US Womens soccer team scores equal pay Anoushka Mekerira and Robin Linares
While women’s soccer has gained more popularity and respect since the first competition 30 years ago, the concept of gender discrimination in soccer is still prevalent. For the FIFA World cup in 2018, the prize pool for teams was $400 million. In contrast, the FIFA Women’s World Cup had a prize pool of $30 million. There was a disparity in viewership between these two events since the Men’s World Cup received 3.572 billion total viewers. In contrast, the Women’s World Cup received 1.12 billion total viewers; the range between the prize winnings isn’t a remotely equitable divide and shows what FIFA values more. Gender discrimination doesn’t just occur on an international scale as it is also present locally. Kaylee Dartnell, the captain of the Carlmont girls varsity soccer team, noted the discrimination she faced by men’s players in the sport.
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As the Women’s U.S. National Team wins their lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation with a $24 million settlement, the precedent is set for women’s sports overall to make way for a more equitable future. The suit, which the team filed back in March 2019, sought to give the U.S. Women’s National Team equal compensation as the U.S. Men’s team. The Women’s team consistently outperforms the men’s team through winning international competitions like the World Cup four times, while the men’s team hasn’t even won one. Despite this, as the women’s team explained, the Men’s team got more compensation and, according to CBS, would be paid a maximum of $99,000 for 20 non-competition games, while men were paid, on average, $263,000.
Over the past three years, there have been various deliberations regarding this issue, culminating in the final verdict given in February 2022. The deal gave the team $24 million, with $22 million going to the players themselves and another $2 million for charitable funds and their post-career endeavors. While this is a significant win for the Women’s National Team, there is something to be said about the systemic treatment of professional women’s teams compared to their male counterparts. For instance, according to National Geographic, in the first Women’s World Cup back in 1991, players got handme-down uniforms, played with a lighter ball, and had little recognition in the U.S. media, despite their win in the tournament. By contrast, the Men’s World cup tournament received recognition for decades, with the first tournament in 1930.
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