Photo: JIM WATSON/Getty Images
Megan Rapinoe, Margaret “Midge” Purce, and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team are continuing their fight for equal pay.
Rapinoe, 35, and Purce, 25, brought the team’s concerns to the PresidentJoe Bidenand First LadyJill Bidenat the White House in honor of Equal Pay Day Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Rapinoetestifiedbefore the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
As 25 other members of the team appeared behind her on a video screen, Rapinoedelivered a moving speechabout their years-long fight for equal pay both within U.S. Soccer and across the world — including their March 2019class-action lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
Megan Rpainoe.JIM WATSON/Getty Images
Purce, who is the executive director of the Black Women’s Player Collective, said she’s often told that the lack of equal pay correlates to a lack of interest in women’s sports.
“My response is always this: You would never expect a flower to bloom without water,” she said. “But women in sport who have been denied water, sunlight, and soil are somehow expected to blossom. Invest in women, then let’s talk again when you see the return.”
Three months before the team’sfourth and record-settingWorld Cup win in 2019, 28 players from the team’s pool filed a class-action suit against the U.S. Soccer Federation.
In the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles federal court under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the players — which includeAlex Morgan,Becky Sauerbrunn,Carli Lloyd, and Rapinoe — claimed that they are not paid equally to the men’s national players. They also alleged they have experienced “institutionalized gender discrimination,” despite having the same job responsibilities. (A judge ruled against the players' claims of unequal pay in 2020. The soccer stars said theyplan to appeal the court decision.)
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The USWNT is alsospeaking out about their “ongoing fight for equal pay"in an upcoming documentary onHBO Max.
Rapinoe said in the release aboutLFG— an acronym for “Let’s F—ing Go!” — that the fight for equal pay “is so much bigger than ourselves and the Women’s National Team.”
“We’re doing it for the next generationof female soccer players and for womenthroughout the world in all industries and walks of life who are also fighting for equality,” Rapinoe added.
source: people.com
