Monday, June 26, 2006

Separate but equal

Venus Williams claims that Wimbledon treats "women as second class" because women are not paid the same prize money as the men. To be honest, I couldn't care less what women and/or men are paid at Wimbledon, but it strikes me as odd to demand equality, but to want to maintain a separate men's and women's competition. Surely equality would require that men and women all compete for the one prize?

Having said that, I can't understand why Wimbledon insists on holding out on this one. Do those who run the tournament fear that the leading men will stop coming to play if the women get an equal share of the loot? It's not like the old days when women's tennis was so dull that you'd rather watch a repeat of the test pattern.