Worldwide, this Women’s World Cup has broken television records. The U.S. Women’s National Team jersey is currently the highest-selling soccer jersey in the history of Nike.com. Fox Sports ad space was almost entirely sold out by the end of the tournament, with prices tripling since the 2015 Women’s World Cup. Yet, with all of these victories, why isn’t the sport as far along as it should be by now? These women have won back to back World Cup titles, and yet they still make less money than any male professional soccer players. They have fought hard to get where they are, but the media is still more concerned with whether or not they will go to the White House than with their actual progress and success. Not to mention, questions of the White House were being asked long before the U.S. had even won the tournament.
Called arrogant for stating they had the best first and second team in the tournament, ridiculed for celebrating an instrumental goal against England in the semi-finals, and criticized for scoring TOO MANY goals in their first game against Thailand (setting the world record for amount of goals in a game). Do you think a professional male athlete would ever face this same criticism? I sure don’t think so. NFL games are pervaded with touchdown dances criticism-free.
It’s an age-old argument that seems to come up every time women compete at the professional level. For example, the media was criticized, rightly so, throughout the 2016 and 2018 Olympics for objectifying and sexualizing women. But hopefully this Women’s World Cup will help open not only the eyes of the media, but also the sports fans that religiously follow their content, to the problem of unequal pay and unequal coverage in women’s sports. And if you think this inequality is justified due to a lower revenue in women’s sports, I encourage you to check out the U.S. Women’s National teams’ recent ticket sales. I think you’ll be surprised to find that the women’s team has actually brought in more revenue from games than the men’s team since 2016. So, maybe it’s time we stopped treating women’s sports like they’re an entirely different dimension from the world of men’s sports. We need to stop criticizing women simply because they intimidate us, and begin celebrating them and their achievements.
– Katie McCarthy
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