your stick. Then field hockey is played mostly by women.

See in about in ten years where we could be if we are focused on this topic. We would see women getting more money and getting an equal amount of sponsorships.