Gender Discrimination In Collegiate Sports Essay

Gender Discrimination Still Exists Discrimination is not something many people talk about, because people believe that it is gone. Gender discrimination is still very prevalent though. In professional and collegiate sports, the difference in opportunities and pay is a major gap. Title IX tried to fix some of the gender pay gaps, but has been proven unsuccessful. The difference in pay is staggering, but male and female athletes still face the same challenges and achieve the same glory. When it comes to collegiate sports, the pay difference is not the problem. College level athletes do not get paid, but it matters when it comes to opportunities for the athletes. Women’s athletics are seen as inferior and are usually disregarded (Ross). The other difference in collegiate sports is with the coaches. Bonnie Henrickson, the University of Kansas women’s basketball coach earned about $505,000. The University of Kansas men’s basketball coach, Bill Self, made around $5 million (Ross). That comes out to a $4.5 million difference. The coaches have about the same records and stats, yet the male coach of the men’s team makes way more than the woman coach of the women’s team. Title IX has not solved that problem. Title IX has made a lot of things better, but not everything. It has closed the gap a …show more content…
Paying male athletes more for the same exact sport and the same effort gives women athletes less incentive to push themselves and it really turns away future female participation (Kruger). If female athletes that it does not matter at all how hard they work at their sport, they will never receive the recognition they deserve. They will lose all desire to work hard when it comes to that next level because they know it will never be recognized. The professional sport world will continue to lose more and more participation if they do not fix the problem at