The Fight for Equal Pay in Women's Soccer

My first experience with watching women’s soccer was after getting into watching the men’s World Cup last fall. I decided to watch the World Cup because it was a major tournament for soccer, and I was unfamiliar with it, which made me want to learn as much about it as possible. I got really into it, learning about soccer (or football). When I heard about the women’s World Cup, I decided to follow it too. One of the first things I realized about it was that the viewership was lower. Many broadcast channels wanted to comment on how surprised they were about how many people went to the stadiums in Australia. I had known about the differences in pay between men’s and women’s soccer because of the U.S. team’s fight for it. I decided I wanted to research the differences between the viewership and pay disparities between different soccer teams, and what I found was very interesting.

This starts with the 6-year long fight the U.S. women’s team had reaching for equal pay for both male and female players. In 2019, the women’s team filed a lawsuit against the U.S. soccer organization for underpaying them when they were at their most successful. They found that the men’s team was getting millions of dollars for participating in the World Cup when they got a fraction of that for winning their World Cup. In 2022, they finally reached an agreement. The players involved would split 25 million dollars from the lawsuit. The U.S. Soccer Organization also took a pledge that ensured equality would stand. This was a massive step in women’s equality for soccer and all sports in general. Hearing this made me think and believe that progress was being made, but reading some of the stories of other players having to have other jobs really put it into perspective.

Knowing that the World Cup was in Australia and New Zealand this year, I decided to do some digging into the players on those teams. I discovered that 66% of players on those teams had to take off from their other jobs to participate in the World Cup. Caitlin Ford of the Australian team had to work part-time gigs and side jobs like being a physio aide while playing in the W-League. Leah Williamson, on the English National team, took a course in accounting to use after she retired from soccer. Many players don’t have enough money to not work after they stop playing. Many male players make a lot more money from when they are teenagers to retirement, which guarantees economic stability.

These few examples show a long way to go before soccer is equal between men and women. With the growing popularity of women’s soccer worldwide, more light should be shed on the disparities between salaries on each side. The difference the U.S. women’s team fight made for other sports shows the ripple effect that could take place in the future. For now, supporting the players by watching their matches and bringing awareness to the imbalance of the situation can help push for change.