It's Up to You

With all the feminism movements happening in today’s world, you would think sports, such a general and popular area of interest, would be given a decent amount of attention. Especially since it suffers literally the most obvious gender inequality. However, barely anyone ever talks about the problem or how it can be solved. So, right now, that's exactly what we're going to do.


The Issues

There is a disgusting, endless list of gender inequality issues in sports that get on my nerves. To give you an idea, here are three major ones:

1. On Forbes’ list of the 2017 Highest Paid Athletes, a female isn’t listed until #51. Serena Williams receives a salary of $8M a year. What’s more is that Ryan Howard, just one spot ahead in 50th, makes $26.7M a year… That’s a $18.7M difference. DO YOU SEE THE SIZE OF THAT GAP? MY GOSH. Cristiano Ronaldo makes the most in the world with a salary of $58M. So Forbes, you’re telling me the world’s highest paid male athlete makes over seven times more than the world’s highest paid female athlete? Lord help us all.

2. People have such an issue with females playing contact sports. Viewers don’t find it as “exciting” or “interesting.” Don’t tell me that in your lifetime you haven’t heard at least someone make fun of women’s hockey. To back up my argument, take a look at this link: http://interactives.ap.org/2015/athlete-of-the-year/ . It’s the list of all the former Associated Press Athletes of the Year since 1931. If you look on the female list, there is a grand total of five winners who played contact sports – three of those being basketball, which to me just barely counts as a contact sport. Sports should be about appreciating the skill of the athletes. If you want to watch sports because of the contact, stick to boxing.

3. The lack of media coverage is actually repulsive. Newspapers, TSN, Sports Illustrated, social media . . . it’s all men, men, MEN!!!! Stories about how Alex Galchenyuk was absent from practice because of the flu are prioritized over covering the National Women’s Soccer League championship game. Furthermore, the only women on Sports Illustrated posters are women in flaunting skimpy bikinis. Females are not objects!!! Females have the ability to run, jump and slay at sports. But no one would ever know that, because to follow or even know about women’s sports leagues, you have to go to their websites . . . and who’s supposed to know to do that if they're not advertised?


So… How Can This All Be Fixed?

YOU, my friend. Yes, that's right. It all starts with a large fan base. Fans:
- buy tickets and merchandise
- visit the league websites and add to the websites' visitor counts, which is attractive to companies who want to pay and put advertisements on the sites
- encourage powerful companies to sponsor the leagues and teams (these sponsorships are most leagues' biggest sources of revenue)
- talk about their favourite teams to other people, unintentionally spreading the word and generating interest among others
- increase media coverage (the media covers what the public deems "newsworthy"), which holds the public's interest


This Is What You Can Do

STEP ONE: Choose your favourite league. I’ve listed a few below to get you started. Do some s’ploring, pick the one you want to follow and . . . follow it!

STEP TWO: Select your favourite team. Research the teams from the league you decided to follow and pick a squad you want to root for.

STEP THREE: Make note of your favourite players on that team. Keep up with their news and statistics.

STEP FOUR: Repeat step one by choosing a different league this time. Then repeat steps two and three.

Here are links to some of the professional women’s leagues’ websites:

Canadian Women’s Hockey League: http://www.thecwhl.com/
National Women’s Hockey League: http://www.nwhl.zone/
Women's National Basketball Association: http://www.wnba.com/
National Women’s Soccer League: https://www.nwslsoccer.com/
National Volleyball League: http://thenvl.com/

​I’ll state the obvious: by doing these steps you are becoming a fan. Having a team to cheer for causes you to feel more interested in — and emotionally attached to — what’s going on in these leagues. You are literally making a change in this world just by becoming a fan. Supporting women’s sports is simple and free . . . so why not??

​I don’t want to live in a world where sports are only a masculine concept. I really hope you don’t either. Girls are so much better than this. Let's prove it. No matter how normal you consider yourself to be, you have SO MUCH POWER TO MAKE A CHANGE. Whether you want to use that power or not is up to you.