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A former LPGA player has called on female athletes to SUE sports media companies in order to get equal coverage to their male counterparts.
Anya Alvarez, 28, has become a powerful advocate for women’s sport and equal rights since trading a life of playing golf for a living for being a journalist instead. Her work has appeared in the likes of ESPN, Rolling Stone, VICE, GOOD, and Teen Vogue.
She is also the founder of MajorLeague Girls, a website “dedicated to girls who love and play sport”.
Fresh from a Golfweek story reporting that seven-time major winner Juli Inkster will have no sponsors for the second consecutive season, Alvarez tweeted:
I honestly believe female athletes should sue sports media companies for equal coverage -- I state this because it's not only an unequal coverage issue, it's that lack of coverage leads to unequal pay and unequal opportunities for sponsorships
— Anya Alvarez 🏌🏾♀️ (@anya__alvarez) March 13, 2018
Therefore, it's an #EqualPay issue
As you can imagine, that received a significant number of replies, including:
Respectfully, it is a supply and demand issue. There are some women sports that people don't care that much about so it doesn't justify the coverage or lack thereof. I am all for equal pay / rights etc. Lawsuit would be hard to win IMO.
— SeanO (@Oakzilla) March 13, 2018
To her credit, Alvarez had an excellent reply lined up.
I’m receiving a lot of comment of: women don’t drive the same interest to garner equal coverage in sports.
— Anya Alvarez 🏌🏾♀️ (@anya__alvarez) March 14, 2018
Well, my friends, they’re not given the opportunity for an audience to ever know who they are
Three-time Solheim Cup captain Inkster – 31 times a winner on the LPGA – will play without any significant commercial support this season.
“It frustrates the hell out of me,” she told Golfweek. “It’s not like I’m not in the limelight. It’s not like I don’t get on TV. It’s not like I’m bad at pro-ams or speeches.”
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