How are male and female athletes treated differently?

Answer 1

by their pay and their popularity!

You don't see alot of Candice Parker jerseys!

But you do see alot lf LeBron James Jersey's

Traditionally more money is plunged into male sports. TV broadcasts, better pay (and often huge paychecks), more promotions of male altheletes and the games they participate in and long standing ideas that women's sports don't sell all lead to large standing differences in how they are treated.

This starts at the elementary school level. I'm not sure about the state of funding today, but in the past funding sports was aimed primarily at young boys. The notion was it was more important for boys than girls to participate in team sports. I believe this has changed somewhat since the '60s. Most women did not strive to become professional athletes because there was no outlet for their talent once they left the school level. If there are no professional teams to play on, there are no jobs to be had and no reason to continue in that sport.

The fact you don't see Candice Parker jerseys but you see Lebron James jerseys is evidence of a traditional bias towards male athletes. Sports casters, people who fund big sporting events, clothing manufactorers etc have often trivialised female athletes. It really hasn't been until the 1990's that there has been a shift in this attitude.There are professional women's teams now, plus funding to promote women in sports. But it takes a long time to create a strong fan base. Face it, professional sports is about money - sponsors want a return on their dollar so they go with the sure thing rather than promote the smaller games.

It takes a very long time for attitudes to change about this and strong funding plus the backing of major broadcasters will help.