As the FIFA Women’s World Cup begins, the U.S. women’s national team is eyeing its second consecutive title, and its fourth since the Women’s World Cup began in 1991.
The United States has consistently dominated at the Women’s World Cup. In fact, the team has never finished worse than third, and in taking home the gold in 2015, the squad outscored its seven opponents by a collective score of 14 to 3. One could argue the squad is an even more dominant sports team than the New England Patriots or the Golden State Warriors.
To many, this success may seem rather odd. Soccer has never been very popular in the U.S., and the men’s national team has always struggled at the World Cup, if they even qualify for it. So, what explains the women’s team’s success?
Simply put, America affords women far more opportunities than other countries do.
Given the more popular nature of men’s sports in general, nations with strong men’s soccer teams are typically nations where soccer is very popular. Countries such as Brazil, Portugal, and England often come to mind. But interestingly, countries with strong men’s soccer teams don’t always have strong women’s teams. In fact, they usually don’t.
Of the top 15 nations in the FIFA Men’s World Ranking, only five are also top 15 in the FIFA Women’s World Ranking (France, Brazil, England, Germany, and Spain). Many countries, such as Portugal, Croatia, and Uruguay have strong men’s teams and strong soccer cultures, yet their women’s teams are mediocre at best. Croatia’s men’s team is ranked 5th, but its women’s team is ranked 56th. Uruguay’s men’s team is ranked 6th, by its women’s team is ranked 74th.
This lack of opportunity for women isn’t just reflected in these nations’ soccer teams. It’s also reflected in their salaries.
According to numbers from an OECD Data study, which provides average wages for the entire population as well as the gender pay gap, women make more money in the U.S. than they do in any of the men’s soccer powerhouse countries. American women earn an average of $49,500. In Portugal, women only early $22,000 per year. In Spain, they earn $34,100. Belgian women come the closest, but still fall short at $47,700 per year.
None of this is to say that America is perfect. Some critics would quickly point out the U.S. Women’s National Team earns significantly less money than the Men’s National Team, despite performing remarkably better, and I think there’s merit to that complaint. On a broader scale, there are certainly some individual and societal issues that make certain career paths more challenging for women that they would be for men.
However, this is to say that when it comes to providing women with career opportunities, America is doing better than pretty much everybody else. We should always be looking to improve, and we shouldn’t become complacent simply because we’re a world leader in this matter, but it’s still worth taking a sobering moment to be proud of who we are and what we’ve done.
America is a land of remarkable opportunity for women, and the U.S. Women’s National Team will be reminding the rest of the world of that as they mop the floor with their opponents in the 2019 Women’s World Cup.
