Equal pay for men and women across all professions has been an ongoing debate for quite a few years now. However, the issue with equal pay in sports came under the spotlight ever since the US women’s football team, especially player Megan Rapinoe, advocated against gender discrimination in pay and overall working conditions.
However, in a landmark move, Australian national women’s football team will receive equal pay as its male counterpart and there will be an equal split of commercial revenue for both teams, reports The Telegraph.
For all these years, the men’s national team (nicknamed Socceroos) had been paid more than the women’s team (nicknamed Matildas). The men’s team also enjoyed a greater share of commercial earnings than the women.
The women players had been in talks with Football Federation Australia, the governing body. Even though an official announcement hasn’t been made, it is revealed that both teams, men and women, will receive “40% of commercial revenue and prize money associated with senior and national teams under the agreement”, reports The Guardian.
Earlier this year, the Matildas had campaigned for equal prize-money at Football World Cups ahead of the women’s tournament.
On winning the tournament, the US soccer team had received $4 million (Rs. 28 Cr approx) from a total prize-money pool of $30 million (Rs. 212 Cr approx), in contrast to France, the winners of World Cup’18, who had received $38 (Rs. 268 Cr approx) million from a pool of $400 million (Rs. 2827 Cr approx).
This is not just a win for women in sports. In fact, the larger fight for women’s rights and gender equality has had a massive win today. However, pay parity between men and women across all sectors, including Bollywood, has been a significant issue that India is dealing with. When can we expect similar steps taken by our authorities in different professional spheres?