Like the Equal Pay Act, it often takes intervention from the top to make change happen. When I was rowing at university, we spent years trying to get our boat race ‘equal’ to the men’s, i.e. The same distance on the same stretch of water rather than a quarter of the distance on flat water. Never mind the other inequalities of toilets in a car park vs heated floor in the boathouse, paying for you boats rather than empacher sponsorship. The ONLY thing that changed it was when an equal opportunities employer refused to sponsor just the men’s race, and made it possible for women to compete on the same terms.

At which point we come back to media coverage for the women’s game so that more girls see that it’s something worth them aspiring to.

Someone earlier mentioned the quality of women’s football being low. I must admit that I find the contrary. The matches I have watched have some great football being played, less acting up and better sportsmanship.

I don’t even watch men’s football any more because of the obscene amount of money the men are getting.

I presume you no longer watch films or listen to chart music for the same reason?
Yes, footballers get paid obscene amounts, but the top players are great at what they do.

There is without doubt more the governing bodies could and should be doing to support women’s and grass root sports, but as it stands, the men are simply getting their share of what fans and sponsors are willing to pay to watch them.
For me, this means I go to less games than I used to because I don’t think it’s good value for money anymore. However judging by the likes of the rugby world cup ticket sales and waiting lists for Premier League season tickets this isn’t a common opinion.

Tennis: When the women do 5-set matches they’ve earned the same as the men.

Prize money at Wimbledon is the same for men and women

Although they do insist on referring to them as Ladies…

aracer – Member
At which point we come back to media coverage for the women’s game so that more girls see that it’s something worth them aspiring to

I’d think that’s a logical conclusion at all, and I think there’s a massive mis-understand going on as to why the likes of football has such massive followings. It’s not a lot to do with prize money or wages, they are a consequence of popularity, not the cause of the popularity.

Half the reason for grass roots involvement is that it builds up audiences aswell. Tennis is a great example there, womens tennis has a long history, that’s why it’s so popular.

Professional sport exists on history and loyalties.

It’s a slow process, and it’s a process you are going have to accept. Millions of people aren’t going to turn on overnight and start watching womens sport.

Mens sport in general has 150/200years head start in the organisational aspect.

As i say I’m not against womens sport, not in the slightest, i’m all for it. I’m just against supplementing wages, and believe it’s entirely the wrong focus.

I think what many people are missing is that none of this money has to be provided. Someone, individual or organisation is paying for it for a reason.
It’s their money and thus they have the perfect right to do what they like with it. To suggest other wise is stupid and immoral. Same reason that some choose to only buy fair trade or British or whatever your preference is.

At which point we come back to media coverage for the women’s game so that more girls see that it’s something worth them aspiring to.

Yes but no one really wants to watch women’s sports do they? I mean the viewing figures for the Women’s football world cup in Canada last year were pretty dire weren’t they?

By equal measure, who want’s to watch men’s beach volleyball? 😉

Folks watching sport generally want to watch people pushing boundaries, and unfortunately for women, with very few exceptions, men are better at sport than women, often by quite some margin.

Men by nature are more competitive too and I’m guessing that far more men take part in and watch sport than women do. When was the last time you heard some husband complaining that their wife watched too much sport on tv?

Regarding careers outside sport then again it’s generally men who are more competitive, more work obsessed than women who tend to balance work with family duties. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s probably the reason why there’s more men on company boards than women. The door is now 100% open to women but you’d probably find not so many that would want to walk through that door at all cost to work life balance etc.

Mark88 – you presume right! I rarely watch films and definitely don’t listen to chart music 😀

Yes but no one really wants to watch women’s sports do they?

Correct. Once those advocating equal pay start turning up at games and paying at the gate maybe the pay will increase.

Ok last year the BBC paid out £50m for F1 and £60m for Match of the day

If they binned both of those 2 – as people are more than happy to pay Sky to watch the much better men play sport, think what that money could do for the coverage of other more minor sports (womens football, hockey, netball, swimming, athletics, rowing, etc)

Lets give the youngsters some decent roll models to aspire towards

And whilst we are talking mens football:
A free kick and 10 yards for talking to the ref out of turn,
Sending off for infringing his space or disrespect,
Life ban for physical intimidation,
Sin bin for yellow card
Finally 3rd match official for off the ball incidents and diving with 3 appeals per half as in cricket