Should male and female Wimbledon tennis winners get the same amount of prize money?

One of the oldest grand slam’s in the world, Wimbledon Championship has been played professional since 1968 and it has recorded prize money history.

Back in 1986 the total prize money pool for wimbledon championship was as little as £26,150 where the winners of singles mens and women event took home £2,000 each while runners up got a mere £800 for singles event. Since than total prize money pool has been increasing ever year and in 1984 it hit the million mark for the first time when a total of 1,46 million awarded in prize money.

The Wimbledon Championships changed their ruling in 2007, and offered women and men equal prize money for the first time. The All England Club had previously defended the difference by saying that women had best-of-three-set matches while the men had best-of-five contests.

At the time John McEnroe said “There’s probably no other sport, and very few professions in this world, where a woman can earn as much as a man.”

Wimbledon authorities have increased the 2017 Wimbledon Prize Money to £31.6 million, an £3.5m increase compared to last year’s £28.1m. This is the 6th year in a row that Wimbledon has increase the prize money and the trend is set to continue to make sure Wimbledon stays the most lucrative tennis grand slam in the world. Both women and mens singles winners will pocket £2.2 million each

The prize money for men and women has remained equal, even though men potentially play five sets and women only three sets as a maximum.

So the question is … if women are playing less sets than men and on court for a shorter amount of time, should they get the same amount of prize money? What are your views?