Quantcast

Equal pay in tennis called into question

posted by Sports, Media & Society
Sunday, July 8, 2012 at 9:04am EDT

Marie Hardin, associate director of the Center for Sports Journalism at Penn State University, takes a look at the interaction of sports coverage and U.S. culture.

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!

Tennis is one of the (few) sports where the prize money for men and women is equal at major tournaments – as of 2007, even at Wimbledon.

Yet, five years later, it is precisely during the grass-court Grand Slam that equal pay comes into question.  Gilles Simon, a French player who recently joined the ATP Players Council, was the one who vocalized his concerns. Simon told the Associated Press, that he has “the feeling that men's tennis is actually more interesting than women's tennis.''
That men should be paid more than women is a recurring one. Usually it is supported by the argument that men’s matches are longer: men play a best of five, while women play a best of three sets at Grand Slams. Simon, however, clarified that he was approaching the issue from a business and entertainment aspect, arguing that tickets to men’s matches are more expensive, therefore men deserve more money.
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), naturally, responded strongly. So did the women on the tour. In an interview, Maria Sharapova pointed out that her matches appear to be more popular than Simon’s. Serena Williams, then, jumped to support Sharapova’s observation, saying that “she is way hotter than he is.”

Obviously Williams took a more light-hearted approach to rebut Simon's comments, but the fact that she felt the need to speak out shows the importance of the issue.
Simon’s views should hardly shock us as they are neither new, nor uncommon. Deborah Cowan, from the Women’s Views on News site, called them “recycled.”
After spending 15 years of playing tennis competitively, I dare call them redundant. And, at this point, somewhat irrelevant.  The International Tennis Federation (ITF) confirmed equal pay at Wimbledon (most certainly not because of Williams’ opinion regarding Simon’s lack of hotness) and there is no indication it is planning to change that. 
As Roger Federer pointed out, the issue is an “endless debate,” but it is, nevertheless, important to mention as it brings some assumptions about sports in our society to the forefront. 
I was glad to hear that women from the tour spoke up and firmly stood for equal pay.

Besides Sharapova and Williams, Samantha Stosur commented as well. She doesn’t think a length of a match necessarily guarantees better quality and said that some men’s matches are “pretty boring.” Others, including Marion Bartoli and Ana Ivanovic, stated that they work just as hard as men do. The female players who spoke up unanimously fought back.

Quite obviously, women’s tennis players will not say that they deserve to be paid less. Most of the men on the tour remain diplomatic or silent about the issue, which is, again, somewhat predictable, even though according to Simon all 128 players in the men’s draw share his sentiments. From those 128, so far we only heard two -- Andy Murray and Andy Roddick -- who backed Simon.
Former Wimbledon champion, Goran Ivanisevic also spoke up supporting Simon. The consistent theme in the responses, including in this article from Yahoo! Sports, is that this is not about gender, it's about business and entertainment.
And then, there is John McEnroe.
The tennis legend, who brought tears to his former mixed-doubles partner's eyes, said "There should be no argument when they are at the same event at the same time, that there should be equal pay." McEnroe also credited Billie Jean King for her efforts towards equity in sports. 
The equal pay debate can, indeed, be endless. As a Bleacher Report blogger says, perhaps, people might just need to "get over" the current state of things that prize money is equal for men and women.

But it seems that we are not quite over it yet. Simon brought it up shortly after he was appointed to the players' council. Though few of his colleagues have come out to support him, clearly the sentiment that women's tennis is less valuable than men's tennis is out there, even if unspoken.

Simon also cannot be dismissed on the count that he is "only" the 13th ranked player in the world and nobody really cares about him. He is, now, in a position of relative power where his job is to represent the players. Hence, his comments and, consequently the responses, need to be discussed.
And we most certainly cannot buy into the argument that this conversation is merely about "business." It is about the very values that drive the organization of sports in our society. It is as much about labor as it is about gendered bodies and relations – many of which sports advocates and athletes alike are consistently challenging.
Equal pay in tennis might not be under threat. But Simon’s statements remind us that, ideologically, we might be far from gender equity. And this means that we need to put a little more effort into talking about it.
-- Dunja Antunovic

Support women's sports and SHARE this story with your friends!


Filed Under:  

View Original Post at sportsmediasociety.blogspot.com

View marieh's Full Profile

There are 5 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

Resident_Badass says:

I didn't know Simon was on the player's council, or that he was so, shall we say conservative. It is unfortunate that we still have to have this debate, it's like arguing about votes for women. I wrote about the lack of equity within pay a few months ago, which I think is where the discussion should be directed. http://cszto.blogspot.ca/2011/10/is-equal-prize-money-really-equal.html

Fact of the matter is that men still make more money at most of the tour stops with the exceptions being the Grand Slams, Indian Wells, Key Biscayne and I think, maybe, Madrid??

Sunday, July 8, 2012 at 11:47am EDT

Crimson says:

It is common knowledge among those that seriously observe tennis, particularly at the college, national teams and pro league levels that when comparing apples to apples, the skill sets, speed, power and dynamic in men's tennis is much superior to the women's game. No question, no debate, no contest. That is obviously why we aren't hearing a groundswell of women at any level wanting to objectively "prove" they deserve to earn as much as men by beating them in direct competition. They know they can't compete on an "equal" footing in a fair contest. Given these facts their only play is to "redefine equality" in a way that casts them as somehow being victims to justify them earning the same amount of money as men while playing a slower, less powerful, less skillful, less interesting, less physical taxing and less financially sound contest and then playing the victim card when someone like Simon fulfills his new role on the Players Council by stating something that no active men's player has disagreed with. Maybe you missed the memo, but it is not Simon's job to be a shill for the ITF. He is also responsible for representing his fellow ATP participants, which he is clearly doing.

I had to laugh at Bartoli and Ivanovic's pitch that "we work as hard as men do". I suppose if we want to start paying people on the pro tennis tours for how hard they work we're going to need to revisit the whole scoring thingy. Maybe we can select winners and decide how much prize money to award based upon how tired participants feel at the end of a match. It%u2019s no less fair than the current approach.

Given McEnroe's current role as a network shill his stated position is hardly surprising. Any calling out of the truth that does not support the political correctness of the broadcasting world would certainly have him looking for another job opportunity.

Finally and most importantly huge kudos to Simon. I am sure he knew that calling out the truth in this situation would open him up to ridicule but he did the right thing in spite of the potential personal and professional price he might have to pay. Nice to see someone speaking the truth for once.

If these ladies want to feel like they are actually earning their money how about if they actually compete directly against the physical manifestation of the Patriarchy? What better way to put men in their place and prove the pay is actually fair? There%u2019s some equality to consider. Maybe too much for you ladies.

Where the hell is Bobby Riggs when you need him?

Sunday, July 8, 2012 at 12:54pm EDT

Katharine says:

Where is the evidence that Andy Murray supported Gilles Simon's views? Or Andy Roddick for that matter. That is not what I read about Murray's comments. Can you provide references?

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 6:14am EDT

Katharine says:

Or what I read into Murray's remarks to put it more accurately.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 6:29am EDT

Crimson says:

This general idea that guys on the ATP should just "get over it" is pretty interesting. What is being clearly demonstrated is that there is nothing about fairness going on with how men and women are treated on their respective tours. The fact that women have been whining about equal pay for years doesn't make it a valid or true argument, it just means they've successfully achieved their goal.

That men feel this way should come as no surprise to anyone that understands tennis. The top 10 players on the WTA have earned between $5.1 million and around $1.0 million year to date in 2012. The number 100 ranked ATP player is a guy by the name of Rohan Bopanna from India who has made $193,151 this year. No one who understands pro tennis would argue against Bopanna crushing any and all of the top 10 women in the world in a straight match. So...how is it "equality" or "fairness" that these women are making between 25 and 5 times as much as this dude when he would school them head to head?

In addition to the facts called out by Simon and Murray in these pieces this is the reason most of the ATP guys don't respect the WTA women all that much as tennis players. Frankly people that are arguing that the current situation is fair are just not being honest. They most likely they think it is cool due for social engineering or gender politics purposes, but they should really come up with another name to describe it, because fairness and / or equality aren't accurate or true. They also aren't a good way for women athletes to get the "respect" from men that they claim to so dearly desire. The ATP men think the situation is laughably unfair which their universal lack of objection to Simon's original comments clearly indicate.

Prof Hardin is 100% correct to be concerned. The generation of men's pro tennis players that lived through BJ King era is long gone. They've been replaced by a new generation of men who seem less worried about gendered political correctness and more willing to call out obvious unfairness when it slaps them in the face.

http://www.tennis.com/rankings/money_women.aspx

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 at 10:45am EDT

Leave Your Comment:  Read our comment policy

  |