There aren't too many teams that have reached the level of accomplishments on the soccer field like the USA Soccer Team. With three world cups and four Olympic gold medals, you would think the concept of gender inequality doesn't exist.
Even with all these achievements, some of the women's soccer players are saying they are being paid less and treated harsher than their male counterparts. The players on the United States Women's National Team doesn't mind going toe-to-toe with the U.S. Soccer Federation, to get the recognition they deserve. For these players, this isn't just for them and other women who play sports, it's for women who have the same occupation as men but are paid less because they are a woman.
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Carli Lloyd is the captain of the US team, and is considered the best female soccer player in the world. Lloyd recently spoke with Norah O'Donnell during a segment called "The Match of Their Lives". In the segment, Lloyd spoke about how she feels the players are being treated like second-class citizens because they don't care about women as much as they do men.
This isn't the first time the team has brought up the idea of equal pay, Hope Solo, a goalkeeper on the team for 19 years stated, "Time and time again we asked that we wanted to be paid equally to the men. Every time we brought up the men, it pissed them off it, annoyed them, and they’d say, 'Don’t bring up the men. Don’t bring it up.'"
According to Solo, there are two different types of pay structures: the men get paid per game whether they win or lose, women are on a salary based contract. According to O'Donnell, Hope Solo was paid about $366,000 dollars in total by U.S. Soccer in 2015, but in 2014, also a World Cup year for the men, team USA goalkeeper Tim Howard was paid $398,495. Hope played in 23 games for the U.S. Howard played in 8.
Lloyd was asked by O'Donnell if she thought she should get paid more than the men's team. "Yes, we win. We’re successful. Should get what we deserve," Lloyd said.
It's not like the women on the US Soccer Team are screaming equal pay just for the sake of it. I believe they have justification for equal pay due to their accomplishments with the team. The field of sports is still heavily dominated by men, and often show prejudice towards women because of the fact they are women.
If this was David Beckham, or Lionel Messi who wanted a pay raise few people would oppose. It's something to have achievements in your field, and still not get the recognition you deserve.
