Current Connection: 3.2

In an ancient article by James K. Gentry and Raquel Meyer Alexander, journalists for The New York Times, entitled “Pay for Women’s Basketball Coaches Lags Far Behind That of Men’s Coaches,” Gentry and Alexander notifies the change in the coaches’ salaries over the years, reasons why the men get paid more than the women, and how the women possibly “get cheated” in their pay compared to the men.

Embedded in the text, Gentry and Alexander wrote, “…the median salary for [men] coaches [during 2010] was $329,300, nearly twice that of [women] coaches… who had a median of $171,600.  Over the past four years, the median pay of men’s… increased by 40 percent compared with the 28 percent [of women’s]…”  The clarity of this quote creates confusion because if the men are getting paid twice as much than the women, why is the percent of increase fairly higher for men than women?  Men are already getting paid more than women, so why should their salary increase be higher?

Pat Summitt and the Lady Volunteers

In reference to the article, Gentry and Alexander noted, “… the vast majority of women’s programs at large universities are not successful financially, while men’s basketball teams are…”  Their minds processing alike, people would rather watch men play basketball than women.  Everybody is aware about that fact!  In this predicament, the quote essentially states that any circumstance involving women will not be worth what men do.

Equally important, Gentry and Alexander declared, “…contracts are often structured so [men] coaches perform more additional duties beyond simply coaching.”  Seriously, what more do the men have to do to get paid two times more than the women?  Even though the quote goes on to say that “the men are required to make 20 appearances a year at alumni events, while the [women are] required to make 15,” the five-appearance difference should not require an immense pay for the men, exemplifying how the women are robbed financially.

Individually, I express a relationship with the article because the men basketball coaches at the junior high theoretically get paid more than the women for the same reasons the article mentioned: they coach football (an additional duty) and they are simply men.  In support of a text, I can allude this passage to an episode of SportsCenter I watched that discussed the salary cap of male and female coaches in the NBA, WNBA, and NCAA.  In a worldwide perspective, no matter if the profession is teaching or medicine, the pay is proportionally the same for men to women, even though doctors get paid much more than teachers.

In summary, women typically cannot make more money than men do.  As sad as this epidemic is, I only see one way that women can make more money: wait patiently until a global raise showers down from the heavens.

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Work Cited

Gentry, James K., and Raquel M. Alexander. "Pay for Women’s Basketball Coaches Lags Far                    Behind That of Men’s Coaches." The New York Times. 6 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.