The Game Was Never Fair: Sports, Sexism and the Fight for Equality

Sports, Sports, Sports. Excuse me if I do not repeat it a gazillion times in an overtly sexual tone, like we know who. Sydney Sweeney, on her another quest to do everything in her power to push feminism back, embarked to star in an ad for ‘Novig’ ( a sports prediction market). She is seen provocatively using different sports personas to sell the platform by directly catering to the male gaze. The ad sparked a wide controversy online; however, a specific category of men online(they rhyme with ‘tinsel’) chose to support her and praise her bold choice. The conversation shouldn’t be whether her choice is to be applauded or not, it should be about the wider problem women face that the ad conveniently chooses to gloss over.

 Let’s take this opportunity to finally shift our focus towards sport, specifically women in sports.

Before Sydney Sweeney, in that horrifically sexual ad, reduced sports to a sterile playground devoid of cultural politics and struggle but filled to the brim with the male sexual gaze repackaged as empowerment. Despite what the ad says, Sports was always political.

Sports has always been a site of struggle for women. Historically, our female predecessors had to fight to even participate. Centuries of oppression, which inevitably bled into the sports world, categorically forced women out until the Open Era demanded reforms. These reforms, repackaged as concessions for women, are still far from equal when compared to their male counterparts. The most striking disparity is visible in the revenue pay gap.

None of the 50 highest-paid athletes in 2026 are women. In the earlier top-100 list, Cristiano Ronaldo led at $260 million. The top woman, Coco Gauff, earned $30.4 million, which would have ranked around #125. The global gender gap was 69.2% closed in 2026, up 0.4 percentage points from the previous year, across 145 economies. At the current pace, full parity is still about 120 years away. All the numbers invariably show the inherent oppression still masked under the systems. So, when questioned about the said disparity, what is the defence thrown around callously? Men bring in the money!

However, how valid is this argument when contextualised with relevant data? In 2023, women were about 40% of professional athletes but received only 15% of sports coverage. Less than 1% of sponsorships go to women. In the UK in 2025, women’s sport was only 8% of prime-time sports broadcasts but delivered 13% of prime-time sports viewing hours, according to the Women’s Sport Trust. The Trust calls the gap between exposure and demand structural. At the 2015 and 2023 World Cups, the men’s and women’s payout ratio was large. In football, the ratio for the World Cup payout was 17.5 to 1, even though the US women’s team out-earned the men’s team for US Soccer over three years. One analysis notes that women’s sports get more coverage than before but not less objectification and sexism.

Men are allocated more funds in areas such as equipment, training and resources, and are ultimately marketed as the prime tournament players, whereas women are pushed to the sidelines by this very system and are blamed when they don’t bring in viewership. The game is not only rigged but was also specifically built to favour men.

For decades, women have fought and are still fighting for the same dignity and opportunity as men. They are measured against a higher standard and face greater scrutiny without proportionate compensation in return. Sports personalities like Mike Tyson and Kobe Bryant can face sexual assault charges and still have wildly successful careers, whereas Simone Biles gets cancelled for taking a break for mental health reasons. This isn’t mere hypocrisy; it’s the rigged system showing us the ugly truth.

The Sydney Sweeney ad isn’t just frustrating because of its sexually explicit undertones; it outright dismisses all the hardships and turmoil women went through to fight for the same dignity as men.

Women have transformed sport through record-breaking performance and sheer determination. Serena Williams won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in world championship history, and Katie Ledecky collected nine Olympic golds in swimming. Pioneers like Kathrine Switzer, who ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, and Billie Jean King, who fought for equal prize money, opened doors for others. Paris 2024 became the first Olympics with equal numbers of male and female athletes. Indian women have shone too: Mary Kom won six world boxing titles, P.V. Sindhu earned two Olympic medals, and Manu Bhaker won two bronzes at a single Games. Meanwhile, women’s elite sport revenue is projected to reach about $3 billion in 2026, up from under $700 million in 2022, proving that talent and audiences grow together when women are given the opportunity.

In spite of these facts, a woman athlete still has to prove her place at the table while lobotomised performers use the same iconography for their next paycheque, actively belittling the hardship behind it.

The truth is simple: women never lacked talent, only opportunity. Every record broken and every medal won has happened despite a system that starved them of airtime, sponsorship and pay, then blamed them for the results. The Sydney Sweeney ad shows how little has changed. While female athletes fight to be seen for their strength, the sporting body is still sold back to us as something to look at, not something that performs. When women are given a prime-time slot, audiences show up. When they are given investment, revenue grows. The “men bring in the money” excuse collapses the moment we ask who was handed the stage in the first place. Equality in sport is not a favour. It is a debt owed to every woman who laced up her boots when the world told her to sit down. Broadcast her, fund her, pay her, then watch her win.