Equal Pay in Football: Examining Arguments for Fair Compensation

This essay, written for the FYU 006-0 English for Specific Purposes course, argues for equal pay in women's football. It begins by highlighting the rapid growth of women's football and the significant pay gap compared to men's football. The essay presents four key arguments: the labor rights argument, emphasizing equal pay for equal work; the expressive power argument, advocating for equalizing the professional and sporting value of players; the historical injustice argument, focusing on the need for reparation for past discrimination; and the structural injustices argument, calling for leadership and political responsibility to address these issues. The essay concludes that there should be no discrimination between men's and women's football, emphasizing the equal time and energy devoted by both genders. It also references supporting research from various books and journals.

FYU 006-0 English for
Specific Purposes

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Women’s Football must be treated equally with Men’s Football................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
There must be no discrimination between males and females in the field of sports. Women
are playing in the field by putting their teams at the centre and front. When the female athletes
are paid equally as that of males, there are more chances to attract the women in the sports field
(Dwyer, Lupinek and Achen, 2018). This is must to encourage the women in the country UK to
actively take part in sports of any kind. There are various arguments which support the statement
of Equal play, equal pay in football. This report will shed light on the various arguments which
supports the fact that the females must be treated equally as that of men in football.
Women’s Football must be treated equally with Men’s Football
Women’s Football is considered as the fastest growing sports in the world as more than 30
million women are playing football worldwide. The popularity of sports is also increasing among
the spectators. Though the popularity is growing rapidly, the payment received by the female
players is a small fraction of the payment got by male footballers. In football, there is a larger
pay gap seen as compared to other sports. This was observed that in 2017, the first team pay in
men rose to £2.64 million while in women it was only £26,752 (Clarkson, Cox and Thelwell,
2019). There were many campaigns organised by the women which was named as “Equal Play,
Equal Pay”. This means that the women must be paid equal to the payment of men.
The first argument which can be considered is the labour rights argument. This can be
highlighted as the women in the football team invest equal amount of time and energy in the
game as compared to the men. This is how; they must get the same salary. This means that equal
work must be resulted in equal pay. When the women in the sports team investing same amount
of energy and time and also doing equal work if not awarded with the same money is a clear case
of injustice. This can also be linked to the UK Equality Act 2010 and its chapter 3 (Clarkson and
et.al., 2021). This can be seen that the oppressed group is being disadvantaged as compared to
the privileged group. This is why, it is considered as the wrongful discrimination.
The second argument can be the argument of expressive power. This argument is not only
financially good but also morally good. This is because; it is also easy for the national
associations for paying male and female players equally. If the males and females in football are
paid equally, then this also equalise the professional as well as sporting value of the players. This
also gives a reason to the national associations for committing the equal pay for males and
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females. This helps in expressing the message that the women’s football is equally valuable as
the football of men (Culvin, 2019). The labour done by women deserves the equal wage along
with the economic and professional respect as compared to men’s labour. But also in some cases,
there are acts which have a good reason morally to be performed but there is not a particular
obligation for its performing. The expressive power of equal pay does not only facilitate the
women players but also helps in generating moral reason for the national associations for
committing to equal pay and also becoming a moral obligation for doing the same.
The third argument is basically focussed on the moral reasons which are grounded in the
national association’s history and their attitudes and actions towards the football of women.
These played a major role to hamper the women’s football. This was because of the distinction in
the commercial value between men’s and women’s football. This created the need for the
reparation of the women’s football. This is because if they are the reason behind the
underdevelopment of the women’s game then they must be responsible for its reparation as well.
This will help in sending message that the footballers are possessing equal sporting value (Dunn
and Welford, 2017). This will also help in repairing the injustice which was committed by the
associations against the women footballers. This not only does the harm to the association but the
overall game of the women. The main reason behind this is the historical injustice due to which
the women footballers are completely wronged. This is why, the effects of this injustice must be
mitigated.
The fourth argument is the structural injustices which were suffered by the women’s football.
To take centre stage for the women’s football, the leaders in the football must present their
leadership by analysing the role in the women’s football’s history and also by taking the duties of
reparation (Watson, 2018). Along with this, they must also take the political responsibility as the
major ingredient of the social connection responsibility model. This helps in making change by
approach of forward looking which helps in addressing the political responsibility. This is also
the responsibility to deal with the past as memory which greatly impacts the present. This is
having major effects on the history of sports as well as football. The young must not blame the
individuals they must call for the collective responsibility for making society more just (Archer
and Prange, 2019).
This is how, it can be said that female footballers must be treated equal to that of male
footballers in every aspect.
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CONCLUSION
This can be concluded from the above report that there must be no discrimination between
the football of women and that of men because both of them are devoting same amount of time
and energy to the game. The report focussed on the four different arguments which supported the
same statement. The first two arguments highlighted the ways in which women footballers must
get equal pay and rights while the other arguments focussed on the responsibilities of the
national associations for the same. This is how, the report analysed the topic by making use of
four arguments.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Archer, A. and Prange, M., 2019. ‘Equal play, equal pay’: moral grounds for equal pay in
football. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport. 46(3). pp.416-436.
Clarkson, B.G. and et.al., 2021. An institutional analysis of gender (in) equalities, covid-19 and
governance of elite women’s football in Australia, England and USA.
Clarkson, B.G., Cox, E. and Thelwell, R.C., 2019. Negotiating gender in the English football
workplace: Composite vignettes of women head coaches’ experiences. Women in Sport
and Physical Activity Journal. 27(2). pp.73-84.
Culvin, A., 2019. Football as work: The new realities of professional women footballers in
England (Doctoral dissertation, University of Central Lancashire).
Dunn, C. and Welford, J., 2017. Women’s elite football. Routledge Handbook of Football
Studies, pp.138-150.
Dwyer, B., Lupinek, J.M. and Achen, R.M., 2018. Challenge accepted: Why women play fantasy
football. Journal of Sport Management. 32(4). pp.376-388.
Watson, P.J., 2018. Colombia's Political Football: President Santos' National Unity Project and
the 2014 Football World Cup. Bulletin of Latin American Research. 37(5). pp.598-612.
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