Women’s soccer in the United States has brought up concerns of wage inequality, unequal quality of playing surfaces, and less media attention, and this has raised questions about whether these are acts of discrimination or not. I would like to offer some insight and say that this is an issue of inequality, but it is not necessarily discrimination. There is a lack in equal opportunity for female athletes due to perceptions and stereotypes that have not allowed society to be exposed to their greatness. These women involved in the lawsuit are attempting to address issues that have been present for decades in the United States. I will be mainly discussing the lawsuit that the USWNT filed against the U.S. Soccer Federation as an avenue to communicate my viewpoint.

I will start by defining these terms to aid the readers in the understanding of my thought process. Inequality and discrimination are often thrown into the same category because both have negative connotations and similar meanings, but there is a crucial difference a between the two that needs to be understood in order to comprehend this argument. Inequity is a term used when a there is a group of people undergoing hardships and unfair treatment due to past circumstances that may be holding them back from their full potential. Discrimination is when someone purposefully affects a minority group negatively due to prejudices. Inequality is unfair, as is discrimination, but discrimination is also intentional. Either way, we need to find a solution for the benefit of our society. 

I would like to introduce some popular and differing opinions that I will further discuss and break down later on. It is easy to assume that this inequality is due to discrimination. After all, women are considered to be the minority group and typically aren’t perceived as athletes, and in the past, women have struggled to earn their rights. Also, there is a common misconception that all women make 78% of what men do. (Jenkins) Maybe that is the case for some, but the USWNT does not fall under that category as I will show prove later. Given that the U.S. women’s national team is making less money, while outperforming their male counterparts, society must be discriminating against female athletes. This is an easy conclusion to jump to. I will even go as far to admit that this theory makes sense, as I understand the reasoning behind it, but I want to dig deeper than the surface to uncover the true reason why this happens.  Although we may or may not agree on why the inequality is present in the United States, most of us can agree that the USWNT is doing great work for the progression of women’s sports, and that they do deserve to have their wages raised in the near future.

Although I am saying that what the USWNT is facing today should not be considered to be discrimination, I am by no means saying that the USWNT members from the past, or other female athletes, have not been discriminated against before due to their gender. In fact, there are still some individual women who face discrimination today. Allow me to explain why this lawsuit is in a separate category from these incidents. 

The five of the USWNT members, including Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Sauerbrunn, announced in March of 2016 that they would be filing a lawsuit for equal pay and equal treatment against the U.S. Soccer Federation. (Spies-Gans) The U.S. women earned two million dollars while the men received nine million for a mediocre performance. (Spies-Gans) This mainly stemmed from the wage gap in between them and their male counterparts.  The U.S. men’s team was rewarded nine million for their mediocre performance, whereas the women earned two million for winning the whole tournament. (Spies-Gans) Alex Morgan decided to shed some insight on the situation and stated, “Every single day, we sacrifice just as much as the men. We work as much. We endure just as much physically and emotionally.” (Spies-Gans) There were also other issues involving the unequal treatment of women, such as the lack in media attention that they received and the poor field conditions they had to play on. Using these three components of the lawsuit, I am going to explain why each one is due to a lack in equal opportunity as opposed to discrimination. 

This lawsuit is centered around wage inequality, although there are other issues that should be taken into consideration. The women believe that they deserve the same amount of pay as the men, maybe even more, because they have always outperformed the men while making significantly less money. They have won three of the seven World Cup Championships and four of the six Olympic tournaments that have ever taken place in the past twenty-five years, while the men have done no such thing. It sounds as if the women have clearly earned the right to make equivalent wages, but there is one problem. They are not generating as much revenue, even with their growing popularity since the 2015 World Cup. According to a credible sports journalist, “U.S. Soccer says the men produced nearly double the revenue of the women over a four-year cycle. But a look at U.S. Soccer’s financial report shows the gap between the U.S. men and women is much closer when you look at the four years from 2014 to ’17.” (Wahl) It should be considered that they Although they were not producing as much revenue at the time that the lawsuit was filed, it should be considered that maybe they are becoming a vital part to the culture of U.S. Soccer, and gaining followers at unprecedented rates. With this growing popularity, it seems as the unequal wages are due to discrimination, but it is now time to discuss why they actually are yielding less revenue than the U.S. men’s team. 

Although the popularity of women’s soccer has not surpassed that of the men’s in the United States, it is on its way to doing that as it rapidly increases. The fundamental reason that this has not happened yet is because of the lack of media attention and broadcasting time that the women receive in comparison to the men. Once again, this sounds as if it might be discrimination, but allow me to explain why it is not. In the recent past, it was a struggle to be able to find the USWNT games on a major channel. Typically, sports channels are concentrated on the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball. Before women’s sports came about, it was customary for people to watch men’s sports of all types.  Although men overall receive much more time on air than their female counterparts, according to a certain academic journal, those stats can be somewhat misleading due to the fact that there are more varieties of sports available for men that are not available and nearly as equal as the females. (Cooky, et al.)

A couple of decades ago, women broke through societal barriers, and started competing in sports, and created their own leagues. Naturally, the United States did not adjust to this well, and remained watching men’s sports regularly. Even though women started out being discriminated against, they progressively gained some attention and slowly made progress towards some media time. Presently, there are fans who would like to see more of the women play on major networks, and female athletes who have earned their right to be broadcasted.  The main reason this is happening is because people are too focused on male sports and enjoy watching them too much on a regular basis to redirect their attention to female athletics. Therefore, networks do not broadcast as many athletics. This is not a statement against women, nor is this discrimination towards females, but rather just a force of habit and an excellent example of unequal opportunity. Another reason that some people are not willing to transition to watching women’s sports and there is less media time for it is the fact that they are perceived to be a slower speed of play, less athletic participants, and less competitions. Later, we will discuss why these perceptions are in place. This is another example of a lack in equal opportunity because our men’s sports fans have bought into the idea of our male- dominated sports culture and they have not been properly exposed to women who demonstrate athletic greatness. It is also not their fault that they have not been exposed to this because that is where our society is at fault.  All of this ties back to broadcasting time, which is due to less of a production of revenue. It is almost as if this is a never-ending cycle.

The USWNT claim to receive unequal treatment too. An example of this is the how they are forced to play on lower quality surfaces sometimes, such as turf, as opposed to grass. Turf can be much harder on an athlete’s body as it a harder surface made of a rough substance that can cause bruising and turf burns. There was a friendly scheduled in December of 2015, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to horrendous playing conditions. (Vecsey)The turf was not attached properly, causing the surface to be ripped up and to be qualified as an uneven playing surface. This can cause even more serious injuries besides turf burns and soreness. During the USWNT training a few days prior to this, Megan Rapinoe tore her ACL, and some people blame this on the poor surfaces of the field. (Vecsey) This incident was taken into major consideration when they filed the lawsuit. The USWNT has to play on these fields due to the lower amount of revenue that they bring in. 

As I said earlier, some people are under the impression that women are inferior beings in terms of athletics. Although some men may discriminate against female athletes, the fundamental cause of this is because they do not have as many opportunities to watch women express their greatness through athletics. Therefore, they are not aware of how intense the competition can be. Typically, because of the male-centric sports culture enforced, anything considered to be athletic greatness, is associated with men. (Sabo) Once again, this goes back to broadcasting issues. There are many myths and stereotypes about women that need to be debunked in order for the USWNT to gain the respect that they have earned.

The World Cup win of 2015 sparked a revolution for the progression of women’s sports everywhere, especially the United States. Beforehand, it was nearly impossible to stream one of their games on a network, such as ESPN or Fox Sports. The fact that the tournament was held in Canada helped the United States tremendously, considering they are bordered next to each other and many United States fans migrated over the border to help the cheer on the triumph of our women’s team. Another reason why this was a turning point in women’s soccer is because the United States suffered a heartbreaking loss in the previous World Cup four years ago against Japan during penalty kicks. Since the USWNT has always been known as one of the best in the world, this was a crucial tournament for them, mainly because the stakes were so high after their exit from 2011 and the fact that they had to face Japan again in the World Cup Final. They had a whole nation of supporters behind them, and everyone expected an intense game, but their expectations were shattered when the United States scored goal, after goal, after goal in the first few minutes. Excitement was felt all the way across the nation, and it could be seen in the eyes of the women. The USWNT inspired almost a whole nation, and helped women’s sports become relevant. They also proved to the world that they have earned their fair share of wages. Ever since that monumental win, it is easier to find their games on TV, and it is normal now to see women’s highlights on ESPN because of this. The progress that women’s sports have made throughout the past two years is extraordinary, and it all happened because of the USWNT. 

Since women’s sports are currently being incorporated into our culture, it is important that we credit Title ix, as it was the only other thing that sparked a growth in women’s sports. We also must recognize how much progress women have made, although shortcomings are still present. “Women are participating at the professional level in sports that seemed beyond reach 40 years ago.” (Cooky & Lavoi) This was passed back when women were being discriminated against, hardly being given any opportunity at all. Title ix gave female athletes hope that they would be given an opportunity, although that opportunity is still not equivalent to what the men have today. Because of the tremendous effect title ix had on the United States, “schoolgirls are now reporting that athleticism is a source of popularity. (Cahn) This is more excellent progress that we have made. Female athletes are not perceived as negative anymore.

In order to incorporate women’s sports into our society to make it equivalent to the platform that men’s sports are on, we must be patient. Once again, there are very few people, I am referring to men mostly, who absolutely oppose the idea of women’s sports or female athletes receiving equal pay, but they have not been exposed to watching women’s sports. Therefore, it is not a priority of theirs. 

I would like to attempt to offer a solution to this very complex idea. Since the idea of the generation of revenue seems to directly coincide with equal pay, broadcasting time, and equal treatment, in terms of the quality of the field, the revenue should try to be raised first to have a direct effect on the other factors. In order to do this, more broadcasting time of the USWNT needs to take place immediately. It also needs to be a balancing act, so we can regulate the effect it will have on the economy of sports and progressively ease sports fans into having women’s sports on the major networks regularly. Once the women generate more revenue from getting more viewers, that will solve the root of all of their problems. 

With time, this issue will be solved as our culture has time to embrace the changes to our sports world. Soon enough, there will not be any negotiations of neither equal opportunity, nor discrimination in terms of gender in sports. Unequal opportunity is a problem, and discrimination against female athletes are not in this case. I hope the differences between discrimination and equal opportunity are clear now. This lawsuit is a cultural phenomenon that cannot be ignored and will be the determining factor for the future of women’s sports, not only in the United States, but in the rest of the world. 
