ORLANDO, Fla. — Yes, it was undoubtedly historic, euphoric news earlier this week when players on the U.S. women’s national team reached a groundbreaking agreement with the U.S. Soccer Federation that will give them equal pay and bonuses to match the men’s team, but I still don’t think the U.S. women deserve equal pay.
I think they deserve more pay than the men.
Much more.
Our men’s team never has done doodly-squat on the international stage while our women are the most dominant, dynamic team on the planet.
Since the advent of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991, the U.S. has won four of the eight championships to go along with four gold medals in the seven Olympics since women’s soccer became an event in 1996. Meanwhile, the U.S. men haven’t reached a World Cup semifinal since 1930 and haven’t medaled in the Olympics since 1904.
The U.S. women have not only done more for the growth of soccer in this country than their male counterparts, they are largely responsible for the development of women’s professional leagues across the world.
It’s a travesty that it took this long for U.S. Soccer to start giving these global ambassadors equal pay to the men, but finally the fight has been won. And it wasn’t just a victory for the U.S. women’s national team and for women athletes everywhere; it was a victory for every female employee in every country across the globe.
“This isn’t just about us; it’s about women in all industries,” former Orlando Pride and USWNT star Alex Morgan told me a couple of years ago. “Women fight for equality every single day. Our hope is that we not only set up ourselves, we set up the next generation as well.”
Well, guess what?
The past generation of players was pretty happy, too, when the equal-pay agreement was reached.
The iconic Michelle Akers, the former UCF star and USWNT legend who is now an assistant coach with Orlando Pride, was ecstatic when she heard the news.
“ ‘Hell, yeah!’ that was my reaction,” Akers — arguably the greatest female soccer player of all time — told the Orlando Sentinel. “Hell, yeah! I was on that first [national] team in 1985 and to have from Day One, the first game, the first practice of the U.S. women’s national team, it’s taken until today for equal pay, I’m going home to celebrate.”
Somewhere up there, the great women’s right activist Susan B. Anthony was probably celebrating as well.
“Woman must not depend upon the protection of man,” Anthony once said, “but must be taught to protect herself.”
Players on the U.S. women’s national team not only lived and learned that lesson, they just taught it to the entire world.
