WTA: Same Effort Less Pay

How does it feel when you work as hard as the other person in the same space of work, perform better than them and still get recognised less than them. Just for the reason, you belong to gender, and people view your blood, sweat and tears seen from a different perspective. The state of being a male or a female decides upon your remuneration at your workplace rather than your skilful labour. This insane disparity of paychecks revolves in every profession and all over the world, it is the same. When it comes to tennis, the topic of the gender pay gap has been a matter of great concern. The WTA women compete in the same stadia as their male counterparts do, but are paid significantly lesser than them.

The debate regarding the biased pay in tennis is present since the inception of WTA in 1973. The argument which is floated in the professional world of tennis state, for the women’s tennis fewer number of the audience watching their matches than men, consequently collecting lesser funds than what ATP courts do. Ironically, 2011 French Open final, where Li Na was playing  Francesca Schiavone was watched by 330 million viewers worldwide, and which happens to be the highest viewership in the history of tennis. And the viewerships of the 2018 women’s final in Wimbledon was 4.6 million and Djokovic and Anderson’s match was 4.5 million. When the tennis followers globally take interest in women’s tennis as much as they do in the men’s game, and after conceding the above figures, the quarrel about scarce spectators on the WTA arena should be ruled out, which implies the woman deserve to earn in the same figures as the men do.

The other difference in opinion which came to the limelight, was women play fewer sets than men in matches, they spend few hours on the court than ATP players, in turn highlighting the point that women’s game requires less physical effort. However, in reality, it is more difficult to play on the court with a feminine physique than a masculine one. Even during their monthly cycles and the hormonal imbalances, women play matches at their highest level and train insanely. And those five days of a month in a women’s life are dreadful. Certainly, these facts do not indicate that ladies’ contest involves a lesser amount of physical effort. Serena Williams, Tatjana Maria, Victoria Azarenka and Kateryna Bondarenko are mothers on the WTA tour. To everyone’s knowledge, giving birth to a child involves a huge amount of physical effort and pain to the body. And on top of that, competing on the international level of one of most followed sports in the world after delivering a child is simply an exemplary move. Also, the WTA records inculcate mothers with Grand Slam titles. Contemplating the women’s physique in tennis, the argument about women’s game having less physical work has been nullified.

The WTA division of professional tennis is not viewed from the same perspective as the men’s game. The women work fingers to the bone but their acknowledgement is insignificant. For instance, it’s quite evident that Serena Williams and Margaret Court have won 23 and 24 major titles respectively. However, in this the male chauvinistic society, even the search engine Google reveals Roger Federer (who has 20 majors) when someone Googles the player having the most number of Grand Slam titles. This is objectionable, the women have outnumbered the men in the sport and besides all their achievement they do not get the esteem and regard which they are ideally supposed to. Dwelling in the 21st century, it time to change our perception of how we look at things. A man and woman are the same species working in the same department and endeavouring the same amount of effort and females get less recognised than the men is simply, unacceptable. After all, all of our hearts beat the same.