Today, the sports world faces a paradox that, although interesting, urgently needs to be addressed. Last year saw a surge of interest in women’s sports—but despite that, many female athletes still aren’t paid as much as their male counterparts.
That “gender play gap” is especially glaring in professional basketball. In 2024, a record 2.4 million people tuned into the WNBA draft. Despite that, top players like Caitlin Clark still earn a rookie season salary amounting to less than $80,000. That’s around the same amount a hotel manager makes in a year.
“Women athletes make 21 times less [on average] than men athletes on the field of play,” Thayer Lavielle, executive vice president of the women’s advocacy group The Collective, explained. In the NBA, men make as much as 108 times more.
Now that we’re well into 2025, however, fans and athletes alike may be wondering if any sports have taken significant steps to bridge the gender pay gap this year. The good news is that some have—and others continue their years-long legacy of upholding pay parity. Here are five such sports where equal pay is currently in play:
Soccer
Soccer is another sport that’s slowly working to close the gender play gap. CNN reports that, globally, soccer’s professional women players only…
