By: Saije Rusimovici, Staff Writer
In March 2019, members of the US women’s national soccer team filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against their umbrella organization, US Soccer. The lawsuit speaks to the systemic underpaying of US women soccer players in comparison to the US men’s team. While it’s hard to estimate the total amount of money national soccer players make because of how much of a role bonuses play, women generally receive less money even when they do better in soccer competitions.
Case in point, the US women’s soccer team received $4 million for their Federation Internationale de Football Association World Cup victory, while the winner’s on the men’s side, France, pocketed $38 million.
The lawsuit was eventually settled this past year with the plaintiffs, the US women’s team, receiving a settlement of $24 million — $2 million of which will go towards growing the game.
This issue is not only relevant in soccer. Daryl Watts is set to become the highest paid women’s hockey player after signing a $150,000 contract with the Toronto Six for next season. However, this pales in comparison to the minimum $750,000 a men’s hockey player can make in the National Hockey League.
Women have to fight for recognition and the right to equal pay in primarily men-dominated sports. According to The Columbia Journal of Law and The Arts, one of the biggest reasons cited for the pay gap between men and women in professional sports is the tendency for men’s sports to generate more revenue. Author Shannon Morgan says this comes as a result of “consumer preferences rooted in internalized racism, sexism, and homophobia.”
Because women are expected to conform to stereotypical norms, women who play sports are defying hegemonic femininity by not participating in the roles society expects them to play.
From a marketing perspective, the cards are also stacked against women athletes. A professor at Purdue University found that women’s sports television coverage hasn’t changed in the past 30 years. In fact, in 2019, the lowest women’s sports media coverage was reported at 5%.
Overall, there’s less accommodation for women’s sports. Teams in the Women’s National Basketball Association play 36 games, while 82 games are played during a National Basketball association season. While an NCAA golf regional was cancelled for the women due to poor conditions, the National Hockey League somehow manages to run outdoor games in California?
Not to mention the added barriers faced by women athletes with intersecting identities such as being transgender or racialized. To this day, many sports still bar trangender women from competition. In 2021, “sports governing body” World Rugby prohibited trans women from participating in rugby at the Olympics or at the women’s World Rugby Cup. Transgender inclusion in sports is a highly politicized matter in the US. There are currently 18 states that have “enacted laws or issued statewide rules” to prevent transgender women from competing professionally in a women’s division.
Sports physicist Joanna Harper says there’s no merit to the argument that “extra” testosterone levels present in transgender women helps to enhance performance. In fact, 94% of transgender women who underwent hormone therapy in a recent study had the same level of testosterone as cisgender women. Scientific American reported that hormone fluctuations from cisgender women athletes can also cause them to have “male” testosterone levels — and that high testosterone isn’t a good indicator of how an athlete will perform.
There’s also a fair share of hate directed towards BIPOC athletes. In 2021, a women’s hockey player on the Red Deer Polytechnic team called an Indigenous member of the opposing team a racial slur. While the Red Deer player was required to participate in diversity workshops, they weren’t suspended from their team. In another case, multiple Black women on the Duke volleyball team were harassed, threatened, and called racial slurs by a fan at an away game versus Brigham Young.
These are systemic issues that don’t end at equal pay for athletes. At the heart of this issue is the long overdue need to take actual steps to rework a system that has created inherent biases surrounding women, LGBTQIA2S+, and BIPOC athletes in sports.
Organizations may refuse to acknowledge the ridiculous discrepancies in quality of treatment, but even athletes are calling it out, and highlighting the importance of athlete allyship. Will Allen, former National Football League player, says that it’s necessary for men’s athletes to “be advocates” in the fight for equal pay and gender equality. “It is important that women are not only paid equal, but treated with equal respect,” Allen told CNBC, with the hope that his daughter has a future where she will be “treated fairly.”
While this is appreciated, the reality is change refuses to happen for women athletes fighting on their own behalf. They have been for years, and while improvements have been made, it’s still minuscule to the luxuries afforded in income, media coverage, and treatment for white cisgender men.
