Watching the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team (or as it should be simply known henceforth, “The U.S. Soccer Team”) on its march to World Cup victory was riveting. The games were entertaining, the goals exhilarating, and the players exceptional. But the team’s remarkable fourth World Cup title also reveals an undercurrent of inequality, one that is all too familiar to women today.
For inexplicable reasons, U.S. Soccer doesn’t value female and male players equally. It’s as straightforward as that. By their own calculations, U.S. female players make 38 cents for every dollar their male counterparts’ earn. As defender Becky Sauerbrunn summed up, “The bottom line is simple. It is wrong for us to be paid and valued less for our work because of our gender.”
