The Gender Inequality between NBA and WNBA

Research Article
Open access

The Gender Inequality between NBA and WNBA

Bo Yang 1*
  • 1 Peiwen School of Peking University, Jinzhong, Shanxi Province, 030600, China    
  • *corresponding author jinzhongicc@yango.com.cn
LNEP Vol.5
ISSN (Print): 2753-7056
ISSN (Online): 2753-7048
ISBN (Print): 978-1-915371-35-5
ISBN (Online): 978-1-915371-36-2

Abstract

Gender inequality is one of most popular topics in modern society. According to the data reports of various media within the sports and entertainment industry, the salary and other financial treatment to professional athletes are different based on gender. However, the potential origins of such issue are heatedly debated. Hence, this research would figure out certain factors that contribute to the distinct salary level between female and male athletes through focusing on the basketball league NBA and WNBA. During the investigation, the method of data analysis has been employed which contained relatively well-rounded comparison on the enormous data, including average salary, viewership, sponsorship, and so forth. After all of these data analysis,this research separated the factors into 3 categories: salary standard, audience attitudes, and regulations of league. In conclusion, all the factors affected salary level in aspect of society, league, and players. As the result, corresponding solutions should be operated by each league, such as more investment in awareness of competition and new policy that makes WNBA game more flexible as well as the athletes themselves, such as seeking for more competitions oversea. Under such circumstance, the pressure of gender discrimination could be released not only between NBA and WNBA, but also for more discrimination within other professional sports field.

Keywords:

Gender Inequality, Professional Sports, Salary

Yang,B. (2023). The Gender Inequality between NBA and WNBA. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,5,604-610.
Export citation

References

[1]. Basketball Reference. (2021). Average annual salaries in the NBA and WNBA in 2021-2022 (in 1,000 U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 1120680/annual-salaries-nba-wnba/

[2]. Koh, S. Y. (2020). Inequality. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 269–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10196-9.

[3]. Oppenheimer, D., Foster, S., Han, S., & Ford, R. (2020). Comparative equality and anti-discrimination law.

[4]. Lorber, J. (2009). Gender inequality: feminist theory and politics.

[5]. Isac, N. (2021). Gender Inequalities in the Workplace: Case Study of South Africa. Management and Economics Review, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.24818/mer/2021.06-06

[6]. WNBA Salary Rankings. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.spotrac.com/wnba/rankings/2022/cap-hit/

[7]. Forbes. (2021). Highest-paid National Basketball Association players in 2021-2022 (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/202939/nba-players-with-the-highestsalaries/

[8]. WNBA 2019 Cap Tracker. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.spotrac.com/wnba/cap/2019/

[9]. Sporting Intelligence. (2019). Average annual player salary in the U.S. National Basketball Association in 2019/20, by team (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/673483/average-nba-salary-by-team/

[10]. Medium. (2020). Share of league revenue received by players in the NBA and WNBA in 2019/20 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1120689/annual-salaries-nba-wnba-league-revenue/

[11]. Website (queenballers.club). (2021). Average ticket price of WNBA games in 2021, by team (in U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236731/ wnba-average-ticket-price/

[12]. NBA Finals ticket prices 2022: Here are the cheapest & most expensive seats for Warriors vs. Celtics games. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-finals-tickets-2022-cheapest-expensiveprices/xtjbz1tzoeliq3gzyt1muvcg

[13]. Website (acrossthetimeline.com). (2021). Average regular season attendance at WNBA games in 2021, by team [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236749/ wnba-team-attendance/

[14]. ESPN.com. (2022). National Basketball Association average regular season home attendance by team 2021/22 season [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 535772/average-attendance-byteam-in-the-nba/

[15]. ESPN.com. (2021). Number of viewers of the WNBA Finals on ESPN from 2017 to 2021 (in 1,000s) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236700/wnba-finals-viewers/

[16]. SportsPro. (2022). Average TV viewership of NBA Finals games in the United States from 2002 to 2022 (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 240377/nba-finals-tv-viewershipin-the-united-states/

[17]. Sporting Intelligence. (2019). Combined social media followers of NBA teams as of November 2019, by team (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/ statistics/1120293/social-media-followersnba-by-team/

[18]. Sporting Intelligence. (2019). Combined social media followers of WNBA teams as of November 2019, by team (in 1,000s) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 1120646/social-media-followerswnba-by-team/

[19]. Runcie, D. S., & College, B. (2019). The Gender Wage Gap in Sports_ Explaining the Pay Gap in Sports. Runcie, D. S., & College, B. (2019). Bard Digital Commons The Gender Wage Gap in Sports: Explaining the Pay Gap in Sports The Gender Wage Gap in Sports: Explaining the Pay Gap in Sports A Senior Project Submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bar, May, 1–71.

Cite this article

Yang,B. (2023). The Gender Inequality between NBA and WNBA. Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media,5,604-610.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note

The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies (ICIHCS 2022), Part 4

ISBN：978-1-915371-35-5(Print) / 978-1-915371-36-2(Online)
Editor：Matilde Lafuente-Lechuga, Muhammad Idrees
Conference website: https://www.icihcs.org/
Conference date: 18 December 2022
Series: Lecture Notes in Education Psychology and Public Media
Volume number: Vol.5
ISSN：2753-7048(Print) / 2753-7056(Online)

© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open access policy for details).

References

[1]. Basketball Reference. (2021). Average annual salaries in the NBA and WNBA in 2021-2022 (in 1,000 U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 1120680/annual-salaries-nba-wnba/

[2]. Koh, S. Y. (2020). Inequality. International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 269–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102295-5.10196-9.

[3]. Oppenheimer, D., Foster, S., Han, S., & Ford, R. (2020). Comparative equality and anti-discrimination law.

[4]. Lorber, J. (2009). Gender inequality: feminist theory and politics.

[5]. Isac, N. (2021). Gender Inequalities in the Workplace: Case Study of South Africa. Management and Economics Review, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.24818/mer/2021.06-06

[6]. WNBA Salary Rankings. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.spotrac.com/wnba/rankings/2022/cap-hit/

[7]. Forbes. (2021). Highest-paid National Basketball Association players in 2021-2022 (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/202939/nba-players-with-the-highestsalaries/

[8]. WNBA 2019 Cap Tracker. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.spotrac.com/wnba/cap/2019/

[9]. Sporting Intelligence. (2019). Average annual player salary in the U.S. National Basketball Association in 2019/20, by team (in million U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/673483/average-nba-salary-by-team/

[10]. Medium. (2020). Share of league revenue received by players in the NBA and WNBA in 2019/20 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1120689/annual-salaries-nba-wnba-league-revenue/

[11]. Website (queenballers.club). (2021). Average ticket price of WNBA games in 2021, by team (in U.S. dollars) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236731/ wnba-average-ticket-price/

[12]. NBA Finals ticket prices 2022: Here are the cheapest & most expensive seats for Warriors vs. Celtics games. (2022). Retrieved from https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/nba-finals-tickets-2022-cheapest-expensiveprices/xtjbz1tzoeliq3gzyt1muvcg

[13]. Website (acrossthetimeline.com). (2021). Average regular season attendance at WNBA games in 2021, by team [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236749/ wnba-team-attendance/

[14]. ESPN.com. (2022). National Basketball Association average regular season home attendance by team 2021/22 season [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 535772/average-attendance-byteam-in-the-nba/

[15]. ESPN.com. (2021). Number of viewers of the WNBA Finals on ESPN from 2017 to 2021 (in 1,000s) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/1236700/wnba-finals-viewers/

[16]. SportsPro. (2022). Average TV viewership of NBA Finals games in the United States from 2002 to 2022 (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 240377/nba-finals-tv-viewershipin-the-united-states/

[17]. Sporting Intelligence. (2019). Combined social media followers of NBA teams as of November 2019, by team (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/ statistics/1120293/social-media-followersnba-by-team/

[18]. Sporting Intelligence. (2019). Combined social media followers of WNBA teams as of November 2019, by team (in 1,000s) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrievedfrom https://www.statista.com/statistics/ 1120646/social-media-followerswnba-by-team/

[19]. Runcie, D. S., & College, B. (2019). The Gender Wage Gap in Sports_ Explaining the Pay Gap in Sports. Runcie, D. S., & College, B. (2019). Bard Digital Commons The Gender Wage Gap in Sports: Explaining the Pay Gap in Sports The Gender Wage Gap in Sports: Explaining the Pay Gap in Sports A Senior Project Submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bar, May, 1–71.

For authors
Guide for authors Policies for authors Aims and scope Subscription Open access policy
For editors
Policies for editors Editorial board
For reviewers
Policies for reviewers Privacy policy

Cookies are used by this site.
Copyright © 2024 EWA Publishing, its licensors, and contributors. All rights reserved, including text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.