U.S. women’s national soccer team files lawsuit for gender discrimination
Whitley Bras, Sports Editor
Photo Courtesy of Unsplah: Markus Spiske
Gender discrimination has been a problem that our society has dealt with in the past but the U.S. Women’s national soccer team has decided to put their foot down and do something about it.
The U.S. National Women’s team has filed a class action lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender-based discrimination under the equal pay act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. This action was taken at the beginning of March as the team is preparing to play in the World Cup this summer in France.
Four years ago, when the team played in the previous world cup, they proved to be victorious and won the world cup title. The team has shown to be successful but have seen a decline in working conditions and a lower pay than the Men’s National Soccer team.
Although the Women’s National team is a high-ranking team and is extremely successful compared to other countries around the world The New York Times describes in an article that “generations of women’s national team players have complained that the federation’s financial support and logistical infrastructure have lagged behind that of the more high-profile men’s team.”
The lawsuit is specifically looking at and questioning the difference in pay and treatment between the men’s and women’s National Team. Many of the women involved in the lawsuit argue that they are required to play more games than the men’s team, that they win more of them, but they still receive less pay from the U.S. soccer federation.
Many of the women involved are high profile female athletes that are members of the National Team. These women include Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Carli Lloyd who have all been a part of the national soccer program for years. Along with these top athletes include twenty-five of their teammates who are all a part of the world champion U.S. women’s soccer team.
This lawsuit is the one of many over the years, and continues to stand for the same thing: equal pay and treatment between players on the men’s and women’s soccer team that represent the United States. Megan Rapinoe in an interview with The New York Times states, “I think to be on this team is to understand these issues, and I think we’ve always — dating back to forever — been a team that stood up for itself and fought hard for what it felt it deserved and tried to leave the game in a better place.”
The high-profile players involved in the lawsuit are pushing hard to make a change by utilizing their social media accounts and attempting to spread the word on the changes that need to occur to help gain support on the issue. This push has been the start of other national teams across the world beginning push back for better training conditions and compensations while playing for their respective teams.
Further in The New York Times article Rapinoe concluded by stating “we very much believe it is our responsibility, not only for our team and for future U.S. players, but for players around the world — and frankly women all around the world — to feel like they have an ally in standing up for themselves, and fighting for what they believe in, and fighting for what they deserve and for what they feel like they have earned.”
The players and the judicial people involved are working diligently to bring light to the issues and clear discrimination that they have faced and are pressing on until the result is equal pay and better working conditions as both men’s and women’s national teams represent the U.S.
