Inequality in sports has been an issue ever since women were introduced to sports. Women still today strive to have men and women’s sports equal, and there are many reasons that prove women deserve everything that men do. While researching the differences in wages and respect of male athletes vs. women’s athletes, I found out a lot of proven facts why women deserve equality. Some of the reasons why women and mens sports should be equal are women work just as hard as men or even harder. Also some of women’s events are bringing in more of an audience than some of mens events. And lastly women deserve to be treated equal to men because they sell just as much merchandise as men. Gender shouldn’t determine how much much money someone makes or how they get treated, everyone should be treated the same.

Many people may say that women don’t work as hard as men, that’s why they don’t get paid the same. But I disagree. In women’s sports women train just as much as men and play the same amount of games as men. For example the U.S women’s National soccer team has qualified for every world cup and olympics, winning 3 world cups and 4 gold medals. Where the men have not qualified for every world cup or olympics, and have not won either event. This shows that the U.S Women’s soccer team is actually playing more games and training more than the men because they qualify for more events. So wouldn’t you assume that the team that trains harder and plays more games would get paid more? Well that’s not true. For the 2015 Women’s world cup, the U.S Women’s national team won the world championship and only brought home $2 million. Where the U.S mens national team took 11th in the tournament and brought home $9 million. That is more than 4 times as much as the women earned winning the tournament. Hard work and results should pay more than being a certain gender.

Fans and audiences bring in a lot of money to sporting events, which is a big part of professional athletes pay wage. Which is another reason why people say women don’t get paid the same as men because they don’t have as many fans and don’t bring in as big of an audience as mens events do. In some cases yes, men do bring in bigger audiences than women, but that is changing. For example in the Women’s World Cup game USA vs. Japan there was 25.4 million viewers, making it the most watched women’s soccer event in U.S history. It even took down the more popular U.S professional sports finals, like the NBA finals and the Stanley Cup finals (7.6 million viewers). This proves that women are now bringing in the same amount or even more ticket sales than men. Which should result in equal pay.

Merchandise sales are always a huge part in an athletes salary. Merchandise is also based on how many fans there are for that team or organization. In some of women’s sports like basketball and tennis they don’t come close to the same merchandise sales as the men do, which gives them a reason to be paid less. But women’s soccer is changing the game. The U.S women’s national team sold more than 3 times as much merchandise as the men have in the last three years. Which should be rewarded with equality. But equality has not found its way to women’s sports yet. But slowly times are changing and mens sports are not always the dominant sport, women’s sports are catching up and slowly getting what they deserve.

As inequality continues in todays sports, women are striving to get what they deserve. Women have proven that they deserve everything that men receive and there are facts that prove them right. As women are working harder than men, bringing in more ticket sales than men, and selling more merchandise than men they will one day get what they deserve. People may wonder what they can do to help women get equal pay. Here are some ways you can help. You can attend women’s sporting events, support companies that advocate for women’s athletics, and encourage television stations and newspapers to cover women’s sports. Inequality should be an issue that gets resolved because gender shouldn’t determine pay or respect, hard work and winning should.