Are women more likely to get equal treatment in sports where men and women can compete together? Why / Why not? (Page 2)

[joeldalton]

I mean if you never want another woman to win a sporting competition let them compete with men.

[Anonymous]

What exactly does "equal treatment in sports" mean?

[Asker]

Maybe equal pay, equal respect, equal popularity with the public. Along any lines really was just interested in people's thoughts on whether competing together makes a difference.

[Opinion Owner]

Equal pay - only if they can bring in equal revenue, because that's where their pay comes from. Athletes get paid for the revenue they generate, and there are very few sports where female athletes can come even close to male athletes in that respect, so equal pay for female athletes is not warranted in the vast majority of sports.

Equal respect - respect is earned, not given. Both male and female athletes get the respect they earn, period. Female athletes get much more respect when they compete against other female athletes. If they played together, the female athletes would get virtually no respect at all, just like male athletes who perform poorly compared to more successful male athletes get no respect. For example, if we put female and male basketball players on the court together, the females would be utterly destroyed and would get zero respect. Another example is mixed doubles tennis where each team has a male and a female. There are always mixed doubles matches at major tennis events but relatively few people watch them and they are not a significant draw for ticket sales. And if you've ever watched one you'd know the females are tokens in those matches. The power and talent in those matches is the males, and the only reason the females are able to participate is because it is the nature of doubles tennis that power and speed are not needed because each player is mostly confined to half the court, and where power and speed are needed the males are there to cover it.

[Opinion Owner]

Equal popularity - no one can control popularity because we can't control what people want to watch or how they want to spend their money, and the simple fact is there is and always will be far less demand for female sports. There are some notable exceptions like soccer/football and tennis, but even in those sports the male athletes are much more interesting to watch, and thus draw much bigger crowds and more money. That will always be the case. It's like kids sports versus adult sports... the only people who really care to watch kids compete are there parents, other family members and friends. No one wants to pay big money to watch kids sports, and the same is generally true of women's sports.

[WhitneySnow]

I think it would help

[Brando10222]

There should be mixed competitions in some sport