Coming off an impressive World Cup title after dominating a championship game that drew 26.7 million viewers, the most for a soccer game in American history, the USWNT is looking for another victory: pay equality.
Mary Emily O’Hara at the Daily Dot revealed some of the reasons why a few members of congress are banding together to fight FIFA for gender equality:
On Tuesday, 28 members of Congress, led by Reps. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) and Linda Sánchez (D-Calif), sent a letter to international football association FIFA demanding that the gender-based pay gap in soccer be closed.
“There is ample evidence that FIFA has underinvested in women’s sports out of motives ranging from apathy to discrimination,” wrote Speier in the letter.
“FIFA only puts about 15 percent of global development money into women’s and girl’s programs,” Speier continued. “It has also provided women players with unequal facilities such as astroturf playing fields instead of grass ones, which prompted a discrimination lawsuit that FIFA avoided out of sheer delay.”
FIFA has all sorts of issues to work out, but the gender-based pay gap should find its way near the top of that list.
