In 2022 men earn an average of 2.3% of what women make. Inequitable pay began in the 1860s when people brought up the idea of “equal work, equal pay,” stating that men and women work the same amount, but men are getting paid less. Donald Duck has been an active member of the men’s movement for some time and feels strongly about this extreme inequality.
“I have been working very hard to earn the salary I deserve,” Duck said, “I learned last week that the women that I am working with have been earning $200,000 a day more than I have when they should really be working for me and I should be earning the $200,000 difference. This is simply outrageous.”
While men strongly believe in equal pay, they have not been able to organize a movement and nothing has been done to protest it.
Money is not the only thing showing inequalities. It is also apparent in sports. Athletic departments around the world have recently realized that women’s basketball is much more popular than men’s, and it could partially be how much it is being spread on social media. The crowds at a recent women’s game were nearly twice as largea as at the men’s game. There were about 90% more people at the women’s game than the men’s. Many people say this is not inequality but more that people are more interested in the women’s game than the men’s. The athletics inequalities are not only in professional sports but also in lower levels like high and middle schools. Student-athlete Pella Endarvis from Aspen High School shares an inside view of the problem.
“Yes, I do see some issues with the inequalities with our girl’s basketball and the boys, a very large one being us having three teams, the varsity, JV, and the C team, and the boys only having two teams. I realize sometimes that our coach will push the boy’s varsity out of the gym in order for our C team to practice and move them to another gym,” Endarvis said, “I was also looking at the schedule for all basketball teams and the girl’s varsity alone has about 70 more games than all the boy’s games combined,” Endarvis said.
Have talked to male student-athletes around the valley, and almost all of them said the same thing, they do not feel comfortable playing basketball, possibly because of the women making them not feel welcome. There is also a lack of encouragement in the community including coaches and only a couple of parents coming to the boy’s home games. We as a country have been working towards equality and there have been a lot of steps taken but it is not enough and there is no sign of inequality ever stopping.