The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced that the 2024 edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup would be the first tournament to offer the same prize money as the men’s tournament, and that’s great news, or at least it’s a start.
Many assume that equal prize money in men’s and women’s sport is a new thing, but take for example the US Open tennis tournament.
In 1972, Billie Jean King earned $10 000 for winning the women’s singles competition, while men’s winner Ilie Năstase made $25 000. King threatened to not play the following year if women did not receive equal pay.
The tournament organisers therefore made the decision to offer equal prize money from the 1973 edition onwards.
The @ProteasWomenCSA win the first WT20I against Pakistan Women in Multan 👏
— SuperSport 🏆 (@SuperSportTV) September 16, 2024
You can watch the second game of the series on Wednesday from 16:20 (CAT) 🍿#HereForHer | #SAWvPAKW pic.twitter.com/lxqCmYVkO9
Wheels of change turn slowly
That was 51 years ago. Since then, in tennis the Australian Open offered equal pay since 2001, while Wimbledon and the French Open followed suit in 2007.
In soccer, the Women’s Fifa World Cup had total prize money of $30 million, while the 2018 men’s edition offered a whopping $400 million.
The popular argument is that men’s sport has a much bigger audience, which is true.
However, with more prize money and marketing, the viewership of women’s sports can be vastly improved. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle in that case, until more prize money is on offer the viewership numbers can’t substantially increase.
A rule of thumb shows that the more popular the sport, the bigger the disparity between what men and women earn in those codes.
Cricket at least, has made some positive first steps.
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