Only 2 women made this list of 50. And that's not good enough.

Out of the top 50 richest sports people in Australia, only two are women.

A list of Australia’s top 50 sports earners for 2014 has been released. From the full list, only a mere two were women. And the worst part is that it’s not at all surprising.

The list, that was published by Business Review Weekly (BRW), showed total earnings, including on-field and endorsement earning for the 2014 calendar year. The top earner was Andrew Bogut, star basketball player who earned $16.2 million, and Adam Scott, top Australian golfer, came a close second with his earnings totalling $15.5 million.

And so the list goes on.

But you will need to scroll, and scroll, and scroll, to find the first of only two women on the list.

At number 39 (yep, 11 from the bottom) the first female on the list is surfing pro, Stephanie Gilmore, who earned $1.75 million last year. And while this is nothing to snuff your nose at (I know it’s a lot of money) look at the difference in the top female athlete earnings compared to the top man.

A refresher: Man = $16.2 million. Woman = $1.75 million. That’s a whopping $14.45 million difference.

The only other woman to make it on the list was golfing pro, Karrie Webb. She sat at number 50 and earned $1.28 million.

Even together, Webb and Gimore’s earn were less than each of the top 10 (all of who were men).

So what’s causing this huge disparity? Because it sure as hell has nothing to do with female sporting talent. Australian women are at the top of their games across a huge number of sporting endeavours, often outperforming their male counterparts on the world stage.

Australian Womensport and Recreation Association Executive Officer, Leanne Evans told Mamamia, “The biggest issues are the lack of media and sponsorship support for female athletes.”

Secretary of the Association, Janice Crosswhite said that the reason there are only two women on the list is because there’s less prize money in some female sports and fewer competitions or opportunities to win money.

“We need more women in leadership positions across sport and business so that better decisions are made to support and improve the culture of organisations, encourage diversity and equal opportunity, ” Crosswhite said.

The lack of prize money is all about sponsorship and sponsorship is all about media coverage. More viewers watching sport on television or reading about it online means advertisers are more likely to want to be involved.

And with minimal media coverage offered to women’s sport generally, sponsors simply don’t look at what they’re doing.

“We need more sponsors with courage and vision willing to invest in sportswomen and women’s events and competition,” Evans said.

Evans says that we need support for sports organisations to employ media officers and for women’s sports to invest in digital broadcasting because that is where the biggest audience reach potential is.

“Women also need to support women athletes. Sports organisation need to be proactive in promoting female athletes and female athletes also need to do their bit in self-promotion,” she told Mamamia.

Crosswhite says that although the low wages are unjust, she believes that sometimes it can actually have a positive effect on female athletes.

“They have to strive harder to get to the top so they make the most of their chances and do very well; for example they win more medals at Olympic and Commonwealth Games, yet they make up less than 50 per cent of the team,” she said.

Many women are making more sacrifices to get to the top because of the lower wages, but they will continue to play no matter what. The gender pay gap is an issue across all professions, but why more than two females can’t make it in to the top 50 earners in sport is astonishing.

It needs to change. We want to see more than two women on the list for 2015.