equality or disparity?

John McEnroe regretted immediately saying Serena Williams would be ranked "700 in the world" if she played the men – but he still said it! Should that comparison ever be made? Serena made no request to play with the men, she was content beating all the women. Equality is a difficult and contentious issue; in its simple format you would not say a 75kgs weight class power lifter would be ranked 700th if he had to lift in the 120kgs weight group - that’s not equality, that’s disparity. It’s not, as McEnroe went on to say, comparing apples with apples as he back peddled. This type of equality is not about performance, this type of comparison needs to be on a level playing field, comparing apples with apples to be relevant. However, equality that does get tricky is the equity that revolves around revenue. I am sure those that are participating in some obscure sport like climbing work as hard if not harder than those who say play baseball, but they have no equality of scale in terms of payment because of the revenue those sports bring in, but when you have a specific sport where both men and women have a huge following then equality should obviously be given - the lack of equality should have nothing to do with gender – but everything to do with revenue. In the last issue of Adventure, Annabel Anderson waxed eloquent about why some women were excluded from some events just because they are women – even the NZ Ultimate Waterman, which had over a million dollars of government funding only had men in it. When the organiser was confronted about this issue; Greg Townsend – then current CEO of Surfing NZ - took the mature stand of not responding but continued to run the event year after year excluding women. Annabel has continued her fight for equality for women in terms of inclusion and in many areas, it has started to pay off. The recent Heavy Water competition, where she was originally excluded, has now decided to include women due to the pressure of Annabel’s demands. Surprisingly she has not been invited, despite the fact that she is world number one, you would think she would be first pick. But the squeaky wheels do not always get the grease. However, it seems like the planets are starting to align and the WSL (the World Surfing League) has just given women’s parity in prize money which is a huge step forward. It was not that long ago that when women were surfing on the world tour photographers would take down their gear and have lunch. There was outrage a few years back when Billabong New Zealand ran a bikini contest at one of the national surf contests and the prize money for the bikini contest was greater than the first place in the girls surf competition. The wheels of change are turning slowly and positively. Now with the combination of social pressure and the standard or women surfing improving off the scale they are providing as much content on the world stage as the men -thus…. revenue – so of course pay them the same. Equality is a difficult concept, it’s clear and simple in terms of civil rights or who gets to live where or what rights you should have, but when it comes to sport those lines are blurred and to be honest rightly so – should the Black Ferns get paid as much as the All Blacks? No. Not because of a lack of effort or skill or because they are female, but simply because of the income they create - if they created the same about of revenue as the All Blacks then yes. The last issue of Adventure opened our eyes as to how significant women are to our adventure industry – it is no longer the strong hold of men; in many ways women are leading the way forward for the industry, meeting the challenges, breaking new ground, and creating an environment where all can be equal, all can contribute, and all can be part of this expanding community. It is our hope that the Adventure community can continue to lead the way for real equality and equity because adventure is for everyone. Steve Dickinson - Editor