Gender Equality In Women's Soccer

Gender equality is a vast issue even in sports today, especially women’s soccer. Women’s soccer has been overlooked and pushed aside by many people around the globe. Each year, fewer and fewer people enjoy the sport of soccer and it is having an impact on both genders, but more so on females. The decrease in people appreciating women’s soccer has led to many problems for the female players. Women soccer players should receive the same field conditions as men, play in better stadiums, and receive a better pay.

Women soccer players should receive the same field conditions as the men do. The women practice on grass then plays matches on turf. They do not have the chance to practice and establish a feel for turf before they play the game. As for the men, they practice on grass and play their games on grass. They do not have to face

the difficulty of switching from one type of field to another because the field type remains the same. The differences between the two genders on the two different types fields began to become a problem right after the USWNT (United States Women’s National Team) team won the 2016 World Cup in Canada. American soccer player, Alex Morgan expressed her issues with turf fields. She stated, “When I play on turf, my legs can pulse and ache for up to 24 hours and it could take 3-5 days to recover, whereas grass, after 24 I’m good to go and ready to play again” (Stoneham, 2015, p. 1). This reveals how unprepared the women are when they play on turf fields. Possibly if women were to practice on turf, then maybe they would not be so sore when it comes to the day after the game played on turf. The men never feel this kind of pain after they play, so it is not fair that the women have to deal with all the pain and the men do not. Both the men and women should play on the same type of field and have the same preparation for each type of field before they play a game.

The women and the men should play in equal sized stadiums and venues. While the men play in massive size stadiums, the women play in stadiums half the size. The USSF (United States Soccer Federation) is putting all of their money into the men’s team so that the men can play in the well-known stadium. People may think that the men deserve the right to play in the substantial size stadium because they have been around longer, but they are a sub-par team. The men’s team has not made it to the Olympics in three years and the women have made it and won the past three years (On the Road to Rio, About - U.S Soccer). This demonstrates that the USSF is spending all of their money on the men when they should be investing into a team that is world champions and a genuinely better team.

The women should receive the same pay as the men do or even more.

One week after the women’s national team won the World Cup, they filed a wage discrimination to the EEOC. The EEOC is the U.S Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that enforces civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The players argued that the U.S. Soccer Federation pays the men's national team significantly more than they pay the women for the same job, even though the women are vastly more successful than the men (Munson and Lawrence, 2016, pg 1). The men pocketed $9 million after reaching the round of 16 in their 2014 World Cup, the women, who blew through the round of 16 and marched all the way to the top of the winner’s podium, pulled in just $2 million to divvy up between them. The men also earn at least $5,000 for every additional contest they play over that 20-game baseline in the World Cup, the women receive no additional pay (Spies-Gans, 2016, pg 1). This clearly displays how the men’s national team acquires a generous amount of money for not even being a superb team and the women are the opposite and receive about a quarter of what the men

make.