Thursday, July 9, 2015
Get a Kick Out of This…
The FIFA Women’s World Cup Final was the most watched soccer
game in the United States to date.
Across the world, an estimated 25.4 million viewers tuned in to watch
Japan and the US battle for gold. The game’s audience exceeded last year’s
World Series and the most recent NBA finals. However, while we are proud of what
the US women’s team has achieved, there is a larger conversation much of mainstream
media has ignored in the post-victory excitement. That conversation is equal pay.
The US Women’s team has been awarded $6 million less than the US Men’s team, who couldn’t even make it past the first round in last year’s World cup. The winning prize, $2 million, is four times less than the award for men’s teams who lost in last year’s first round, $8 million. The gap only grows when comparing the total payouts between each tournament, $15 million for the Women’s World Cup v. $576 million for the Men’s World Cup (roughly 38 times greater).
FIFA has yet to respond to requests from activists to resolve the discrepancy. Last year, however, the secretary general described the idea of pay equality within FIFA tournaments as “nonsense”.
For more on this story check out the digital campaign started by the women’s rights advocacy group Ultraviolet … http://act.weareultraviolet.org/sign/fifa_women_hp/?source=hp
If you’d like to get involved in the fight for pay equality
here at home check out the Massachusetts Equal Pay Coalition.
