Women have come so far! – A look into the development of gender inequalities in tennis

Hello and welcome! This is number 1 of a 6 part series looking into the link between media ecology and gender inequalities in the world of tennis. First up, below is a timeline of the developments in gender inequalities over history, pointing out all the biggest moments!

“Women are not done yet”

– Billie Jean King

• First Ladies Wimbledon Championship

  1884 – The first ever Women’s grand slam was held In London UK, with 16 women competing (Wagg, 2011) This came under heavy criticism from the rest of the world at the time with contrasting opinions.

• Women in the Olympics

  1900 – The Paris Olympics was the first one to allow women to compete in there own category (Pierper & Grieger, 2023), competing in tennis, golf, sailing, croquet and equestrianism (DeFranz, 1997)

• Dress code progression

  1914 – Thanks to the work of tennis icon Suzanne Lenglen, this was the origin of women beginning to wear more conformable and sport suitable clothing. From this point trends and rule changes came thick and fast. (Wagg, 2011)

• Open era founded

  1968 – This is when tennis became a professional sport, however men were able to have independent tournaments but women were not at this time (Turner & Pluim, 2007). The sport was taken much more seriously and formally in the mens game and had much more media coverage and attention.

• WTA was founded

  1970 – The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) was founded, formalising women’s professional tennis, and allowing independent tournaments for women’s tennis as well (Oertel, 1995). From this point women’s tennis began to have increased attention on the worlds stage.

• Men’s best of 5 sets

  1972 – Men begin to play best of 5 sets in all grand slams where women continue playing best of 3. It was debated weather this was unfair to males or females, and it was concluded women were unable to play this length of match due to a lower physical ability (Davis & Edwards, 2017)

• First equal pay for women in tennis

  1973 – After a boycott from Billie Jean King the tennis US open became the first ever sporting event to have equal pay for women and men (Treimen & Hartmann, 1991)

• First female to reach £1M earnings

  1982 – Martina Navratilova becomes the first ever women to reach £1M, but whilst this is a great achievement, it came 12 years after Rod Laver, the first male to reach this level of miles stones (Scovel, 2023).

• Women’s equal pay across the board

  2007 – The French Open and Wimbledon join the the other slams making all Grand Slams equal prize money for men and women (Flake, Dufur & Moore, 2013). At this point previsions were also made to ensure men and women get equal time on centre court during the tournament (Branch, 2014).

• Equal TV Contract for ATP and WTA

  2023 – Both men’s and womwen’s tennis sign an equal 5 year TV coverage deal with Sky sports. This deal outlined an equal level of coverage for the same money for both ATP and WTA (SkySports.com, 2023) The first time both men’s and women’s tennis has had completely equal TV rights.

• Dress code change for women

  2023 – Women at Wimbledon are now allowed to were dark clothing during match play. This rule has not changed for men so the exceptions been made for women. (Allred, 2023)

And that’s a wrap! Thank you for reading and let me know what you thought down in the comments below. Next weeks Blog will look further into the effect the media had on these sporting Milestones.