Different pay scales
I missed, in its entirety, the women's British Open last weekend. Which was too bad because a Scot actually won it. Catriona Matthew won the major--and just 11 weeks after giving birth to her second child. A fact every article I have seen points out. (We'll have to wait for another day to analyze the mommy discourse.)
What was surprising was this article which points out how little--outside of the prize money--actually earned for her win. She wore one endorsement patch. A Scot playing in the British Open had one endorsement. That's pretty bad. But what really shocked me was the above-mentioned prize money: less than 200,000 pounds.
Last time I heard, women in the United States earn about 70+ cents to every dollar a man earns. If Matthew's prize money is any indication of the situation in Great Britain, British women should be worried. Mathew's earned about 23 percent of what the men's British Open winner earned just weeks before. They are of course different tournaments on different tours with different sponsors, etc., etc. But the disparity along with Mathew's lack of sponsors (especially compared with far less successful male golfers) is frightening.
What was surprising was this article which points out how little--outside of the prize money--actually earned for her win. She wore one endorsement patch. A Scot playing in the British Open had one endorsement. That's pretty bad. But what really shocked me was the above-mentioned prize money: less than 200,000 pounds.
Last time I heard, women in the United States earn about 70+ cents to every dollar a man earns. If Matthew's prize money is any indication of the situation in Great Britain, British women should be worried. Mathew's earned about 23 percent of what the men's British Open winner earned just weeks before. They are of course different tournaments on different tours with different sponsors, etc., etc. But the disparity along with Mathew's lack of sponsors (especially compared with far less successful male golfers) is frightening.
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