THE WOMEN IN SPORTS REPORT By Holliss H, Maya G, and Isabel G
The US National Women’s Soccer Team has dominated the soccer field, winning four championships since the FIFA Women’s World Cup began in 1991. The USWNT has not only demonstrated their phenomenal skill and strength as a soccer team, but they have also pioneered a societal movement for equal pay and gender equality on and off the field. The team is the most successful in international women's soccer four Olympic gold medals (including the first Olympic women's soccer tournament in 1996), and eight CONCACAF Gold Cups, along with four World Cups. The USWNT players are trailblazers for the future generation of girls and women in sports. Their pure talent, competitiveness, and drive has made them known around the world, and their accomplishments go beyond just the world of women’s athletics. In comparison, the US Men’s team has never done better than the quarterfinals in the World Cup and failed to qualify for the upcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio.
THE BACKGROUND OF THE USWNT FIGHT FOR EQUAL PAY
The US Women’s Soccer team took their fight for equality to court in March of 2019 when they sued the US Soccer Federation for $67 million for failing to promote gender equality, particularly the pay gap. On the frontier of the lawsuit are players such as Megan Rapinoe, Carli Loyd, Alex Morgan, along with the rest of the valuable team players. The 28 players who are part of the suit allege that the USSF engages in "institutionalized gender discrimination" toward the team. U.S. Soccer said it pays the women's national team players a base salary of $100,000 per year, and an additional $67,500 to $72,500 per player as a salary for playing in the National Women's Soccer League. The U.S. The Men's National Soccer Team’s base salary is $800,000 per year. This statistic alone show the clear discrimination against the women’s team. The legal complaint filed against US Soccer describes blatant instituionalized gender discrimination that they said has existed for years:
“The United States Soccer Federation is the single, common employer of female and male professional soccer players who play on the United States Senior Women’s National Soccer Team and the United States Senior Men’s National Soccer Team. Despite the fact that these female and male players are called upon to perform the same job responsibilities on their teams and participate in international competitions for their single common employer, the USSF, the female players have been consistently paid less money than their male counterparts. This is true even though their performance has been superior to that of the male players – with the female players, in contrast to male players, becoming world champions.”
(Read the full legal document here)
JERSEY COVER UP
Just this March, the USWNT staged a protest during an international tournament, the She Believes Cup. The team took the field for the National Anthem wearing their warm-up jerseys inside out, effectively hiding the USSF crest. “We wanted to stand together as a team and make a statement on behalf of all women and girls that the Federation’s comments are unacceptable,” the players said in a statement provided to The Athletic’s Meg Linehan. “We love this sport and this country, and we cannot stand for this misogynistic treatment.” Referring to their lawsuit against USSF. Throughout the game there was a consistent chant of “equal pay” showing the crowds support to the players and the cause.
LATEST ON THE LAWSUIT:
Recently, on May first, the USWNT faced shocking news when the judge for the teams equal pay lawsuit rejected the player’s most important claims. The misogynistic and blatant sexist reasoning behind the rejection of the lawsuit directly shows how prevalent gender discrimination is today. Judge, R. Gary Klausner argues, “The men's and women's teams do not perform equal work requiring equal skill [and] effort because the overall soccer-playing ability required to compete at the senior men's national team level is materially influenced by the level of certain physical attributes such as speed and strength." Klausner then furthered his claim by saying, “the job of a men's player carries more responsibility than that of a women's player, that the men face more difficult work conditions because of the hostility of opposing fans on the road and at home, and that the men's and women's teams." This devastating setback however only motivates the women’s team to continue to fight harder for the rights and pay they deserve. Before the setback was announced Rapinoe said that "[US Soccer is] the only federation that we can have. We're the only team that they can have. We're going to be tied together forever. So I'm always hopeful that there's a way that we can work through this. But I really do believe that there needs to be a major paradigm shift in how they think about the women's team." This ongoing fight for closing the gap in pay is not just about the money, but rather the importance of the equal opportunities given to both women and men.
KEEPING UP WITH THE TEAM’S QUARANTINE
Alex Morgan gave birth to her first child, Charlie, on May 7th!
And check out Morgan’s at home workout video for some motivation to sweat here
Watch Megan Rapinoe’s IGTV conversation with AOC here
Watch the USWNT 2018-2019 highlights here
Check out our favorite Nike USWNT video here
Thank you for joining us for another Women in Sports Report! I hope you all continue to
stay safe, healthy, and happy! See you next week!