It has now been two years since Maria Verschoor and Josine Koning made their call for equal salaries in men’s and women’s field hockey. In the ‘Salary Gap’ series, we examine what has changed since then. We kick off with Pinoké. The club from the Amsterdam Forest set itself the goal two years ago of eliminating inequality by 2025, but has yet to achieve that ambition.
Pinoké’s women are currently fourth in the league. Their first participation in the playoffs in club history is within reach. The men, on the other hand, are eighth. For them, the harsh reality is that the playoffs are far out of sight. Yet the budget of Ladies 1 is still far below that of Men 1.
Astrid Ventevogel, the former president of the Squirrels, promised to work hard on the disparity in salaries between male and female players in April 2023. Her words were clear in the interview she gave at the time. ‘We are deeply ashamed that the difference in salaries between our men and our women is still so great. It is time for change. We make the promise that we are going to eliminate this difference, without taking away salary from the men,’ promised Ventevogel, a woman with a big heart for equal treatment. It was clear by then, however, that she would resign her presidency a few months later, as her five-year term had expired.
The plans were promising. Pinoké did not necessarily aim to completely eliminate the budget gap between Ladies 1 and Men 1 by 2025. The goal was worded differently: players with the same resume, regardless of gender, should be paid the same salary. So, a 28-year-old right back from Ladies 1 with ten internationals to her name should earn as much as a 28-year-old right back from Men 1 who also played ten internationals.
Former Pinoké president Astrid Ventevogel. Photo: Willem Vernes
Striving to eliminate the gap by 2025 proved too ambitious. That’s how honest we have to be Marjolijn Meynen, Pinoké board member communications
Two years later, the conclusion is crystal clear. That goal has not been achieved. A lot of work has been done, initiatives have been rolled out, but the gap in salaries is far from closed. Eliminating the disparity completely within two years proved to be a bridge too far, concludes Marjolijn Meynen, board member of communications at Pinoké. ‘The goal of eliminating the disparity by 2025 proved too ambitious. That’s how honest we have to be. That does not alter the fact that the ambition remains the same. We want to eliminate the difference, but that is clearly a long-term issue. We are taking small steps.’ What those small steps mean in practice remains vague. Pinoké does not share concrete figures.
The intentions are certainly not lacking, Meynen tries to make clear. Internally, the issue of unequal payments is certainly on the agenda, she says. Fifty percent of the club’s contribution to top field hockey goes to the men and fifty percent to the women. Also, income from sponsors who indicate they have no preference as to where their money goes is divided equally between Men’s 1 and Women’s 1. But that was already the case in previous years.
30,000 euros raised with the Sisterhood
The difference in the budgets lies in the contribution of sponsors who indicate for which team their money is intended, the so-called earmarked sponsors. Pinoké still has many more for the men than for the women. To fill that gap, the club founded Sisterhood, the business club for Ladies 1, two years ago. Meynen was one of the catalysts behind this initiative.
But in practice, the work being done turns out to be just a drop in the bucket. The amount raised last year through the Sisterhood’s more than one hundred sponsors: about 30,000 euros. A nice amount, but not nearly enough to close the gap with the men’s budget. That difference is probably several tons, when you look at the average budgets in the Tulip big league. Although Pinoké makes no announcements about that.
Pinoké player Maria Steensma now has seven international matches to her name. Photo: Bart Scheulderman
It takes time to establish the story around the team and build the community Marjolijn Meynen, board member communication of Pinoké
It immediately shows the difficulty in this whole discussion. Meynen herself is clear about it: ‘We have a larger group of loyal sponsors for Men’s 1. We don’t have them to the same extent for the women now. That’s just a fact. We are working hard on that, but building sponsor relationships takes time. We believe very much in the power of a community that wants to build together, like the Sisterhood, for example.’
Meynen also points to the development of the men’s team in recent years. Heren 1’s budget didn’t come about overnight, either. Between 2014 and 2020, the team battled relegation. The arrival of a golden batch from the team’s own youth then triggered something, after which the selection could be supplemented with expensive top foreign players, including penalty corner cannon Alexander Hendrickx. That mix eventually proved to be the recipe for winning the national title (2023) and the Euro Hockey League (2024).
Meynen: “Building sponsor relationships takes maybe seven or eight years. With the women, we are only two years in now from the idea of equal pay. It just takes time, among other things to establish the story around the team and to build the community. We are busy doing that now. But the vibe around Ladies 1 has already clearly improved.
by Hockey.nl
