Despite giving a greater performance or obtaining more achievements than men, women have a constant struggle in search of pay equity. The world champion, Tica Yokasta Valle, talks to us about how to eradicate this situation:
“Proportional wages have always been discussed within the reach of the Tico public and the sports fans, it is falsely said that men earn more because they have a greater ability. Now, little by little, women have been making themselves notice, but there is still a bit of discrimination in giving us that equality of competing and being able to show ourselves”.
Equal pay
“Now I don’t think it’s a utopia and I think that Costa Rica is a very incredible case in that sense where the sport of boxing has been dominated and those of us who have been the fans lately are women, giving extraordinary results. Of course, we have to translate that support into equal pay and that the contribution we have given becomes an economic reality; I may not be able to do it, but I hope that future generations have a better chance”.
Yokasta adds: “I am working every day to make that change, everything I do I do to become the best and represent my country in the best way, I think there is a lot of sports policy missing and to give more benefit to companies that sponsor athletes.”
“Women undoubtedly have more exciting fights, I think it has to do with the fact that we only have two minutes per round, unlike men which rounds are three minutes long, which gives them more time to develop a strategy. Instead, we are more than what we came for because we have one minute less to work, so we have to make the most of the time making the fights more dynamic and aggressive”.
What path remains to be traveled to achieve equality for women in sport, both amateur and professional?
“Educating people, in the end they are the ones who have the true power, those who buy a ticket or those who watch a fight, they are the ones who determine what the market pays but I think that the fans do not know that they have that power, for what you have to let them know that they are the ones in charge”.
