The tennis prize money debate: Equal effort should mean equal money

On 5 July Eugenie Bouchard played her first Wimbledon finals. She lost to Petra Kvitova in 55 minutes. It was the shortest final measured by time since 1983. The next day Roger Federer played in his ninth Wimbledon finals. It turned out to be a grueling five-setter against Novak Djokovic that lasted 3 hours and 56 minutes. For their two weeks of “work” both Eugenie and Federer took home 880,000 pounds each. [caption id=“attachment_1617113” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Eugenie Bouchard has worked just as hard, if not harder, than any male professional tennis player. Reuters[/caption] This equal prize money caused a lot of debate, just like it has every year since it’s inception in 2007. Most felt that it was unfair and a discriminatory towards the men because they were expected to “work harder, play longer but still pocket the same amount as their female counterparts.” Now this argument would be valid if professional sports stars were paid on a per hour basis. But unfortunately compensation in sport is not so simple. You are paid for the quality of “content” you generate and the effort you put in. Everything else: ad revenues, TV ratings, ticket and merchandise sales, flows from this. Now to argue that the “effort” put in by women is else than men is to ignore human physiology. It takes as much dedicated hard work and effort, not to forget the money, for girls to train to become professional athletes as their male counterparts. Every tennis player spends years training physically and mentally to be able to handle the grueling schedule of the pro circuit. For Eugenie to reach where she has, she must have spent as many hours on the tennis court and in the gym as Federer did to reach his first Wimbledon final. And years and years of practice teaches you one thing - that winning is important. Eugenie didn’t get lazy during the final. All she wanted was to win and from her end she put in her 100 percent. Just like Federer did. So when effort and intent are all equal, where is the question of not giving equal “pay”? Even today, in most sports there is a wide gulf between how much professional female athletes make vs their male counterparts. For example a NBA star makes 42 times more than a WNBA star. But thankfully tennis is different. To begin with the Grand Slams for boys, girls, men and women are held together and mixed-doubles provides the two an opportunity to play with each other. This setup has obviously enriched the sport and helped in making it less sexist than many other professional sports. One must also recognize the relentless effort of the WTA over 41 years which has created a robust market for women’s tennis with sponsors, broadcasters and fans giving it the seriousness it deserves. Not so long back Stacey Allaster, WTA CEO and Chairwoman stated “Tennis, including the grand slams, is aligned with our modern, progressive society when it comes to the principle of equality. I can’t believe in this day and age that anyone can still think otherwise. This type of thinking is exactly why the WTA was founded and we will always fight for what’s right.” It is time instead to use the tennis model as “best practice” to help bridge the gap between the two sexes in other sports. Maybe in a few years from now we can have women cricketers making as much as male cricketers and playing together in mixed teams.