Women In Sports

THE PROBLEM:

“Despite the fact that these female and male players are called upon to perform the same job responsibilities . . . 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.” Excerpt from U.S. Women’s National Team’s lawsuit against U.S. Soccer, 2019

HOW THE GAP IS CLOSING:

In 2016, five players from the USWNR “filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that the U.S. Soccer Federation was paying them considerably less due to sexism” (Huffington Post). This resulted in the singing of a new collective bargaining agreement in 2017 that increased their pay but still left them trailing behind the men’s team. On March 8, International Women’s Day, all 28 USWNR members filed a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer accusing the federation of violating the Equal Pay Act and the Civil Rights Act.