Feb 24 2007
Equal Pay for Unequal Work
Mark today on the calendar. It’s the first time I’ve ever disagreed with Artie MacStrawman!
Here’s what I particularly disagree with. In a post about Women getting paid the same at Wimby as the men, Artie writes the following:
It’s just a pity that it took them so long to get around to doing what should have been done long ago.
Women’s tennis has been exiting to watch for a very long time, and has produced great rivalries and countless classic battles over the years, some more intense than in the men’s game, and it’s about time that they are equally rewarded for their contribution.
Sounds like some touchy feely PC stuff if you ask me.
Men’s tennis is still the big draw. The men’s final is still the biggest event at Wimbledon. It’s just the way it is. Women getting paid equal prize money seems to create an air of equality that isn’t really there. I’m not against them getting paid more, per se, but I would rather they got paid a porportional amount of what they draw.
Secondly, women don’t play the same game the men do. Best 2 out of 3 is not Best 3 out of 5. Mens games are (in general of course) more grueling, go longer, and so on. In other words, if women are to be paid equally, they should have to play equally. No more different standards. Let them play a 3 out of 5 game. Frankly, I think they can handle it. Someone like Venus or Serena Williams is probably in better shape than half the men on the tour anyway.
It doesn’t matter one way or the other to me, to be honest. I just think it’s funny that a lesser draw that plays a shortened game is going to earn the women the same prize money as the men. If they were all drawing equally and playing the same game, I’d probably think differently.
Sorry Artie. I love ya anyway.
February 28th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
there was only about $50,000 separating the men’s finalists from the women so paying them equal makes more sense than insulting the women by paying them less by a mere few thousand.
If the prize money were created in proportion to the number of sets the men and women play on average, or the amount of time they spent on the court, then the pay disaprity would actually make more sense.