Why Men Get Paid More Than Women

The Garrett Ashley Mullet Show

I recently came across a YouTube short of Spanish tennis pro Rafael Nadal being asked why the best women tennis players are paid less. His answer both amuses and intrigues me, including the refreshing admission that he doesn't know, but also looping in other sports, and even the fashion industry, where the top female models make more than the top male models.

Let's take this question a bit further, though, and talk about why top athletes of either of the two sexes make so much money for playing sports, and how this has to do with the selling of tickets and merchandise, as well as advertising and sponsorships.

So why would male athletes make more money from sponsorships than female athletes typically do? Part of this comes back again to the question of ticket sales and merchandising, which is directly the result of popular interest in watching men or women play sports.

I think there may be more as well, though, related to the traditional, historical, and biological role men in functional societies typically play, as providers and protectors, even as the role of women is typically keeping the home, and both having and caring for children.

This is not all just a factor of who can or cannot naturally have babies. It's also about the effect of testosterone on bone and muscle mass, stature, and default aggressiveness, as well as risk tolerance.

In other words, men are perceived or assumed to be more likely to filter out sponsorships they believe present unnecessary risks to health and safety of women and children, and the general public, as well as those sponsorships they believe to be of poor quality, and thus representing a low return on investment where value added is concerned.

That is, men are more disposed to asking the question of "What are you doing here?" And this is because they are more capable of taking action to neutralize threats, to themselves and others under their care, as well as being more likely to push through less ideal opportunities for provision in favor of the best option.

This factoring in a more or less unspoken way in our individual and collective psychology, common sense would tell us we are more drawn to men as sponsors where concerns about provision and protection come into play relative product safety and effectiveness concerns, very prevalent in our day.

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