The Gap Keeps Widening

I used to love the tennis matches involving Steffi Graf during my school days. Initially, it used to be with Martina Navratilova, then Monica Seles, and later a few others. She was a champion and I was a fan.

Those days I never understood the money part in professional sports but when I later came to know about the gap in pay structure between men and women, I felt awkward.

Simply, think in this way.

The match between Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg in the 1988 Wimbledon finals was a classic.

Just one day before that match we were witness to another classic. It was the match between Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf.

I loved both the matches. The crowd loved both the matches. But the pay gap between both the champions was close to 15%. Things changed over the years and from 2007 onwards the gents and the ladies champions both get the same prize money.

Ok, that was the 80’s. A sport primarily played in western nations.

Let’s come forward and look at what’s happening in a different sport in India.

Let’s look at cricket.

Indian ladies team in the last few years have been finalists in two world cups and have reached the semifinals on another occasion. Gone are the days when the Indian ladies were pushovers. They are as good as any team, especially in white-ball cricket today.

But why then is the pay gap between men’s and women’s teams? And the pay gap is not small – it’s more than 90%.

Why so?

Women fail to raise their voices. They fear that by raising their voice, politics could see them sidelined from the team. Career s will come crashing down. So they take whatever is being given and play the game.

Wrong choice!

Indian men’s cricket has grown leaps and bounds over the last 2 decades by getting more and more opportunities! Have we given similar opportunities to our women’s team? There are two problems as I see it:

1. Men don’t care

2. Women don’t raise their voice

Women get easily satisfied with whatever they are getting. They start comparing with what women used to get in comparison 2 decades back. Well, then why don’t people compare what their men counterparts used to get in the same period?

You will find men are earning much more and women’s growth has been far lower!

What Sachin Tendulkar is to Indian cricket – Mytheli Raj is to women’s cricket (She is the highest run-getter in Women’s ODIs and the only Indian ladies cricketer to score more than 10,000 international runs)! Think of Jhulan Goswami – she is the world record holder of taking maximum wickets in ODI cricket. But do they get similar respect? Forget finances – respect is not even close to IPL cricketers. Why such disparities are being allowed?

We are in 2021 and such a mindset is not right.

Women’s game in India and across the world has improved leaps and bounds. With more opportunities, we are seeing skillful cricketers coming to the fore. Look at Hamanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Varma, Richa Ghosh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad – exceptional talents across the board. But look at how they are treated! Women cricketers had to arrange their trip to Mumbai personally whereas the men were given chartered flights! Why such disparity?

Our society will only improve when we remove this disparity. It all starts with the mindset. 

I hope we in India raise our voice against such disparity! I have seen educated friends not accepting this! Many feel women should be paid lesser than men. I feel sad for these people – they have not grown in their minds. These friends have daughters at home – my question to them – will you accept if your daughter gets a lesser salary than her colleague only because she is a lady? If not then why don’t you raise your voice now?

The problem is most people are selfish. As long as it doesn’t hurt them directly they don’t realise. Very few people have the maturity to think of the greater good or raising a voice for society. But we need to change. Today women are equal partners in the nation’s growth and it all starts at home! 

Let’s change our mindset! Let’s change ourselves for a better society. 

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