How women's World Cup teams are fighting for gender parity
The United States Women's National Team made headlines at the last World Cup by demanding the same pay as their significantly less successful male counterparts. It was one of the more compelling narratives of the tournament, with players the likes of Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan shutting down every opposing argument with each goal they scored.
In 2022, the USWNT's demand was granted. It signed an agreement with the men's team and U.S. Soccer that gave all American soccer players the same payments for tournament appearances, tournament victories and overall revenue sharing.
Other women's soccer federations, however, are still fighting for financial parity with men.
Days before the women's World Cup -- which begins Thursday in Australia and New Zealand -- the Australian women's team made an emotional video recapping the progress the team had made and challenges that still lay ahead. As a host of the 2023 World Cup, Australia also called out FIFA for its own internal pay gap — the organization offered women's World Cup winners a financial award that's just 25% of what the men take home for the same achievement.
Australia's video spurred FIFA into action, and the women's World Cup prize pot is now significantly larger; every athlete at the tournament will take home a minimum of $30,000 for participating. But the gender pay gap remains. At a reported $150 million, the prize pot for women is still just 33% of the men's.
While the Aussie women's team chose to protest via viral videos, other teams have protested by either striking or threatening to strike. Their results have been mixed.
CNN reported the Canadian women's team has spent 2023 playing "under protest" after being forbidden from striking by its governing body. Canada's attempted strike came after the Canadian Soccer Association slashed the team's funding despite its gold-medal performance in the Tokyo Olympics.
The South African women's team, meanwhile, did strike — and abandoned a World Cup warm-up match to protest its pay.
The American athletes hope their successful protest for respect and equal pay can jump-start further developments for the teams of other countries.
"I hope that this is a domino effect for every other federation, to see that this is something that's tangible and necessary and needed and deserved," said U.S. midfielder Rose Lavelle, per Yahoo's Henry Bushnell.
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