dtucker300 wrote:
https://www.dailywire.com/news/49244/walsh-womens-soccer-players-say-they-deserve-equal-matt-walsh?utm_source=shapironewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=%20070819%20-news&utm_campaign=position4
WALSH: Women's Soccer Players Say They Deserve ‘Equal Pay.’ But The Stats Show That They Are Actually Overpaid.
By MATT WALSH
@MATTWALSHBLOG
July 8, 2019
I'm not much of a soccer fan because I prefer watching sports, personally, but I was still happy to hear that the U.S. women's team won the World Cup over the weekend. I am far less enthused by the "g****r pay gap" discussion that their victory inevitably generated, however.
The players on the women's team, along with the fans in the stadium, various p**********l candidates, and a chorus of other feminists, have all insisted that female soccer players are the victims of a sexist wage gap. After all, they are paid less than male players, and misogyny is the only conceivable reason for this disparity. It is time, we are told, to rectify this injustice.
But is there any t***h to these claims? Are women in soccer underpaid? If there is a g****r pay gap, could there be a reasonable, non-bigoted explanation for it? Let's take a look at the facts.
First, we should clarify a crucial point. You've probably heard that the women should be paid more because they're better and they earn more revenue. Both of those claims are extremely misleading. It's true that the women's team is more successful against women than the men's team is against men. That does not mean that the women are actually better players. Keep in mind that the U.S. women's team lost to a bunch of 13- and 14-year-old boys a few years ago. If they couldn't beat adolescent boys, they can't beat grown men.
As for revenue, historically U.S. men's soccer has generated more revenue than U.S. women's soccer. That gap has closed in recent years, and now the women generate slightly more than the men — though this only takes into account ticket sales, not TV deals and merchandise. But the pay gap in U.S. soccer is not nearly as large as advertised. The highest-paid female soccer players in this country are paid almost the same as the highest-paid male soccer players. The pay gap in U.S. soccer only widens among the lower-tier players. The top stars are already on a very similar pay scale, as The New York Times notes:
According to figures provided by U.S. Soccer, since 2008 it has paid 12 players at least $1 million. Six of those players were men, and six were women. And the women hold their own near the top of the pay scale; the best-paid woman made about $1.2 million from 2008 to 2015, while the top man made $1.4 million in the same period. Some women in the top 10 even made more than their male counterparts over those years.
The really significant pay gap, and the one that gets most of the press, is in the World Cup payouts. FIFA, the international soccer organization, will give about $400 million to male players in the World Cup, while female players will make around $30 million. When you hear that male players make 10 times what female players make, this is the figure that justifies the claim.
Megan Rapinoe has specifically condemned FIFA for this pay gap, and the FIFA president was booed over the issue after the World Cup in France. The fans in France weren't chanting "equal pay" because they want equal pay just in U.S. soccer, where the pay for top stars is already close to equal. They want it internationally, where the pay is definitely not close to equal. But that ine******y, as Forbes explains, is entirely due to the astronomical disparity in revenue:
As Dwight Jaynes pointed out four years ago after the U.S. women beat Japan to capture the World Cup in Vancouver, there is a big difference in the revenue available to pay the teams. The Women's World Cup brought in almost $73 million, of which the players got 13%. The 2010 men's World Cup in South Africa made almost $4 billion, of which 9% went to the players.
The men still pull the World Cup money wagon. The men's World Cup in Russia generated over $6 billion in revenue, with the participating teams sharing $400 million, less than 7% of revenue. Meanwhile, the Women's World Cup is expected to earn $131 million for the full four-year cycle 2019-22 and dole out $30 million to the participating teams.
So that is $6 billion v. $131 million. The women aren't even in the same universe, in terms of revenue. If the women were paid the same total as the men — $400 million — they would be making nearly four times more than they generate. The men make 7% of their revenue. The women apparently want 400% of theirs. That's absurd, obviously, to say the least.
Megan Rapinoe, humble as always, will settle for just a meager quadrupling of their prize money. But $30 million quadrupled is $120 million. That would be close to 100 percent of their revenue. Again: The men only make 7%. Already, the women are earning around 20%. Indeed, if we want to be "fair" and "equal," we must conclude that the women are overpaid. Or else the men are underpaid. Either way, on an international scale, if there is a g****r pay gap, women are the beneficiaries of it.
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U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Wins World Cup, Criticizing Pay Discrimination and President Trump
STORY JULY 08, 2019
GUESTS
Shireen Ahmed
writer, public speaker and award-winning sports activist.
Amira Rose Davis
assistant professor of history and African American studies at Penn State University.
The U.S. national women’s soccer team made history by winning its record fourth World Cup after defeating the Netherlands 2 to 0 on Sunday in Lyon, France. The U.S. women’s World Cup victory came just months after members of the 2015 women’s team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation over g****r discrimination. Following the victory, audience members began to chant “equal pay” in solidarity with the team’s demands for an equal salary to their male counterparts. Prize money for this year’s Women’s World Cup is just $30 million compared to $400 million for the 2018 men’s World Cup. Co-captain Megan Rapinoe was awarded the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot awards for best player and top goal scorer. Rapinoe has been the center of attention throughout the tournament. Before games she refused to sing the national anthem or put her hand on her heart. She also made headlines for saying she would refuse to go to the White House if invited. We speak with Shireen Ahmed, award-winning sports activist focusing on Muslim women in sports, and Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of history and African American studies at Penn State University.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The U.S. national women’s soccer team made history by winning its record fourth World Cup after defeating the Netherlands 2 to 0 on Sunday. Soon after the game ended, members of the crowd began chanting “Equal Pay! Equal Pay!”
CROWD: Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!
AMY GOODMAN: Prize money for this year’s Women’s World Cup is just $30 million, compared to $400 million for the 2018 men’s World Cup. The U.S. women World Cup victory came just months after members of the 2015 women’s team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation over g****r discrimination. On Sunday, co-captain Megan Rapinoe spoke to the media shortly after she was awarded the Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards for best player and top goal scorer.
MEGAN RAPINOE: We’ve done exactly what we set out to do. We’ve done exactly what we want to do. We say what we feel. All of us, really. I know that my voice sometimes is louder, but, you know, in meal rooms and in conversations, everybody is in this together. We are such a proud and strong and defiant group of women. I don’t think we have really anything to say.
AMY GOODMAN: Megan Rapinoe has been the center of attention throughout the World Cup. Before the games, she refused to sing the national anthem or put her hand on her heart. She also made headlines for saying she would refuse to go to the White House if invited by President Trump. Rapinoe first told Eight by Eight magazine, quote, “I’m not going to the f—ing White House.”
MEGAN RAPINOE: I’m not going to the [bleep] White House. No, I’m not going to the White House. That’s—we’re not going to be invited.
REPORTER: You’re not going to be invited?
MEGAN RAPINOE: I doubt it.
AMY GOODMAN: Megan Rapinoe later defended her comments at a news conference during the Women’s World Cup.
MEGAN RAPINOE: I stand by the comments that I made about not wanting to go to the White House, with the exception of the expletive. My mom will be very upset about that. But I think, obviously, entering with a lot of passion, considering how much time and effort and p***e we take in the platform that we have and using it for good and for leaving the game in a better place, and hopefully the world in a better place, I don’t think that I would want to go, and I would encourage my teammates to think hard about lending that platform or having that co-opted by an administration that doesn’t feel the same way and doesn’t fight for the same things that we fight for.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2016, Megan Rapinoe became the first major white athlete to—one of the first major, to kneel during the national anthem before a game as a player with her team, Seattle Reign. She’s also an outspoken advocate for L***Q rights.
While the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has invited the team to Capitol Hill, it remains unclear if President Trump will extend an invitation to the White House. On Sunday, he said, quote, “We haven’t really thought about it,” although previously said he would invite the women’s team, whether they won or lost.
Well, for more, we’re joined by two guests. Shireen Ahmed is a writer, public speaker, award-winning sports activist focusing on Muslim women in sports and the intersections of r****m and misogyny in sport. And Amira Rose Davis is an assistant professor of history and African American studies at Penn State. She’s currently working on a book entitled Can’t Eat a Medal: The Lives and Labors of Black Women Athletes in the Age of Jim Crow. They’re both part of a team of five women who created the weekly Burn It All Down sports podcast.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Shireen, let’s begin with you. Your response to the women’s soccer win, once again, on Sunday?
SHIREEN AHMED: I think it was fantastic. The match itself was exciting. I mean, it’s been an incredible five weeks. What I love most about the win, I think, is that—the way that this U.S. women’s national team has brought forth the idea that sports are inherently political, that women’s sports are inherently political, sports for marginalized folks are inherently political. And it’s a constant and not very subtle, but very effective reminder of that. And that’s one of the biggest takeaways of the entire tournament.
AMY GOODMAN: And, Amira Rose Davis, your response to this historic win? This one, after last year’s [sic]—I mean, the women’s soccer team has won four World Cups.
AMIRA ROSE DAVIS: Yes, certainly. And if you think about the pressure that they put on their own shoulders by going into this World Cup after filing a g****r discrimination suit, based largely on saying, “We’re winning, and we’re not being paid equitably,” they put enormous pressure on their shoulders. And as Shireen alluded to, they are very much embracing the fact that sports is inherently political, as many athletes do. But I think this team, in particular, has a keen awareness of the fact that their platform, by virtue of their overwhelming whiteness and the issues that they’re speaking about, has the ability to really drive home how political sports are and what they are fighting for, both on and off the pitch.
AMY GOODMAN: And I want to talk more about that in a minute. I wanted to go directly, though, to Megan Rapinoe, who launched a scathing attack on FIFA, saying the organization does not respect the female game. Rapinoe said FIFA’s decision to allow the Copa America final and the Gold Cup final to take place on the same day as the women’s final was unbelievable. She also raised the issue of winnings and equal pay for women players.
MEGAN RAPINOE: It certainly is not fair. We should double it now and then use that number to double it for—you know, or quadruple it for the next time, obviously. I mean, I think that’s what I mean when we talk about do we feel respected. You know, earlier in the year, or maybe it was last year, a quote came out that I said FIFA doesn’t care about the women’s game. And that’s what I mean. So, if you really care about each game in the same way, are you letting the gap grow? I’m not saying that the prize money is $450 million this time or next time around. You know, I understand that for a lot of different reasons the men’s game financially is far advanced than the women’s game. But, I mean, if you really care, are you letting the gap grow? I mean, are you scheduling three finals on the same day?
AMY GOODMAN: On Friday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino proposed doubling the total prize money of the World Cup to $60 million. The men’s games in Russia last year, featuring 32 teams, had total prize money of $400 million. That amount for the men will rise to $440 million for the Qatar World Cup in 2022. Shireen, if you can respond to this, to the whole issue? I mean, it is quite astounding, this convergence of events, the lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation around equal pay, which will reverberate far beyond soccer, that call as—you know, coming at the time of this World Cup win and clearly demonstrating that the women’s sport is raising more money than the men’s team, that didn’t even qualify for the World Cup.
Continued