Here’s a fun experiment: Walk up to any professional female athlete, hand her a check for a fraction of what her male counterpart makes and tell her it’s “just business.” Then, duck - because you’re about to get hit with a well-placed fastball, soccer cleat, or, if she’s feeling charitable, just a death stare that could shatter glass. Yet this is the reality in sports. The gender pay gap isn’t a mystery, an accident, or a tragic oversight. It’s a feature, not a bug.

The Joke’s on Us

Picture this: A woman sprints down the soccer field, dodging defenders, scoring the winning goal. The crowd goes wild. She gets a pat on the back, a polite golf clap, and maybe a gift card to a smoothie shop. Meanwhile, her male counterpart, who accomplished the exact same feat, is showered in multi-million-dollar endorsement deals, champagne, and a yacht named Equality. That’s the punchline. And we’ve been hearing it for decades.

Show Me the Money (Or Don’t)

The numbers are a riot. The highest-paid male athletes rake in nearly five times what their female counterparts do. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team had to drag an entire federation to court just to get what should have been theirs from the start. Meanwhile, in the WNBA, players are making salaries that barely cover rent in major cities, while NBA players throw around cash like confetti.

Tennis likes to parade itself as progressive because Grand Slams offer equal prize money. But step outside those four events, and the numbers tell a different story. Sponsorships, endorsements, and overall earnings still tilt heavily in favor of male players. The logic? Some marketing executive somewhere decided long ago that men’s matches are just more marketable, and that bias has been printing paychecks ever since. Why? Because TV execs and sponsors insist women’s sports “don’t sell.” Maybe if they actually bothered to put them on TV, we’d find out.

Why Are We Still Doing This?

Let’s break it down:

1. Media Coverage is a Joke – Women’s sports get a whopping 4% of total sports media coverage. That’s barely enough airtime to sneeze in.
2. Investment is a Scam – Men’s sports have been propped up with cash injections for decades, so naturally, they generate more revenue. It’s the natural result of decades of unequal investment, making it less surprising than it is disappointing.
3. Old-School Thinking Won’t Die – If one more person says “but men’s sports are just more exciting,” I’m going to set my TV on fire. Serena Williams didn’t win 23 Grand Slam titles because she was “less exciting.”

The Plot Twist We Need

This mess won’t fix itself. Here’s what needs to happen:

• Stronger Commitments from Sponsors – Brands, stop pretending to care about equality in your commercials and start writing the necessary checks!
• Media Coverage that Isn’t an Afterthought – Sports networks, give women’s games prime-time slots instead of burying them in off-hours like a rerun.
• Laws with Teeth – Policy changes shouldn’t be optional. Governing bodies need to enforce pay equity like they mean it.
• Fans Who Show Up – If you’re mad about the pay gap, buy the tickets, watch the games, and raise hell about it.

The Ending? We Get to Decide

Women’s sports aren’t a cute side hustle for real athletes. The talent is there. The audience is there. The money is there, but it keeps flowing into the same few pockets instead of being distributed fairly. The only thing missing? A unified push to stop treating this as an unfortunate punchline and start rewriting the rules.

At the Women’s Sports Foundation, we’re done waiting for fairness to magically appear. If the game is rigged, then it’s time to change the game. 

Ladies, let’s play ball.