Death, taxes, and Megan Rapinoe complaining. In American life today, these are the three things we just can’t avoid.
We suffered through endless media cycles about “equal pay” complaints after the U.S. women’s national soccer team won the Women’s World Cup this summer. But then the U.S. Soccer Federation released a fact sheet eviscerating the key premise of their argument, showing that the women’s team members are actually paid more.
At that point, fools like myself hoped we’d finally escaped this nightmarish news cycle. But no, it’s back.
Over the weekend, USWNT star and captain Megan Rapinoe was on TV, along with teammate Christen Press, pushing the “equal pay” hoax once again. Their media appearances come after mediation talks between the team and the U.S. Soccer Federation broke down last week, meaning the USWNT’s (baseless) equal pay lawsuit might actually end up in court. As usual, they played the victim.
Per CBS News, Press said “It’s very simple for us. I mean, it’s not just about us, and it’s not just about this moment. We’re trying to do this on behalf of women everywhere, to be treated respectfully and paid lawfully.” Rapinoe added “It’s very frustrating for us on the team — for women everywhere, I’m sure, to feel like they aren’t getting paid like they should be.”
According to the outspoken pair, talks broke down because they just aren’t willing to budge on “equality.” In reality, as the U.S. Soccer Federation told CBS, the women’s team has continued to “present misleading information to the public in an effort to perpetuate confusion.” The fact is, the U.S. Soccer Federation actually pays the members of the women’s team more than it pays the men’s team. The gap that exists is the result of the unequal prize pot paid out by soccer’s international governing body, FIFA. That’s based on a disparity in revenue between the men’s and women’s events.
That’s why, aside from their U.S. Soccer Federation compensation, do receive less prize money from the Women’s World Cup than the men do for their — relatively much worse — performance in the World Cup. But this is just a natural consequence of differences in viewership and level of play, not evidence of deeply-ingrained sexism.
Quoted by the Guardian, Major League Soccer men’s coach Frank de Boer eviscerated their complaints: “I think for me, it’s ridiculous. If there are watching, for the World Cup final, 500 million people or something like that, and 100 million for a women’s final, that’s a difference. And of course they have to be paid what they deserve to [earn] and not less, just what they really deserve.”
As I’ve written before:
The women’s team garners significant but substantially lower viewership. We don’t have data for the 2019 tournament, but during the women’s last World Cup in 2015, 764 million viewers tuned in for some portion of the tournament. This is quite good, but it still pales in comparison to the men’s tournament’s audience.
None of these facts are getting in the way of a good feminist narrative. On TV this weekend, Rapinoe insisted that “if this needs to go to litigation … we have a great case.” But as long as people continue to entertain and accept her baseless claims, Rapinoe has already won.
