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India’s Top Squash Player Is Boycotting The Nationals To Make A Powerful Point On Equality
More from Rishvik Chanda
By Rishvik Chanda:
Women’s work isn’t valued as much as men’s work is – that is the conclusion to be reached if we look at the current scenario of women working in the public sphere. Equal pay for equal work between the genders is one of the primary objectives of feminism today. This issue was highlighted yet again when Dipika Pallikal, India’s top-ranked Squash player, opted out of the ongoing National Squash Championships in a strong mark of protest against discriminatory rewards for men and women in sports.
Women, on average, earn less than men across all careers. An important hurdle to overcome for feminism today is this under-paid status of women. And this isn’t just about India, according to statistics released by the White House, full-time working American women earn 77% of what their male counterparts do. Also, it has been documented that working women do more housework and child care than working men.
Sports is seen as a traditionally male dominated activity. Women generally aren’t encouraged to take up sports seriously. And the few women who do become successful sportswomen by overcoming gender roles, continue to face discrimination. Offering lower rewards to female athletes is only reinforcing the idea that women belong in domestic settings and telling the women, who train just as hard, that their achievements aren’t worth as much as that of male athletes’.
Recently, Dipika Pallikal decided to skip the ongoing National Squash Championships until equal prize money was offered for male and female athletes. The men’s champion will pocket Rs. 1,20,000 and women Rs. 50,000, less than half of what is offered to the men. Discrimination such as this implies that men deserve bigger rewards for winning sports tournaments, suggesting that men put in more effort than women. These unfair, untrue notions need to be pointed out to the wider public.
Patricia Arquette, the Boyhood actress, brought attention to the gender wage gap in Hollywood in her acceptance speech at the 87th Academy Awards. But the situation is worse closer home. In Bollywood, top female actors make only 1/10th of what top male actors make per film. “I don’t really understand why we are paid less than the male actors because we put equal efforts and recent past has shown that actresses can deliver a hit film. We deserve better pay, equal to what actors get”, says Aditi Rao Hydari, an upcoming actor.
Those women who accept lower pay for equal work are making the situation worse for others by encouraging a discriminatory system. It’s extremely unfortunate and unfair that an athlete who is ranked 18th on the World Squash Association rankings has to abstain from participation in the national tournament for the fourth year in a row to make a point, but a strong stance such as Dipika’s is what is needed to bring attention to discriminatory remuneration based on gender.
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B
You are paid for your work according to your experience, academic credentials, skills, and how well you do your job. It is not a question of a man and a woman working the same job not being paid the same, even two men or two women working the same job will not be paid the same. Two doctors, two engineers, two teachers, etc, will be paid differently. Secondly, women earn less because women work less number of hours than men, take maternity leave, work easier jobs than men, and take courses in college which pay less.
https://youtu.be/vyFjPHwF6To
Jigsaw
The best male football player is better than the best female football player. The fastest man in the world is faster than the fastest woman in the world. The best male snowboarder in the world can do tricks with a higher degree of difficulty than the best female snowboarder in the world. The best male golf player can drive farther than the best female golf player in the world. The list is endless. These are facts. Men are better at sports. Men have more strength, stamina, speed, skill. That is why people pay more to watch men play, and that is why there is more coverage of male sports.
Batman
The 15 Jobs Where Women Earn More Than Men
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/03/14/jobs-where-women-earn-more-than-men/
B
Your conclusion about Bollywood actors not being paid the same as actresses is hilarious. It is not a case of Aditi Rao Haider, even male actors like Arjun Rampal, Sunny Deol, Ritesh Deshmukh are not paid the same as Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan. It has to do with TALENT. Not GENDER. If actresses are so talented, why are all newcomers dying to work with Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, and Salman Khan. There are many actresses who have a name today courtesy of male actors, who got a role with the Khans when no one knew them, and now they are famous. Salman Khan alone introduced Katrina Kaif, Sonakshi Sinha, Zarine Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Asin, Sneha Ullal, Somy Ali, just to name a few. Rani Mukherjee and Anushka Sharma got fame after working with Aamir Khan. Deepika Padukone got a dream start with Shahrukh Khan. Of course, I am missing many actresses’ names who rose to stardom after a debut with the Khans.
Avinesh Saini
It is not about talent but more about star power. the three Khan’s get the Moolah. None of the women have managed to do that till date. Back in the day, Sreedevi got almost as much as Amitabh as she was a huge star. It’s more about economics with Bollywood, with just a hint of patriarchy.
udit
Men attract more sponsors to sports, more viewers to movies GENERALLY (almost all the time.)
By no means can a Mithali Raj play better cricket than Sachin Tendulkar or generate more fan following.
There are definitely more Women who go to cinema to watch Ranbir, Amir, Shahrukh Salman than the number of Women ( Iam not even saying men) who go to watch Vidya, Priyanka, Deepika, Kajol etc.
I am not being a male chauvinist, but it is what it is and i don’t even see anything wrong in it.
If there is someone who brings in more money by their talent (men bringing more interested people and sponsors to sports) then they deserve to be paid higher.
Having said that, IT IS WRONG TO UNDERPAY WOMEN.
But the issue should not be comparison with Men, it should b-
1. To determine weather or not they are being paid enough to sustain them selves with basic amenities and support being given by the association.
and after that-
2. Weather or not they are getting their fair share of how much crowd/sponsors they pull in to the sport.
Monistaf
In spite of the wage gap myth being busted so many times, it continues to be an issue that is on top of the feminists agenda. I applaud this woman (I have never heard of her until now) for refusing to play. She should stand up and ask for what she is worth, and if they cannot pay her, she should go elsewhere. That is what everyone else does when it comes to business as usual. If you think you are not paid what you are worth, have the courage and confidence to find another job that pays you what you think you are worth and stop whining that you are paid less. It happens all the time, to EVERYONE. What you get paid is based on your education, what you bring to the table in terms of relevant experience and most importantly your ability to negotiate a fair wage. It seems that feminists want to be privileged with a sense of entitlement that someone should just give them what they are worth. You never get what you deserve, you almost always get what you can negotiate. When it comes to paying sports personalities it is often times dependent on how much interest and money they can generate in terms of broadcast rights and ad revenues. If sportswomen generate less, they get offered less and have a lower negotiating power. Female models and pornstars get paid almost 10 times their male counterparts because of the supply and demand situation that offers a lot more negotiating powers to women. I do not see any males whining and bitching about not being paid enough!!
nitin
what if tomorrow blind crickets start rising the demand of getting same pay as normal cricketer. They may have talent and some better than other but you wouldnt pay to see them play.
Same goes for women. Women should be glad that sport bodies allow them to play among themselves and also get paid.
Frankly if they want they can be good in carom, chess, shooting, archery or poker(sports that dont rely much on physical strength) but they suck in them too. So I say this – if a woman
पंकज कुमार गरवाल
Comment * reading was like facing the people who are sabotaged themselves ! It reminded the pathetic situation of the oppressed in this oppressing hegemony as Marx’s take on religion. These men, misogynist indeed, are themselves stucked and helpless ! …this is evident in their support for anti-rape movements but infected by rapist culture side-by-side…
B
https://youtu.be/RkJC_OV9k_A