It is no surprise that women face discrimination, whatever field it may be. They are either paid less or do not enjoy the same job benefits as men do. As a woman, one always comes across a glass ceiling, beyond which it is almost impossible to progress. It looks like the tentacles of discrimination have even managed to grasp women in the field of cycling.
Whatever sport it may be, boxing, cricket, badminton, or soccer, women athletes are paid less than their male counterparts. Similar is the case with cycling. With the recent tour de France, it is revealed that women were paid 3 times less than male athletes. It is rather shocking that for every euro paid to a women athlete, the men made €3.47 (3.55$).
Now one would argue that Tour de France male’s duration was more than the Tour de France femmes, which in itself is another discrimination. TDF Femmes had only 8 stages while TDF Male lasted around 21 stages. The TDF male 2022 marked its 109th edition while TDF Femmes has only just resumed after 33 years.
If we make a comparison of the prize money for both events, the amount mounted to €2,257,000 (2,297,468.01 $) for the male part of the event, while the female event had an award of €247,000 (251,511.46 $), which is little than 10th part of the male prize.
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Jonas Vingegaard ( Jumbo-Visma) our star from TDF grazed around €779,750 (793,664.64 $), while Annemiek van Vleuten ( Team Movistar), winner of TDF Femmes collected around €62,440 (63,578.91 $). When it comes to the followers, Tour de France created much more hype with a rough estimate of around 4 million viewers on every stage. The stage at Alpe d’Huez managed to rake in an audience of 8.4 million, which is admirable. On the other hand, TDF Femmes had a viewing of 3 million people on every stage.
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There is no doubt that women are contributing to the art of cycling as much as men. With 2023 fast approaching, can we expect this discrimination to end? It is about time that women get paid their fair share.
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Featured Image Via/ radiotourdefrance
