USA! Equal pay! US women’s soccer helps move the needle

“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. Women’s Soccer team won the World Cup for the second consecutive time.

The chants don’t just match in cadence and rhyme. They also represent what the U.S. women’s 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 women’s tennis, Billie Jean King sounded the siren for equal pay in 1970. It took 36 years for the women’s prize money to equal that of men in all four Grand Slam events.

Today, members of the U.S. Women’s Soccer team are paid 38 cents to the dollar earned by their male counterparts and practice in inferior conditions.

Sunday’s success no doubt will help bolster the women’s case in court against the U.S. Soccer Federation that they deserve equal treatment.

But that argument shouldn’t depend on four World Cups, four Olympic gold medals and a consistent No. 1 ranking, successes the men’s 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 women’s 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.