It may only be R4000, but the decision from a South African Brand to stand up against the Word Surf League’s policies speaks volumes.
When organisers from the Ballito Pro announced the individual winners of the 2018 Billabong Junior Series this week, they had no idea that it would cause a social media tsunami that would turn into front page news across the world.
And the world can’t quite understand how the organisers missed the blatant disparity in prize money between the male and female winners.
Photographed side by side, the winners – Rio Waida from Indonesia and Zoe Steyn from South Africa – held aloft their giant novelty cheques, except the man’s was worth twice the value of the woman’s.
The event organisers and Billabong both said the World Surf League (WSL) determined the prize money and they were committed to gender equality.
“The Ballito Pro maintains its stance as a pro-gender equality competition, which is evident from the ongoing development of the women’s series year-on-year,” the organisers said.
“Based on this commitment to equality, we are meeting with all relevant stakeholders to discuss how any potential discrepancies can be resolved. The WSL is the sanctioning body for WSL-aligned surfing events such as the Ballito Pro. The WSL implements certain criteria to determine surf ratings and prize money, and we have formally requested a detailed outline of this process for future discussion.”
On Facebook, a post by the event organisers received more than 2,000 comments, mostly condemning the pay disparity.
Paula van Niekerk commented: “As noble as that is, the Ballito pro organizers should have identified this disparity and addressed it before the public needed to get involved before action was taken. Was the hope here for this to go unnoticed? If it took all of an hour for the public to show outrage, surely some of your staff noticed this beforehand?”
Jessica Du Toit Stockhall added: “It was your competition, you cannot simply try to deflect the attention and accountability away from this matter by blaming someone else. Do the responsible thing and accept the role you played in the completely discriminatory awarding of prize money, apologize and correct your error. Shifting the blame and focus only makes you look bad.”
Stephanie de Rapper said: “Privledge is not knowing that you’re hurting others and not listening when they tell you – Dashanne Stokes… Do better Ballito Pro! Pay Zoe Steyn what she deserves, EQUAL PAY! What are you demonstrating to young women athletes? That sexism is alive and well in surfing albeit that the governing Organization is managed by a female CEO? Ignoring the disparity in pay and not fighting to make a change yourselves renders you guilty of this horrendous act of inequality. Do better!”
Surfing South Africa’s general manager, Robin De Kock, told Cape Talk it would fight against any unfair pay practices and that it was unusual for men and women to be paid differently at the amateur level.
“Women and men pay the same entry fee, so they should get the same prize money,” De Kock said. “We are not going to let this rest. It is an embarrassment to surfing.”
But still, even with all the headlines and conversations happening around the world, none of the brands involved in the Ballito Pro did the obvious to offer the difference in money to Zoe.
Until now.
BOS, one of the headline sponsors of the Ballito Pro released a statement on Thursday 28 June that they will be filling in the #GenderPayGap prize difference and have also made a commitment to challenge other partnerships in the future.
“This has been a big wake up call for all of us here at BOS. We’re sorry that we did not investigate the way the prize money gets allocated by the WSL before the event. Yesterday we made a statement that we are engaging with the other partners in this event, and also that we as a team were looking at our internal checklists and criteria of event partnerships.
The methodology that the WSL uses explains that they pay prize money that reflects the number of entries per category and they apply that consistently across the board.
However, the results of their policy application can potentially and unnecessarily send harmful messages about the value of boys and girls achievements in sport and we want to address this directly.
As the presenting sponsor of the Billabong Junior Surf Series, we have the ability to make a change in our own backyard/beach.
BOS will pay the difference in prize money for this event to reflect equal prize money for equal titles. Going forward, we also commit that we will only sponsor events that pay equal prize money for an equal title.”
We want to thank BOS for stepping up to the plate, and even though it’s “only” R4000, the decision to stand up against the Word Surf League’s policies speaks volumes.
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