Gender Soccer Equal Pay

Many sporting games are played by the people in a nation, such as swimming, volleyball, and handball. The soccer game is one of the sporting activities played by 11 v 11 players. Like any classic game, the game’s official rules do not apply to these games. A certified referee can officiate it for it to be an official game. If no referee is present to officiate the game, it is considered as being played for fun. The object used to play the game is a ball moved up the pitch and beyond the opposing team’s goal line. The game, primarily by standard, should last for at least 90 minutes with a split of two halves of 45 minutes. Mainly soccer in the world was commonly played by the male gender, but due to the modernized attributions, it is also played by the female gender. The women have also partaken professionally in playing soccer at local or regional levels worldwide. An example of one of the famous worldwide players is Megan Rapinoe originated from the U.S. (Allison, R. 2018). The female players encounter challenges in playing the game. This paper will discuss the gender inequality in paying the female player of a soccer game as outlined by Megan.

As a soccer star in the U.S., Megan has led the women’s national team in the U.S. to help advocate for equal pay for female soccer players. In a year, the women working for an entire period earn around 82 cents for every dollar paid to the male players, according to the finding by the National Women’s Law Center, which enacts the policy focusing on the fight for gender justice. Instances of discrimination against female players have arisen in the following ways. After a tournament game, the distribution of money between the female and male players in terms of victory, loss, or draw in the match (Campbell, H. 2017). If the male team losses victory in a world tournament game, they are given a big bonus for engaging in the play. Equally, if the women team loses or draws in the tournament match, they are not rewarded for engaging in the play. Women players are discriminated against in their pay for leave because they are not compensated when the women are on leave.

In contrast, the male players are compensated in their leave days. The women players not being paid on their leave days are faced with a difficult choice on whether to forego their professional career income or avail themselves to cater for their loved ones or family or not, especially during the pandemic times, for instance, the period of the outbreak of Covid 19 pandemic. The workforce of the women players also loses their job when the union faces financial footing and needs to lay off some workers to meet the budget. The women, in most cases, are laid off with no cause, and they perform their job to their professional level best but are laid off because they are considered a liability by the women. The men are given more preferential of retaining their job and, hence, a continued financial income.

In conclusion, I would say that Megan took a good stand by engaging the relevant bodies in the campaign to fight for equal pay for all the women soccer players in the U.S. and on a worldwide basis. The female players deserve to be paid equally as the male players since they both try to their level best to perform their task to give the most productive output professionally. They both give the best level of playing the same game hence deserve the same pay benefits.

References

https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/amp/news/story/soccer-star-megan-rapinoe-testifies-congress-gender-pay-76635386.

Campbell, H. (2017). Superior Play, Unequal Pay: U.S. Women’s Soccer and the Pursuit for Pay Equity. USFL Rev., 51, 545.

Allison, R. (2018). Women’s soccer in the United States: introduction.