Columnist Anna Ayers writes about the fight for equal pay for women, especially women athletes.
This past week, five members of the United States women’s national team filed a lawsuit against U.S. Soccer Federation demanding equal pay for their play.
The filing, which uses numbers from the federation's 2015 financial report, says that the women are only paid about a quarter of what the men are, even though the women's team generated nearly $20 million more in revenue than the U.S. men's team last year.
Putting aside revenues and money given to the federation from FIFA (the world’s governing body in soccer), the players on the women’s team deserve equal pay to that of the men’s team simply because, without the women’s dominance, the appeal of professional soccer in the U.S. may have died two decades ago.
The WNT’s lawsuit is many years overdue, and it is not the only equal pay discussion in sports to arise in even the last month. After comments made by now former Indian Wells chief executive Raymond Moore, the issue has resurfaced in the professional tennis world as well. And the female professionals of that sport also offer something unique and promising to the game that the men's draw does not.
For the past 15 years, men’s professional tennis has been largely dominated by three, or in some circles four players. However, on the women’s side, with the exception of Serena Williams, the game has seen the rise (and fall) of many women from many countries.
If either governing body for U.S. soccer or international tennis truly believes that the women do not deserve equal pay, they should first consider where their respective sports would be if it were not for the women’s play.
Equal pay for women, even in the progressive year of 2016, is an issue taking its toll far beyond the soccer pitch or tennis court. In 2015, the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers announced April 14 as the marking of “Equal Pay Day.” They chose this day because it represents how far into the 2015 calendar year the average American woman had to work on top of her 2014 work in order to earn what the average man did in 2014.
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So perhaps this April, while women are still working to make an equal share, we should all remember that inequality has the inevitable tendency to leave a dark mark on history. And today, as women working in fields ranging from STEM industries, to nursing, to professional sports fight to be compensated fairly, remember that progress is an all-inclusive effort that cannot be achieved without the contributions of men and women.
Anna Ayers is a freshman studying journalism and finance. What do you think about the U.S. women’s national team's lawsuit? Email her at aa183414@ohio.edu.
