Inequality in the workplace you say…You have no idea
You say there is inequality in the workplace. This isn’t just a workplace in a building. It isn’t just for teachers, realtors or any other job type. Inequality in the workplace reaches outside of the traditional work setting. There’s also inequality on the golf course. Most notably, the PGA Tour versus the LPGA Tour.
Upon conducting research, I was able to look into the prize payouts and determined that the PGA Tour prize payouts are 5x the amount that the LPGA Tour receives. Why is this? Both sexes play golf, both sexes have Major Tournaments (LPGA officially plays more Majors in a calendar year) and both sexes need to develop their game. Why are the men “worth” more? Is it because there are more viewers? Newsflash! If they advertised for the LPGA Tour as much as they do the PGA Tour maybe they would get more viewers.
Women would like to enjoy something too. They look at all these males with average driving distances of 293 yards while the women are averaging say… 254 yards off of the tee. We (women) still have to make par. We still need to drive, chip and putt just like the men do.
The sad thing is the LPGA Tour is becoming increasingly more sexualized. Rather than watching it for the entertainment or their playing abilities the LPGA Tour gets watched just so some of the audience says “Hey! Let’s see what so and so is wearing this week”. To hear people say “I would do her” instead of saying wow look at that drive. Admiration of their skills like the PGA Tour counterparts get.
On average a PGA Tour event has an average purse of $6.8 million. Meanwhile, the LPGA has an average purse of $2 million. Why is that? As previously stated the PGA Tour gets more air time, healthier contracts, advertising and stars. Why are these players made “stars”? It’s because of the audience.
So what would happen if the PGA Tour audience was as small as the LPGA Tour? Do you think the stars would be as big? I would put my bet on… no. The main reason that a lot of men watch the LPGA Tour is to see how skimpy so and so’s outfit will be (as mentioned earlier). A lot of women may not watch golf because they have to listen to the sexual innuendos made.
Things need to change. The LPGA Tour needs more exposure and not by sexualizing the players. How about talking about them and watching them for their talents? As a female, I’d like to propose a question for the men out there. How would you like to see the male golfers being sexualized? How about “hot golfer” calendars like the female golfers. Would you want to watch golf and know your women were ogling them as the males ogle the females? I’m going to take a guess probably not.
So back to the payouts. A lot of the payouts are from what? Advertising, maybe TV and sponsors. That explains the variance on the purses. Give the LPGA Tour the same exposure as the men and see their purses increase. Stop sexualizing the female players and maybe you can get more spectators. Then again, sex sells right?!
Females don’t mind going to PGA Tour events (much like myself) because their men aren’t ogling the players. Myself included. I never used to watch the LPGA Tour because of the “Barbie dolls” or sexualization. My husband never ogled athletes on the LPGA Tour but the amount of ogling that I’ve observed was disturbing. It’s enough to make a woman feel lesser of a woman than when their men can’t keep their eyes off the player’s assets.
Until The Next Tee!!
The Next Tee (TNT) 