USA! USA!
Equal pay! Equal pay!
It was hard to distinguish the two chants Sunday afternoon as the crowd erupted in Lyon, France, where the U.S. Womens Soccer team won the World Cup for the second consecutive time.
The chants dont just match in cadence and rhyme. They also represent what the U.S. womens soccer team is doing for women all over the world.
As no other team in the world could, the U.S. women showed they will fight on the field and, if need be, in court to prove they are worthy of recognition, and, as such, deserve equal pay.
IT HAD to be us.
No other country in the world has as much influence as the United States for good or ill.
From this 2019 World Cup, female athletes across the world will have been inspired to stick it out knowing they, too, will get their due if they fight hard enough and refuse to cower in the face of opposition.
For womens tennis, Billie Jean King sounded the siren for equal pay in 1970. It took 36 years for the womens prize money to equal that of men in all four Grand Slam events.
Today, members of the U.S. Womens Soccer team are paid 38 cents to the dollar earned by their male counterparts and practice in inferior conditions.
Sundays success no doubt will help bolster the womens case in court against the U.S. Soccer Federation that they deserve equal treatment.
But that argument shouldnt depend on four World Cups, four Olympic gold medals and a consistent No. 1 ranking, successes the mens soccer team has yet to experience. Our women sacrifice every bit as much as our men for their sport. That they are paid less than half is not only an insult; it harms the game, not to mention our society.
Imagine how many young girls stop pursuing their goals in various athletic fields because society regards womens sports as irrelevant, that somehow the accomplishments of women are more frivolous than those of men. As if boys kicking or throwing a ball should be taken more seriously.
If we are to dignify sports at all, then the fight for equal pay is also about showing young women that their feats and dreams matter.
Imagine how many more young girls would push further, train harder, reach higher, if we recognized and equally rewarded greatness for what it is, no matter the gender.
IN THEIR QUEST for the World Cup, the U.S. women have also had to shoulder more than their share of criticisms.
It comes with the territory of being the defending champion; being American many view us as having inflated egos and are eager to take us down a notch; and, quite acutely, of being an American woman.
Megan Rapinoe the top scorer and voted best player of the 2019 tournament was roundly criticized by those who interpreted her exuberance as overly prideful, her politics as a distraction from the game. Photos of her smiling broadly with her arms extended in jubilation were deemed inappropriate by some.
And when Alex Morgan pretended she was sipping from a cup of tea after scoring against England, the British were undone. What an affront!
