The U.S. Women’s Soccer team recently ended their six year battle for equal pay. The team had sued the US Soccer Federation with intent to receive the same amount of attention, care, and money as the men’s US team. When the US Soccer Federation was faced with this lawsuit, they clapped back with “the men get more financial income than the women’s team, so they get paid more”. However this statement could not be farther from the truth. At the time when Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Carly Lloyd, Hope Solo, and Becky Sauerbrunn confronted the US Soccer Federation, questioning about the unequal pay injustice in 2016, the women’s team was earning around two million dollars more in revenue than men. Despite the reality of the women’s popularity, judges constantly ignored their case and denied them equal pay. In 2020, the judge reviewing the gender discrimination lawsuit gave hope for the team to finally reach the end of their misery with the judge recognizing the problem and putting effort to fix it. The progress from 2020 now played out in March of 2022, with the team getting a settlement of 24 million dollars. This money was intended to be divide amongst the team to make up for the years of mistreatment.

Along with the settlement, the team was promised equal pay from the US Soccer Federation for trainings and games. Now the only battle left to fight for the Women’s team is on the field. While they’ve received equal pay from the US Soccer Federation, the team is still negotiating with the Fifa World Cup for equal pay for women. The US team has won four titles from the Fifa World Cup, with the last three wins being consecutive. The equal payment between the two teams would result in the men’s team compromising and splitting their earnings with the women’s team, which they have already agreed to do. Hope Solo, although retired now, is relieved that the justice they have been fighting so long for has arrived. She stated before the settlement, “Men’s players get paid more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.” This was the recurring problem that these women had to face for years before getting their recognition. Although this is very exciting news and a huge accomplishment for women’s soccer, gender roles still play a huge part in unequal pay. This achievement is just the beginning looking at the big picture of equal pay for both men and women throughout the U.S. and world.

U.S. Women Soccer

Equal Pay