Novak Djokovic saying women tennis players should receive less prize money than men

It's interesting how male sports stars are 'allowed' to endorse products and earn income purely on the grounds of their sporting ability. Yet a really incredible sports woman who doesn't tick the boxes on beauty would never be offered an advertising deal, whereas a very beautiful woman with mediocre sporting achievements can probably out earn more successful sports women based solely on her looks. On the face of it people will say 'oh, you see, women have an unfair advantage then' but I don't buy that argument. You can train harder and improve your sporting achievement (to a degree) but you can't change your genes.

He feels petty to me, actually.

This is also an example of how women are paid less (and some others more)
www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/its-international-womens-day-top-7516774

It also happens in male sports, but to a lesser degree.

"Anna kournikova earned a lot in this way, possibly disproportionately when compared to her actual tennis achievements"

Yes because she was beautiful.

The thing I can't get over is that Djokovic is paid shit loads as it is.

It's saddening to hear comments like his, he's in a position of power and I think should choose his words more carefully.

and actually, I am not angry at feminism or feminists, though as always, it's cute when someone paints justified criticism coming from a woman as her being irrationally angry

I have started a thread about equal pay here

if anyone wants to discuss

I understand that Slug and you're right. Personally I think a better idea in this example would be to give women more of chance to get more exposure. Things that have been mentioned before like alternating who plays the last game of the tournament.

So you're angry at feminism. I would suggest you redirect your anger! It's not feminism who's paying you less ffs.

I would be interested to know how women's pay as suplemented by endorsements compares to the men

Anna kournikova earned a lot in this way, possibly disproportionately when compared to her actual tennis achievements

And BTW, feminism does care. I'm surprised you haven't noticed.

Discussions about pay and gender equality apply at all levels of pay and society. I'll never be a highly paid international sports star, but I still would want to see it be fair. I might have daughters or granddaughters after all...

Crappymummy, that is a separate subject.
You can start your own thread on it and we will all join.

i would love for feminism to care about those of us who are not CEOs or in the running

I have a pretty unremarkable job, and I have been shafted over pay. This is not uncommon amongst women I know.

Yes Mide, but if you were always given the less lucrative contacts to follow up and were only allowed to contact new customers between the hours of 6 and 9am or were only allowed to use second class mail, not the internet/phone, would you reasonably expect to bring in as much money as someone who has access to the best hours/tools/contacts? Would it be your fault you weren't as lucrative to your company?

The odds are already stacked against women players and this idea that they should be paid proportionally less because they are given less opportunities to bring in more income is yet another example of partiarchal victim blaming.

Well, that's similar to the circular argument that can keep women out of top jobs in other walks of life. Man has more experience than woman because somewhere in his career, someone has been willing to take a chance on him being able to do something, whereas women are judged on things they have already done (I believe this has been researched and found to often be the case). Therefore man has more experience than woman and is able to command more pay. Doesn't mean the woman is definitely incapable of bringing in more money, but unless she is given the chance, how would anyone ever know?

I would prefer to see equity discussion of pay to focus on jobs where performance is less subjective, ie away from professional sports

I have a difficult time justifying anyone's pay in sport, or entertainment, or modelling, or acting. I find it hard to make the connection between what they do, and how they are rewarded. I think much of it does get determined by popularity.

In any case, if women in tennis suddenly got more money, more coverage, more endorsements, I wonder if that will make me feel better about the fact that I have been underpaid for what I do, my career stalled at points because of motherhood

Sports do not generate any material value, so one could ask why male players are paid so much to begin with.

Fair enough, you've said you have no interest in sport, but this is an easily answered question.
Because people are prepared to pay to see men kick a ball about.
And everyone, from burger vans to BBC execs want a bit of that.
Less people are prepared to pay less to see women's sports in general (although tennis surely must be close to being most equitable), which is the problem but also somehow nobody's fault.

crappymummy Djokovic stated that because (in his opinion) men get bigger audiences than the women, they should be paid more than the women. He completely failed to address the reasons why the men attract higher audiences, or even if they actually do. He is assuming a level playing field, which just isn't the case. This has been pointed out on the thread, along with the fact that there is a vicious circle wrt attitudes and audiences. One way to tackle this inequality is to pay the women the same as the man, to show that the two are valued the same, at least monetarily by the event organisers. What do you think about those points?

He's annoyed because in tennis women have managed to get equal prize money.
But he feels he deserves more.
Because he (Ah!) attracts more viewers.

Maybe he's right, now that Sharapova is out.

It doesn't matter how golden he's made the pill, it's still hard to swallow.

That we're even having this discussion pisses me off, I mean god forbid women are actually treated equally with men?!

I agree with what your saying crappymum but also agree women's sport should be valued more.

I can see Djokovic's point in as much as if I brought in more money for my company I would expect to be paid more than someone who made less money.

Don't they already pay women less, anyway? I am not interested in sports, but I am sure male soccer players are paid much, much, much more than female soccer players, despite all they all do is chase after some ball.

The suggesting of giving women even LESS than what they currently get, is misogynistic, plain and simple.

Sports do not generate any material value, so one could ask why male players are paid so much to begin with.
While such is the nature of capitalism, we should oppose governments that sponsor men's sports, wasting the taxpayer's money. (Not only by buying the rights to show soccer matches on TV, but also by not requiring those who earn the money with soccer to pay for the massive police force needed to keep peace during the matches)

There is so much more to it than just 'men get more spectators'. Do they get more spectators because people want to see people hit the ball harder? Or because the matches are longer and people want the most possible tennis for their ticket price? Do they get their matches scheduled on the courts with the most spectator seats? Are they in the evening/weekend when more spectators can attend? There are some many possibilities.

I find it distasteful that people are incapable of discussing what he actually said, but rather prefer what they are projecting- quite literally, and in bolded font in some cases

It is not a level playing field. So, how should Djokovic go about ensuring that women's sports receive the same coverage as men's?

But on the one hand he congratulates the women on campaigning for better pay and on the other he immediately says they don't deserve it. In the sense that now that they earn what the men do, it's time the men got more.