Female soccer player (noun): a different bread of female who can run marathons, sprint repeat 400m drills for days, have killer legs with ridiculous tan lines, and most importantly this group of people are also athletes! The United States is the only country with a professional league for women and is ranked number one in the world with the current National team. They won the World Cup in Canada in the summer of 2015 and are on their way to Rio for the Summer Olympics.
The numbers say that the women earn $99,000 if they win 20 matches in the course of a year. If they play more than those 20 games they don’t get paid anything extra for their efforts. The men earn roughly $263,320 for winning 20 games, and even if they don’t win 20 games they would still get paid $100,000. If the men play beyond 20 friendlies then they can earn anywhere between $5,000 and $17,625 per game. Now, don't get me wrong I think that athletes are overpaid and that they make way too much money, but why do the women make so much less when they are bringing in more money? The women obviously aren’t doing this just to make more money, (if that was the case they probably would have quit by now) they want to be treated as equals.
This past fiscal year the U.S. women’s team generated almost $20 million more in revenue than the U.S. men’s team. Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Saurbrunn are all members of the World Cup winning squad. As a result of the recent events they are suing the U.S. Soccer Federation. People often think that since they are women less people watch their friendlies. This may have been true ten years ago, but this past World Cup Final was the most watched sporting even in the history of large sporting events.
The men are simply getting paid to show up when their record isn’t showing a positive progression towards success. However, the women have worked their way to the top and have been there for several years now and cannot seem to be paid the same amount as the men's team. Four years ago in the 2012 Olympics they took home the gold. Logically thinking if the women weren’t bringing in the profits I would understand why they would be making less, but that simply is not the case. The only thing these women want is equal rights. Soccer players, both male and female, deserve the same treatment, it is just that simple!
