Avalon: Follow-up on gender wage gap in tennis

June 1, 2017, 2:12 a.m.

This column reflects the opinion of the writer and does not in any way reflect the views of The Stanford Daily.

On Tuesday I wrote an article titled “There needs to be a gender wage gap in tennis.” Since then I have seen two response articles published and my inbox has seen its fair share of dissent. Normally I would more than welcome the dialogue, but obscene messages and accusations of bigotry and misogyny have been flung in my direction willy-nilly, so I feel it’s appropriate that I clear some things up.

First, I would like to apologize for my tone in the piece. I realize that some of my word choice detracted from the argument I was putting forth, and made some people uncomfortable. This was by no means an anti-women article, but rather an article on fair wages.

I would also like to apologize for leading off with demonstrating that Serena would be a poor player in the men’s game. I put this forward because I wanted to dispel a myth I’ve often heard floated around, but doing so ultimately distracted from my main economic argument and is not especially relevant in a world where women and men don’t actually compete head-to-head. Obviously there are a lot of physiological factors at play.

With that out of the way, I want to make clear that the key opinion point of my article is one thing: Everyone, including athletes, should be paid based off of their economic value to their firm. If a real estate agent sells more houses than a coworker, they ought to take home higher commissions. If a musician headlines a festival, they ought to command a higher wage than the other acts. If men’s tennis sells more ad spots and generates more revenue than their female counterparts, they ought to have a bigger prize pool.

One thing I do not appreciate is having The Daily’s managing editors (Kit Ramgopal and Laura Sussman) assume my economic principles break down when the genders are reversed. (They said, “Additionally, the revenue argument falls flat when gender dynamics flip.”) Why would it suddenly fall flat? In these cases — like figure skating — the women should make more as they are bringing in more money. It’s insulting and unbecoming of their position to assume that I only think fair wages practices ought to apply to men. My ideas on wages are applicable to every sport, not just the ones these managing editors pick and choose for me. They also painted Novak Djokovic as a misogynist, which seems to be a shamefully unsubstantiated rhetorical tactic.

Additionally, I agree with the anecdote about the compensation of U.S. women’s soccer. In fact, I presented that very argument in a number of emails on which Ramgopal and Sussman were copied. I would, however, be curious to know how much money Ramgopal and Sussman think should be allocated to the prize pools of the doubles divisions at Grand Slams. Or better yet: the wheelchair divisions. Should they also receive equal pay, regardless of economic value?

A key point I see ignored in these responses is that tennis revenues are global. That’s why I cited viewership numbers from America, Europe and Canada in my article. Yes, at odd times in the past 15 years or so, we have seen women’s tennis draw in similar or higher viewership than men’s tennis in America. Having American female stars as great as Serena and Venus and male “stars” as mediocre as John Isner and Sam Querrey will do that. Unfortunately, this trend of occasionally similar viewership is so seldom the case elsewhere in the world (except that one time where Li Na potentially had more viewers than any match ever, because China). Tennis is a global market unlike the MLB or NBA, so this is significant. Additionally, Serena Williams does make less via endorsements than the top men; that’s a fact.

As a fan of tennis, I would very much be in favor of five-set matches by women at Grand Slams. If that happens, they will also increase their amount of ad spots, and we’ll get to see the stars of the game battle on the court some 50 percent more. That would be great for everyone. However, tennis legend Steffi Graf reacted negatively to this idea after a trial run of a five set match. “I think it will be tough for us to play, maybe, on a clay court best of five or even in Australia, where it’s pretty hot,” said Graf. (She also is on record saying that pay inequality between men and women in tennis doesn’t bother her, for what it’s worth.) The WTA even blocked one such proposal in the 1990s.

Thank you for everyone who read and thought about my articles. I received some very thoughtful and well-written emails. Really, all I had hoped to accomplish was to bring up a viewpoint which few people on campus had likely ever given thought.

 

Contact Grant Avalon at gavalon ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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