The victory of women vs. men - what sparked the discussion in the media?
In this year's edition of the Tour de France Femmes, the prize money for first place was 50,000 euros. This sum, as the winner, was received by Katarzyna Niewiadoma together with the team. This information quickly generated controversy in the media, which resulted in numerous comparisons to earnings in the men's edition of the Tour de France. Men's earnings are 450,000 euros higher than women's. Netizens drew attention to the great financial disparities, as well as other details, which made the discussion oscillate around several main topics such as:
- real earnings after sharing the prize with the whole team,
- Disparities in the remuneration of men and women in sport
- the length and difficulty of the route to be covered,
- the popularity of women's cycling as a sports discipline.
By knowing these four fundamental aspects of the discussion, we can provide a broader context for women's earnings in sport.
Earnings system in cycling
Knowing how much the grand prize in a football tournament is, we may not be aware of how much the person who won the race will actually earn. Therefore, it is worth looking at the distribution of the entire sum won, since the winner divides it among the entire team. It includes, among others, the main riders, the manager, physiotherapists, etc. Cycling is a team sport, the success of which is worked and earned by the whole team, at individual stages of the competition, receiving appropriate salaries and bonuses. Finally, the amount obtained is divided between the team after deducting any penalties. Adding up all the bonuses, Unknown, along with the team, earned about 56,480 euros, which is about 254,160 PLN at the current exchange rate. Hearing about the prize itself, it is easy to make a mistake - it is not the sum that goes in full directly to the person who won the tournament.
Gender and Salary
However, the biggest hype caused by Unknown's win concerned not the prize settlement system itself, which is traditional in cycling, but the difference in earnings between the men's and women's Tour de France competitions. It turns out that the win in the men's edition of the race is almost ten times greater than that of the women's version; this year's winner, Tadej Pogačar, won 500 thousand euros for himself and his team. Such a large disparity in earnings automatically became a topic for discussion, which also concerned the presence of women in sports, the boards of individual disciplines and the popularity of women's competitions.
Differences in salary based on the route covered
The basic argument that proponents of the current monetary rate for women use is the distance that men travel. In fact, it is almost four times longer — it is about 3,400 km and is divided into 21 stages. In comparison, women cover a distance of about 946 km, which gives 8 stages. Defenders of the current remuneration system argue that the amount of the prize in the men's tournament is adequate to the length and time of the race route. The problem, however, is that the routes for women are set from above by two key organizations in the cycling world: the UCI (International Cycling Union) — International Cycling Union and ASO (Amaury Sport Organisation), which are responsible for how long the individual stages of the race are.
This problem was already highlighted in 2021 by one of the most important sports activists, race cyclist Kathryn Bertine, who highlighted the complexity of the problem faced by women in the sports environment: (...) men have five stages of the Tour de France over 200 km. Females have one stage with a length of 175 km. I am glad that the 5th stage of the women exceeds the “limit” of 160 km, but the ASO can do better with the equality of the stages. (...) We must pay attention to the hidden sexism: the UCI and the ASO still maintain the belief that women are not able to cover the same distance as men, therefore they are limited to shorter distances.
After three years, in this year's competition, the men's edition had four stages exceeding 200 km, however, in the women's edition there was still not a single one that exceeded this threshold. Changing the distances, to ones that would allow women to travel longer distances, would perhaps shorten the discussion and make it possible to achieve greater earnings.
However, the question arises about the adequacy of the criteria we use when evaluating the value of sports effort. The assumption that only longer distances, such as those covered by men, justify tenfold A higher salary seems unfair in itself. Even if biological differences can affect women's ability to overcome „men's” Of distances, the way we value men's victories over women's achievements is meaningless. This inequality in the evaluation of the athletic efforts of women and men applies not only to cycling, but also to other disciplines such as athletics. Tennis can also be an example — even though women play games to two winning sets and men to three, their earnings are gradually improving. However, the problem of inequality in salaries and the valuation of women's sporting achievements is still present in many disciplines.
The popularity of the Tour de France Femmes and its brief history
Another element in the discussion, intended to justify the lower earnings of female Tour de France riders, is the fact that the women's edition is much less known and watched than the men's edition, and therefore less funded. Indeed, the Tour de France Femmes has a very short and shaky history and much more limited opportunities to raise more cash that could allow for higher earnings. Cycling sponsors are mainly interested in the men's version of the tournament and this is usually where all the media attention is focused.
Famous competitions date back to the beginning of the 20th century, and the participation of men in this discipline, as in most sports, has a long-standing tradition. The first women's equivalent of the Tour de France was held once in 1955, and then sporadically appeared and disappeared until they finally returned — it seems, to make a permanent fixture in sporting life — in 2022 as the Tour de France Femmes. This came after multiple changes in the names, lengths and criteria of the women's cycling competition, which were intended to match the men's edition.
According to Canyon.com (official sponsor of the Tour de France): The first women's Tour de France (aptly named Tour de France Women) was held in 1984 and featured the same finish lines as the men's race. At the time, however, the UCI had rules about what distances women could cover and how much rest they were required to do. This led to the women running just 1,080km of the men's 4,000km race and having five days of rest during the 18 stages, as opposed to one day in the men's 23-stage race.
As an example of this history, we can look at the inequalities that have their roots in the old UCI regulations, and from which today's discriminatory schemes derive.
It is also worth asking yourself how women's sport, including cycling, has been promoted over the years, and where exactly the shortcomings in popularity arise: from the actual lack of interest (demand) or rather from the lack of adequate promotion in the media. According to UNESCO:
Women make up just 4% of media coverage about sports, and of this, more space is devoted to their physical appearance, family life and love life than their athletic abilities, while men are portrayed as strong, independent and valued as athletes. (Uneso.org)
As one of the reasons for the low participation of women in sports media coverage, UNESCO points to an equally small percentage of women working in journalistic positions, which influences the formation of the general message about sport. A much larger proportion of sports commentators are men, and this trend continues in most countries.
Women in Sports Organizations
The situation of women in leadership positions in sports organizations does not look any better: of the 31 largest sports organizations in the world, only 26.9% of management positions are held by women, and only 3 women serve as presidents of international federations (SIGA survey, 2023). A similar situation occurs in the Olympic movement, where of the 206 members of the National and International Olympic Committees, only 24 are headed by women. However, as noted by the Director General of SIGA (Global Alliance for Sport Integrity), an organization that promotes fairness, transparency and accountability in sport, since 2019 we have seen a gradual increase in the representation of women in executive bodies, despite a temporary decline in 2021.
Percentage distribution:
2019 - 18.3%
2021 - 17.8%
2022 - 26.9%
The lack of sufficient representation of women in sport has also been noticed by the cycling discipline, which in 2020 founded Women in Cycling, an initiative to increase equality and diversity in the cycling sector by creating opportunities for mentoring, networking, training or participation in conferences. The European Cyclists' Federation (ECF), from which Women in Cycling is derived, is actively involved in the European Parliament's initiatives on women in cycling. The ECF is collaborating on Parliament's own initiative reports on increasing participation and support for women in sport.
The problem of the lack of presence and visibility of women in sports organizations also exists in Poland, and this topic was recently taken up by MP Małgorzata Niemczyk, who said that the Ministry of Sport, together with a team of experts, is preparing a bill to guarantee that 30% of the boards of Polish sports associations are women. This decision is backed by concrete data: Poland in 2023 took third place from the end in the EU with 9.5% of women in management positions in national sports federations of the 10 most popular Olympic sports (which also includes cycling). These data were collected by EIGE (European Institute for Gender Equality), which in its research analyzes the percentage of women and men in managerial positions in national sports federations:
- among the 10 most popular Olympic sports,
- among the 10 Olympic sports with the highest funding,
- Olympic Committees.
According to the ministry's proposal, at least one representative of each gender must be represented on boards of two to five people. In boards of six or more persons, at least 30% of the seats should be occupied by women and at least 30% by men.
Looking at these data, it is also worth looking at the actual share of women in the Polish cycling board — according to data from the management board, it is 11% (1 woman per 9 people sitting on the board, in the position of vice president).
Changes on the horizon
Although the disparity in sport between men and women, including both earnings and national teams, is still huge, there is room for improvement, at least in the example of the continuation of the Tour de France Femmes. As Marione Rousse, director of the Women's Tour de France, admits:
For now, we are working out our economic model. We put it step by step. We build structures. The future of this race looks bright.
Even more optimistic seems to be Christian Prudhomme - general manager of the tournament:
We are here to create something lasting that will continue to exist in 100 years.
Despite verbal declarations and the desire to continue the Tour de France Femmes, it seems that the most credible and necessary change will be the one in the area of positions and salaries. An example of good practice can be another, smaller, but equally prestigious in the cycling world tournament - the Amstel Gold Race: During this year's race, the organizers equalized the prize money for women and men, resulting in both the men's and women's winner receiving 16,000 euros each. Similar actions have been taken before in the Tour of Flanders and Classic Brugge-De Panne.
Progress towards equality in sport is visible, but still insufficient. The Tour de France Femmes shows that women's cycling has huge potential, however, to fully exploit this potential, further changes in women's pay and representation are needed. Consistent action for equality should be based on the actions of activists, politicians and systemic changes to ensure that women's sporting success is reflected in earnings.
Sources:
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/a-closer-look-reveals-the-inequity-at-tour-de-france-femmes/
https://ecf.com/community/women-cycling
https://www.canyon.com/pl-pl/blog-content/wydarzenia/tour-de-france-femmes-2022/b15102021.html
https://www.unesco.org/en/gender-equality-women-empowerment-sports-and-science
https://www.pzkol.pl/1,wladze.html
https://www.cyclingnews.com/features/a-closer-look-reveals-the-inequity-at-tour-de-france-femmes/
https://demagog.org.pl/wypowiedzi/kobiety-w-organizacjach-sportowych-polska-odstaje-od-ue/
https://www.letour.fr/en/overall-route
Photo: Katarzyna Niewiedoma /JULIEN DE ROSA /AFP /AFP
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