Paying the way: the ticket to gender equality in sports

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  August, 2004  by Michelle R. Hebl,  Traci A. Giuliano,  Eden B. King,  Jennifer L. Knight,  Jenessa R. Shapiro,  Jeanine L. Skorinko,  Anjali Wig

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After listening to the audio clip, participants answered a series of questions, and responded on a 7-point Likert scale that ranged from 1 (Not at All) to 7 (Extremely). The participants rated the team using the six questions from Study 2. The average responses comprised a Total Positivity index ([alpha] = .82).

Participants also made relative evaluations of the men's and women's teams by answering the following questions: (1) "How do you think the Bearcats compare to the Lady Bearcats, overall?." (2) "How do you think the Bearcats compare to the Lady Bearcats in ability?," and (3) "How do you think the Bearcats compare to the Lady Bearcats in filling the stadium with fans?" These three items comprised a Relative Positivity index on which higher averages indicated the relative superiority of the men's team ([alpha] = .78).

As a manipulation check, participants were asked to recall the ticket price and gender of the featured team. After they completed the questionnaire, the participants were thanked and debriefed online.

Results

A 3 (price of women's ticket relative to men's: lower, equal, higher) X 2 (gender of participant: man, woman) between-subjects ANOVA was utilized for each of the two dependent variables, Relative Positivity and Total Positivity. For the former construct, the results indicated a main effect for relative ticket price, F(2, 69) = 4.09, p < .05, such that the women's teams were rated worst compared to the men's teams when their ticket prices were lower than men's (M = 2.47, SE = .21), and best compared to men's teams when their ticket prices were higher than the men's (M = 3.26, SE = .19). Tukey tests indicated that the difference between these conditions was significant (p < .05), but that neither the high nor low conditions differed significantly from the condition in which ticket prices were equal for men and women (M = 2.90, SE = .20). There were no other significant effects for the Relative Positivity dependent variable, and there were no significant effects for the Total Positivity composite.

Discussion

The results of Study 3 indicated that when individuals are given objective evidence of a women's team's ability (i.e., audio presentation of a game), their absolute ratings of the team are not influenced by the relative price of tickets compared to men's. However, relative differences in the price of tickets did influence the relative ratings of the women's team compared to the men's team. In other words, when women's tickets cost less than men's tickets, the women's team was rated lower than the men's team. When the cost of women's tickets was greater than the cost of men's tickets, the women's and men's teams were considered equivalent in ability and fan support. As such, the results provide evidence of the consequences of the disparity in ticket price that was found in Study 1. These data also clarify the generalizability of the results of Study 2 by considering relative prices in a more externally valid experiment.