For my portfolio project, I decided to use wix.com as my platform because it seems much more customizable than weebly.com. It offers many more templets and more freedom to move specific things around on the website. A possible problem with this website is you can’t change the template after you publish the site, but you can do this with weebly. I will have to be extra careful to make sure the theme is really the one I think best reflects my project before I publish it, or I will have to risk starting the project over again.
My first idea for the project was to create a website showcasing the videos I have made. These would range to ones I have created for school, like the advocacy project, to ones that I have made of my vacations. I love to edit videos but I currently have them all just sitting on hard drives. I think the portfolio project would be a good way for me to showcase what I’ve done. My second idea was similar to the videos, but instead it would be a website showcasing my photos from all of my vacations
These ideas came from the videos explaining the project when it was mentioned that the audience could be your grandmother. My grandparents live in England and they love to see all the things from are travels and other things we make. I thought this would be a good way to show them. However, I think I would try to make my primary audience possible employers so I could showcase my video editing skills.
Upon watching the description of the assignment, my first thought was to focus on the same issue I tackled in my issue brief, equal pay for women in sports. To do that, I would make a video, encouraging people, especially women in sports, to voice support. I really wanted to do a video format for my project. What I was wondering is if I should broaden the topic to women in the work force that are receiving unequal pay for the same job, since I already did so much on the USWNT. My goal us to persuade people that they should voice support for the paycheck fairness act so more people are exposed to an idea they might not be aware of.
While searching for ideas, I found articles that women physicians are paid less than men physicians which I think would be an interesting topic to include during this time.
At first I did not really think Photographer as Witness: A Portrait of Abuse was an advocacy piece. It was just a story, there was no facts or data or persuasion techniques. Then I realize that they didn’t need any of those things to get their point across. The purpose of the photos was to show an example of what abuse can look like. The images and captions behind them were very powerful and try to show people signs of abuse. I don’t really think the photos were ethical, since it is a very personal topic and a photographer being in the middle of everything I don’t think it is appropriate o helpful. However, is Maggie wanted to get the message across to people on how bad abuse can be and was ok with the photos, then maybe it is ethical.
Times Have Changed: Stand with the World Strongest Women
Introduction
Four gold medals and four world championships later, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) is leading the way for all women in sports. The United States Men’s Soccer Team (USMNT) have zero gold medals and have not been to the finals of a World Cup. Still, the USWNT only makes a fraction of what is given to the USMNT. Both the men’s and women’s team are managed by the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF). This is why, almost a year ago on March 8th, 2019, the USWNT filed a lawsuit against the USSF on the basis of gender discrimination.1 The actual lawsuit trail is currently in place for May 5th, 2020 in Los Angeles.2 The lawsuit claims that the women receive lesser pay, training facilities, transportation, and medical personnel than the men’s side. According to the lawsuit filed, if both the USMNT and USWNT won 20 matches a year, the maximum women would earn $99,000. The average salary for a player on the men’s team would be $236,320.3
This gap would not be the result of men bringing in more revenue. From 2016-2018, the women’s national team brought in $50.8 million for the USSF and the USMNT brought in $49.9 million.4 The gap in their pay wages in clearly not due to the difference in revenue and could be considered even more impressive for the women, as tickets for their game cost less than tickets for the men’s games. In line with this stat, the lawsuit filed by the USWNT states, “The USSF, in fact, has admitted that it pays its female player employees less than its male player employees and has gone so far as to claim that “market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men.” 5
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 says that employers cannot discriminate wages on the basis of sex. Men and women who do the same hob, the require the same skills, must be paid the same amount.6 This is the act under which the lawsuit was filed. The USSF released a statement in February which argued the men and women’s teams do not do equal work, claiming “the MNT players do not perform equal work requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions.” 7 However, again in the USWNT lawsuit, they claim “The USSF admits to such purposeful gender discrimination even during times when the WNT earned more profit, played more games, won more games, earned more championships, and/or garnered higher television audiences.” 8
The problem with the Equal Pay Act is that is that it only applies to men and women performing the same job, with the same job description. For sports teams, it is very hard to prove that men and women’s teams are performing the exact same job when there are varying levels of competition and an unequal amount of games played. In order to prevent this complication in the future and ensure women get the pay they deserve, the Paycheck Fairness Act should be passed, with the addition of a fine that is given to any organization that disobeys the act.
Problems with the Equal Pay Act
Equal Pay Day this year was on March 31st. Equal pay day marks the time a woman would have to work into the next year to make the same amount of money a man would make in the previous year.9 Three months. The difference, on average, is three months of work. The Equal Pay Act has been in place for 67 years and there is still this large of a gap. There are loopholes in the Equal Pay Act that make it much less effective. The act only prohibits wage discrimination based on sex. It mentions nothing of seniority, merit, productivity, skills, or anything else that would separate men from women.10 This means any of those subjective characteristics could result in men receiving higher pay. This makes it very difficult to argue that a woman received a lower wage than a man solely because of her gender. Even if a woman could prove this is why she received a lesser pay, she would still have to file a lawsuit and go to a trail to hold the company responsible.
Perhaps the biggest problem with the Equal Pay Act is the punishment a company receives if they are found guilty of violating the act. The company only has to pay the woman in question 2 years’ worth of the salary she deserves.11 After the two years are up, there are no restrictions that prevent the company to reverting back to their old ways.
Figure 1: “Cents earned by women for each $1 earned by men, on average” Reproduced from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2019/03/26/467778/rhetoric-vs-reality-making-real-progress-equal-pay/
If such large celebrities and role models like the USWNT can fall victim to men in high power manipulating this act, what is happening to women who work everyday jobs. Who is standing up for them? The USWNT has a platform, and they are using it to inform the country of the injustices that are happening behind the scenes. Passing another act that fixes the current problems with the equal pay act will support the women who cannot speak up for themselves.
Advantages of the Paycheck Fairness Act
The Paycheck Fairness Act is an act, “to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide more effective remedies to victims of discrimination in the payment of wages on the basis of sex, and for other purposes.” 12 The Fair Labor and Standards Act establishes a minimum wage and extra pay for people who work overtime. The Equal Pay Act was an amendment to this act, as the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act will be. The Paycheck Fairness has multiple ways of ensuring equal pay. They are as follows:13
It prevents employers from fire employees for sharing their salary information. Women may not know they are being paid less if no one is allowed to share their information, which would keep women in the dark.
The act includes wage discrimination based off of gender, race, and ethnicity. The equal pay act is only valid if employees can prove they were discriminated against solely because of their gender. Many companies escape this accusation by blaming the discrimination on another factor. The paycheck fairness act prevents this.
It helps minorities achieve fair pay practices. There will be training programs to help employees negotiate better salaries.
It prevents employers from using previous salaries as a reason one employee is paid more than another.
The government will collect data on wages, ethnicity, race, and gender to help prevent wage discrimination.
Why the Current Situation Exists
One of the main concerns for the USWNT lawsuit is that it is difficult to prove that the women’s team did the exact same job as the men. The teams play different amounts of games and play different levels of competition. There are multiple arguments for why the USWNT should not get paid as much as the USMNT. Some say that men’s soccer is held to a high standard. Women’s soccer has so competition and it is much easier to win. America likes winning teams, so in turn the women’s team sell more tickets and more shirts, but they don’t have to do as much work. The USMNT also competes against the rest of the world. In many countries, especially in Europe, soccer is the number one sport. They need more money to have a chance to compete on the same level. Along those lines, since soccer isn’t the number one sport in America, it is not the highest paid sport. Men’s soccer is constantly fighting for top athletes to play in the MLS. Therefore, the USSF has to pay the men’s team more money in order to not loose athletes to other sports. What it all comes down to, whether fair or not, is that the USSF is a business. Businesses run off of money. The USSF claims “market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men.”14 However, market realities show that the USWNT has been bringing in more revenue and less cost to the USSF for the past few years.
Sources: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/data-how-does-the-u-s-womens-soccer-team-pay-compare-to-the-men; Austin, Sophie, and Louis Jacobson. “PolitiFact – Does the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Bring in More Revenue but Get Paid Less than the Men?” Politifact, 11 July 2019, www.politifact.com/article/2019/jul/11/does-us-womens-soccer-team-bring-more-revenue-get-/.
The Fight is On and Off the Field
The USWNT and their fans have brought light on the pressing issue that is equal pay for women. After filing their lawsuit against the USSF, the USWNT received countless support from many organizations and even U.S. Senators. After the lawsuit was filed, but before the 2019 World Cup ended, a letter was sent to the president of the USSF, Carlos Cordeiro. The letter was signed by 50 senators and expressed their disapproval of the equality displayed by the organization.15 Cordeiro has since resigned from his position. Senator Elizabeth Warren tweet support for the USWNT saying:
“The @USWNT is #1 in the world & contributes higher revenues for @USSoccer than the men’s team, but they’re still paid a fraction of what the men earn. Women deserve equal pay for equal (or better!) work in offices, factories, AND on the soccer field.”16
Figure 3: “What could you do with an extra $431,360?” Reproduced from: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/news/2012/04/16/11435/infographic-the-gender-pay-gap/
The USWNT is not just fighting for themselves. They are fighting for the women at home who don’t have a voice and can’t fight for themselves. The figure on the left shows, on average, how much is taken away from a woman because of unfair wage discrimination.
Shortly after the USWNT celebrated their victory in the World Cup this summer, Senator Joe Manchin III mentioned the idea of a bill that would withhold funding for the 2026 Men’s World Cup, which the U.S. is scheduled to host with Canada and Mexico, until the USSF gave the USWNT the pay they deserved.17
Conclusion
The USWNT, an icon in America, has been fighting with their employer for years on the topic of equal pay. Such an influential group with the support of almost their entire country behind them can still not clearly get the pay that they deserve. One can only imagine what happens to all the other women who work normal jobs and get paid less than their male partners who are doing the same job. How are they supposed to make their voice heard? Who will fight for them? Passing the Paycheck Fairness Act will give them a voice. It will help them fight for the pay they deserve. It will help them be strong, and once and for all close the ridiculous pay gap that has been an issue in our country for almost 70 years.
Questions:
Do you think I should change one of the infographics so there isn’t two bar graphs?
Times Have Changed: An Act from 1963 is Not Enough
Introduction:
Four gold medals and four world championships later, the United States Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) is leading the way for all women in sports. The United States Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) have no gold metals and have not been to the finals of a World Cup. Still, the USWNT only makes a fraction of the salaries given to the USMNT. Both the men’s and women’s teams are managed by the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF). This is why, almost a year ago on March 8th, 2019, the USWNT filed a lawsuit against the USSF on the basis of gender discrimination(1). The actual lawsuit trial is currently in place for May 5th, 2020 in Los Angeles (2). The lawsuit claims that the women receive lesser pay, training facilities, transportation, and medical personnel than the men’s side. According to the lawsuit filed, if both the USMNT and USWNT won 20 matches a year, the maximum women would earn is $99,000. The average salary for a player on the mens team would be $263,320 (3). This gap would not be the result of men bringing in more revenue. From 2016-2018, then women’s national team brought in $50.8 million for the USSF and the USMNT brought in $49.9 million (4) . The gap in their pay wages in clearly not due to the difference in revenue and could be considered even more impressive for the women, as tickets for their game cost less than tickets for the mens games. In line with this stat, the lawsuit filed by the USWNT states, “The USSF, in fact, has admitted that it pays its female player employees less than its male player employees and has gone so far as to claim that “market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men.”(5)
The Equal Pay Act of 1963 says that employers cannot discriminate wages on the basis of sex. Men and women who do the same job, that require the same skills, must be paid the same amount (6). This is the act under which the lawsuit was filed. The USSF released a statement in February which argued the men and women’s team do not do equal work, claiming “the MNT players do not perform equal work requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions,” (7). However, again in the USWNT lawsuit, the claim “The USSF admits to such purposeful gender discrimination even during times when the WNT earned more profit, played more games, won more games, earned more championships, and/or garnered higher television audiences.” (8) The problem with the equal pay act is that it only applies to people of opposite sex performing the same jobs. For sports teams, it is very hard to prove that men and women’s teams are performing the exact same job where there are varying levels of competition and an unequal amount of games played, as some teams go onto championships or qualify for more tournaments. In order to prevent this complication in the future and ensure women get the pay they deserve, the Paycheck Fairness Act should be passed, with the addition of a fine that is given to any organization that disobeys the act.
Questions:
Should the title be more related to the USWNT?
Does my first paragraph has two many number in it/ Should I focus more on explaining the proposed Paycheck Fairness Act?
For one of my sources I used facts from the lawsuit filed, which is a pdf online. Would that be cited as a website?
Should I try to shorten the intro?
Did I stress the relevance of the issue enough?
(I could not figure out how to do superscripts on here, it would only let me do subscripts which is why they are in parentheses.)
2 “USWNT Lawsuit versus U.S. Soccer Explained: Defining the Pay Gaps, What’s at Stake for Both Sides.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, 24 Mar. 2020, www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usaw/story/4071258/uswnt-lawsuit-versus-us-soccer-explained-defining-the-pay-gapswhats-at-stake-for-both-sides.
3 Austin, Sophie, and Louis Jacobson. “PolitiFact – Does the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Bring in More Revenue but Get Paid Less than the Men?” Politifact, 11 July 2019, www.politifact.com/article/2019/jul/11/does-us-womens-soccer-team-bring-more-revenue-get-/.
In my issue brief, I will open up the first paragraph discussing a rhetorical situation. Since my issue brief is about equal pay for the women’s soccer team, I will start by explaining the lawsuit filed by the women’s team against the U.S. soccer federation which is scheduled to be held May 5th. I plan to slightly discuss the events prior to the filing of the lawsuit for some background information and also exactly what the law suit says. For my thesis, I am not sure if I should claim that the policy change should be exactly what the U.S. women’s team claimed in the lawsuit, or if my thesis should be the policy I believe should be made.
The exigence of this topic is not only that the lawsuit is happening soon, but also that the Olympics are currently scheduled to be this summer. The outcome of the lawsuit trial could significantly affect the salaries of the players. Since no one is sure what is going to happen with the coronavirus, all U.S. soccer games are canceled and no one knows what will happen with the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. These events are how most of the women’s team makes a salary to live on.
I am not exactly sure who my audience would be. I feel like it should be directed towards companies/federations that determine salaries for women in sports, fans of women in sports, and supporters of equal pay for women.
The deliberation I was a part of was called “Mind Over Matter: Mental Health at Penn State.” It took place on Friday, February 28th from 5-6:30. The other deliberation I attended was called “Hello, Ni Hao, Namaskaar: How do we approach language barriers in American public schools” and took place on March 3rd from 8-9:30.
In my deliberation group, I was part of team overview. I believe there was 23 people at our debate over all and for the most part it went really well. Something I think my deliberation group and the one I attended did well was creating a solid information base. Along with both issue guides having information on each approach, many people brought their own experiences into the discussion. Many people in our deliberation mentioned their good or bad experiences with CAPS and used that to support their opinions on how CAPS should change, or how other mental health services would impact students. In the other deliberation. Almost everyone that talked mentioned what their high school did in terms of teaching language and said whether or not they thought it was effective.
Something I think the deliberation about language in schools did better than my deliberation group was focusing more on the values of each approach rather than the logistics of it (prioritizing key values at stake). In the language group’s issue guide, they did not outline specific solutions, instead they had had broader approaches like having federal regulations that require schools to teach language at a certain age, or letting each school system decide how to deal with language on their own. People tended to talk more about how much they value learning a second or third language rather than question how everything would be funded.
Our group made specific solutions to the mental health problem, like privatizing CAPS, or creating graduate student therapy sessions. This resulted in our deliberation to turn to the logistics of each approach at some points rather than the values, specifically the discussion about privatizing CAPS. Many people questioned exactly how we would do that and what would happen to people that can’t afford it when really the discussion should have been more directed to if we value better mental health care even if it means a higher cost.
Another thing I think my group did really well was weighing the pros, cons, and trade-offs of each approach we discuss. We had one person from each approach focus on just the positives of each approach, and the other focus on just the negatives. This allowed us to clearly see both sides of an approach versus getting caught up on one side.
This is something that I did not see in the other deliberation I attended. In their deliberation guide they had the advantages and disadvantages listed but the discussion did not always focus on both sides. For example, when the topic came up about requiring kids to take a language at an early age, most people agreed and explained why or talked about their experience but no one said much about why we shouldn’t force kids to take a language early. Only one person mentioned was that not all schools have funding and she did not believe it would be beneficial to her town. Other than that, most of the other discussions were all for increasing language learning in schools.
Something I think neither groups really focused on was including everyone in the room. Since both deliberations had a large turn out I think it would have been very hard to make sure everyone spoke. However, I did not think either group adequately distributed speaking opportunities by calling on people who hadn’t spoken yet. They always called on the people that raised their hands, which in both cases was mostly the same group of people.
While not everyone in each deliberation talked, I think the people that did were very respectful of others opinions and ideas and if they did not agree, they said so politely and explained the reasoning for their side. They were respecting other participants. I think moderators from my group also did a good job with ensuring mutual comprehension. Many deliberators asked participants for clarification. This is an especially important thing to do during discussions about sensitive topics like mental health to make sure everyone feels comfortable and no one is offended.
Overall, I think both deliberations went really well and certain values were agreed upon at the end of the each discussion. For example, in the mental health discussion, it was clear that people value the quality of help they are receiving. In the language discussion people valued the skills learning another language teaches you, like being able to understand other cultures.
The issue that I plan to discuss in my issue brief is equal pay for the women’s national soccer team. I picked this topic because it is one that I am already very interested and invested in. I have been following their story for a long time, and most recently, they have filed a law suit against the U.S. soccer federation on the basis of discrimination. The court case has not happened yet, as it is currently scheduled for May 5th. The USWNT also recently qualified for the Olympics this summer (if the Olympics still happen). The outcome of the court trail could significantly effect the women’s income for the year. Writing my issue brief I would argue for the policy that women should make proportionally as much as their mens counterparts, meaning that the women earn the same percent of their revenue that the men earn of theirs.
The cause of the issue is intentional. The USWNT receives worse training facilities, doctors, and transportations to games than their men counterparts and they bring in the same, if not, more revenue than the USMNT does. Both teams are run under the same company, the U.S. Soccer Federation. The difference occurs in which contract each team was offered. The women’s team was offered a much worse contract and were discriminated against.
One instrument I will use to discuss the policy will be identifying stakeholders. Many people work for the U.S. soccer federation. Increasing the USWNT salary will obviously take the money from somewhere else. I would research exactly how to give he USWNT the salary they deserve while not neglecting the ones that work for them. I would also like to look into companies that sponsor either the USMNT or USWNT and think about creating a policy that requires companies that want to sponsor one team to be required to sponsor the other as well. Mandates could be used to enforce this requirement. If a company did not follow this rule they would receive a fine.
Another instrument will be using capacity builders. They could be used to encourage support of this new policy. There could be advertisements about women’s rights or public speeches presented, showing why increasing the USWNT salary would be the right thing to do.
It would not be fair while writing a blog about equal pay for women in sports to not dedicate a post to the United States Women’s National Soccer Team. The USWNT has been leading the fight for equal pay for years now. They have always been vocal about equal pay and rights for women in general. While they argue they are doing the same work the mens team is doing and being paid less, they also argue that they have to work harder for the visibility they receive.
The USWNT has made progress in their fight for equal pay as FIFA doubled the prize money for winning the 2019 World Cup from what it was in 2015. FIFA also plays all women’s matches on grass now, as many complaint came up from the women’s teams about playing on turf. Many think more injuries occur when playing on turf verses on the grass. Men’s teams never had to play on turf and the women argued that they shouldn’t either.
One of the major turning points in the USWNT fight for equal pay occurred just before the 2019 Women’s World Cup, which the U.S. was predicted to win. The USWNT filed a law suit against the U.S. Soccer Federation on the basis of gender discrimination. They law suit argues that the women’s team gets the short end of the stick in salary, where they play and train, how often they play and train, medical staff and equipment available, the coaching they receive, and transportation to games (The New York Times).
The influence the USWNT has on girls in sports all over the world showed through in the world cup, as many girls came to their games holding signs protesting for equal pay. Nike released a commercial right after the Women’s World Cup called “Never Stop Winning” that featured pictures of the USWNT and their supporters throughout the World Cup, along with encouraging words for women everywhere to join the fight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S29GZOR-k9U
It was later released that the law suit against the U.S. Soccer Federation was for $67 million in backpay (Time). In the documentation submitted from each side for the law suit, both the contracts for the men and women teams have been submitted. The U.S. soccer federation claimed that the USWNT negotiated a different contract after being offered and denying a similar contract to the USMNT. The U.S. Soccer Federation says the difference in these contracts is the reason that the two teams are payed differently. The women’s contract included things like “guaranteed annual salaries, medical and dental insurance, paid child-care assistance, paid pregnancy and parental leave, severance benefits, multiple bonuses,” (Time.) Obviously things like paid pregnancy are not offered to the mens national team.
One of the most well known differences in payment of men and women’s teams is the money teams win in the world cup. According to The New York Times, there is $400 million that is available to be awarded to the mens teams participating in the world cup, of which there are 32. There is only around 40 million available to be awarded to women’s teams competing in the world cup, of which there are 24 (The New York Times). This means there is ten times the amount of money available for mens teams. Yes, they have 8 more teams competing, but that does not make up for the massive gap. This fight does not involve the U.S. Soccer Federation however since FIFA is the determiner of the prize money. Therefore is not included in the law suit.
However, this doesn’t mean the Soccer Federation is innocent. The US soccer federation gives the Women’s team a $25,000 bonus for winning. This bonus sounds nice, until you learn the fact that under the mens contract, they receive $3,000 more for if they loose in a World Cup qualifying match than the women receive for winning (Time). This means the men earn more for not even making into the world cup than the women do for winning the entire tournament. It is unclear what exactly in each team’s contract are responsible for this gap.
Megan Rapinoe spoke out against FIFA and CONCACAF during the World Cup, as they scheduled the Women’s World Cup final on the same day and same time as multiple mens cup soccer finals. The 2019 Copa America and 2019 Globe Cup Final were scheduled by CONCACAF after FIFA decided the date for the women’s final. She argued that if it was the Men’s World Cup, no other women’s competition would even be scheduled, let alone shown on some stations that are normally showing the World Cup. CONCACAF explained that this overlap was not intentional and by the time they realized the date, “it was too big of a mountain to move,” (CBS sports).
The law suit against the U.S. Soccer Federation will most likely turn into a trail. Even though the USWNT’s fight is far from over, the progress they made so far can not go without recognition.
The USWNT has inspired many other women’s soccer teams to fight for their rights as well. Norway now has equal pay for their men’s and women’s teams, Spain is in the fight for equal pay, and players on Brazil’s team went on strike in protest of equal pay (The New York Times). The influence of the USWNT goes beyond soccer as well, as the teams mentioned in past blogs, like women’s basketball fight for their rights.
As I mentioned in my last blog post, Women in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) are speaking up about equality for women regarding pay and equal opportunities. For over a year, the WNBA has been fighter for “fair pay and play.” Notice how they use the word fair. I would like to emphasize that the women and others fighting for fair pay are NOT saying that they should be paid exactly as much as the mens basketball players. They are simply saying that they deserve more, proportional to the revenue that they bring in. They are also saying they deserve better and equal training facilities.
In the middle of January, a huge mile stone was reached in this push for equality. The WNBA has a new CBA (collective bargaining agreement) that will last eight years! According to Glamour, in a press release the WNBA said, “The 2020 CBA features significant investments by the league and its teams aimed directly at increasing player salary and compensation, improvements to the overall player experience, resources specifically designed with the professional female athlete in mind, as well as a commitment to implement an integrated marketing plan league-wide.”
The top players in the NBA will now be able to earn six figure salaries, more than half a million. This is the first time salaries for women in the WNBA will achieve an average salary that is six figures (Glamour). The CBA also includes deals for better equipment, whether that be for training or travel. As said in the article my Glamour, the CBA changes don’t equal equality for men and women, but we are moving in the right direction.
Now, it would not be right to only explain the end result of what has been a hard fight for women in basketball for many years. In an article by Bleacher Report, Diggins-Smith, a WNBA player, explained that women only receive 20% of the WBNA revenue, while men receive 50% of their leagues revenue. Again this is obviously not proportionally equal. She also mentioned that women do not profit off of jersey sales like men do (Bleacher Report).
In 2018, Diggins-Smith, the highest plaid player on the Wings, was payed a salary in the low six figures. The lowest salary in the mens league was somewhere around 800,000 dollars. While again, it may be unreasonable to compare amounts directly when revenue of each league is not equal. It is clear that the gap should not be this big.
Women in the WNBA have never been afraid to speak up for themselves. They made their stance very clear and continued to spread the word about their fight. This is a tweet from a player that played for Los Angeles in 2018, after LeBron James received a 154 million dollar contract.
154M ……….. must. be. nice. We over here looking for a M 🙃 but Lord, let me get back in my lane pic.twitter.com/IFDZLlI53z
There was obviously a lot of planning that occurred from the last couple years till now regarding pay for women in basketball. The fight was fought on two fronts, one concerning the WNBA league and the other concerning the women’s national basketball team,. Two women leading these plans were Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, two players on the national basketball team. Something they pushed for was women receiving pay as they train for the olympics (this is very relevant as the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are only months away). This resulted in another win for women in basketball and it was decided that women could earn 100,000 dollars while training for the olympics (NBC).
While all the progress made by the WNBA and women’s basketball in general. It is always important to look at the other side of the argument. According to NBC, men in the NBA play over twice as many games and have a large fan base. These result in a massive difference in ticket sales. The question is how to decide what wages would be proportionally equal. There are two ways to look at the argument. A common argument for equal pay is that women are doing the same work, the same job as men and receiving less pay. In this case, Women Basketball plays half the games so they should get half the salary. This is not what happens as women basketball players would be payed on average around 3.5 million (the average men’s salary is 7 million). This is when the argument comes in that women shouldn’t make as much because they don’t bring in as much revenue. As said before, women in basketball are not being payed the same percentage of their revenue that men are.
In short, there are still many barriers and logistics that need to be worked out in order for there to be equality for women in sports. But, many famous women in sports who serve as role models in the fight continuously tell their fans to never give up. Know your worth and don’t budge (Sue Bird, Bleacher Report).
As long as women have been playing sports, they have been fighting for every penny they earn. There are countless examples throughout history that show women fighting for the same payment as men when they do the same job. One of the first moments that really made an impact was when Billie Jean King won the U.S. Women’s Open in 1972. She was awarded $10,000. But the men’s championship prize was a whopping $25,000. King fought for her rights and the year after the championship prizes for both the men and women’s US open were equal.
From 1972 to now, many competitive sports championships have changed their ways and now offer the same dollar amount prize for winners. Some example includes the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the World Surf League. While many other sports teams are fighting for equal pay, like the women’s national soccer team, basketball team, and ice hockey team, they are not there yet.
A big hurdle for equal pay for women in sports is the revenue teams bring in. While tennis is arguably one of the sports with the most correction in equal pay for women, there were a few bumps along the road. The main argument that kept setting women’s pay in sports back was the statement that men’s sports games bring in more revenue. They have more viewers and people that come to the matches, and they should, therefore, be paid more money.
Other arguments came in that the women’s corporations did not have as much money as a whole as the men’s corporations did. For example, the NBA receives billions of dollars in revenue, while the WNBA does not. Should the women get penalized when they do the same job as men, just because the company they work for isn’t as popular? Or should everyone be paid off of how much revenue they bring the company?
Whichever route you think is right, there is still pay gaps in women’s sports that are not proportional to the revenue received. A prime example of this is with the USWNT. From 2016-2018, right after the women won the 2015 World Cup, they generated 50.8 million in revenue compared to the U.S. Men’s national team’s 49.9 million in revenue. However, the USWNT was still paid less. This begs the question if the pay gap is strictly about the difference in revenue.
The USWNT has been one of the biggest supporters and fighters for equal pay for women in sports. They are not only role models for girls in sports, but they are also role models for girls everywhere. Right before the 2019 World Cup, the USWNT took their fight public, as they sued the US soccer federation for discrimination. They not only complained about unequal pay but also unequal training ground and equipment. They continue their fight for equality today.
Many women around the world are fighting every day to received equal pay for equal work. While some progress has been made like Title IX and sports teams like the USWNT suing the federation they work for on the bases of discrimination, there is still a long road ahead. The answer is not as simple as making all salaries exactly the same, as said before there is the question of how much revenue each team brings in, and how much money each corporation has to give. This is the problem that is not obvious on the surface.
A large majority of people don’t think of the revenue that teams bring in first. They see that women are playing the same game as men and are getting paid many times less. Many people say that women should get paid the exact same as men. Many people think this is the right thing to do. While not all companies are biased against women, they might still pay them less because they don’t have enough money to pay them the same salaries as men. For example, the women in the WNBA fight for proportionally equal pay, instead of just equal pay. The fight for equal pay is far from over as people still debate on the logistics behind how this would work for many different corporations who are in many different situations.
