Pay disparity between men and women is evident in all professions. Even in sports, there exists a pay gap between the two divisions. However, great strides have been made as the pay gap is reducing in tennis. Several competitions such as the Grand Slams have equal prize money for male and female players. Polish tennis player, Iga Swiatek, is someone who is frequently asked about pay disparity in tennis. In one of the recent responses, the 21-year-old commented on how the pay gap can be fixed.
Iga Swiatek is one of the proponents in the fight for equal pay between male and female players. The WTA number 1 has, along with several other players such as Jessica Pegula, advocated for bridging the disparity.
Iga Swiatek on the pay gap
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Swiatek recently triumphed at the recent Stuttgart Open, receiving hefty prize money of 100,000 euros. However, the prize money of 475,000 euros received by Carlos Alcaraz overshadowed Swiatek’s. The pay gap between the two divisions was glaringly obvious.
Swiatek believes that tennis can pave the way to equality better than most other sports around the world. She added that she believes many tournaments can get equal prize money for both WTA and ATP. “But still, there is a lot we can work on in terms of, you know, getting equal prize money on some WTA tournament compared to ATP on the same level. Grand Slams are already even, as we know. That’s nice, but for sure it would be good if WTA would focus on that, but I don’t really want to get into that, because it’s a lot of business and sometimes politics,” said Swiatek.
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Moreover, she also talked about the comments which say that women’s tennis is not as good as men’s tennis.
“There were a lot of people, for example a couple of years ago, who were saying that WTA that it’s not consistent and that’s a shame and it should be better, but right now basically I think, you know, we are even more consistent than the guys, you know, with our game.”
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The discourse for equal pay has reached a greater stage as the effects can now be seen. Soon, men’s and women’s divisions may see equal pay.