Women's Golf Apparel: A Soft Symbol of Sexes Disparity in Sports

There used to be a disparity between men's professional sports and women's professional sports. The major disparity was in the cash prizes for women's professional sports. It used to be that the prize money difference was more than half of what men used to get, then what women were receiving. This rebellion against such differences was done in the field of tennis, with the ringleaders being Billie Jean King and Rosie Casals who in 1973 organized what is now the Women's Tennis Association. By getting majority of the women tennis players on board, eventually, the prize money was increased to more acceptable levels and just recently, in the last ten years or so, this disparity has slowly disappeared. Now, in the major grand slam events, equal prize money is given to the men and women's singles tournament competition. This parity now has some form of criticism as in the major grand slam tournaments like the Australian Open, The French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, men have to play the best five set matches, while women only have to play best of three matches. While silently, there may be mutterings of the tournament format, the importance of having same cash prizes for both men and women events is that it puts a premium and prestige for all the hard work and practice hours women sports professionals undertake as well. After all, they do the same amount of work and practice, if not more as men do.

The other disparity that has been changing in recent years is corporate sponsorships for female sports professionals. From a business point of view, it is believed that woman's sports apparel outsells than that of their opposite sex. After all, there are more women than men in the world. A great example is women's golf apparel. These days, as more women are getting into golf- a sport that was predominantly male until the last 30 years, the rise of sales of women's sports apparel worldwide can also be attributed by the new faces of women's golf that have been sponsored by major sports apparel. For Europe, Annika Sorenstram and Lorena Ochoa of Sweden and Spain respectively are major draws in tournaments and are familiar faces when it comes to big corporate sponsorship. In Asia, Grace Park has been a great influence for females taking up the sport and one of Asia's greatest corporate endorser. The United States recently has Michelle Wie, a protégée of sorts and recently has won her first LPGA tournament. These professionals, along with others, have helped the sales of women's golf apparel increase not just by how they play, but how they look, and which continents they represent.