Megan Rapinoe tells House committee on Equal Pay Day, 'One cannot simply outperform inequality'

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

Soccer

Megan Rapinoe tells House committee on Equal Pay Day, ‘One cannot simply outperform inequality’

By Des Bieler and Cindy Boren
March 24, 2021 at 3:18 p.m. EDT

Megan Rapinoe took the U.S. national women’s soccer team’s battle for equal pay to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, testifying “there is no level of status, accomplishments, or power that will protect you from the clutches of inequity.”

“One cannot simply outperform inequality or be excellent enough to escape discrimination of any kind,” Rapinoe said in her opening statement before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

Rapinoe and other members of the national team are scheduled to join President Biden and first lady Jill Biden at the White House to mark Equal Pay Day late Wednesday afternoon.

“We are told in this country that if you just work hard and continue to achieve, you will be rewarded fairly. It’s the promise of the American Dream. But that promise has not been for everyone,” Rapinoe said. “If that can happen to us, to me, with the brightest lights shining on us, it can, and it does, happen to every person who is marginalized by gender. And we don’t have to wait. We don’t have to continue to be patient. We can change that today. Right now.”

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Des Bieler
Des Bieler is a staff writer in Sports who covers a wide variety of topics, including fantasy football. He first settled in at The Post in 1995 and has proved difficult to dislodge. Follow https://twitter.com/DesBieler

Cindy Boren
Cindy Boren arrived at The Post in 2000 as an assignment editor in charge of baseball and NFL/Washington Football Team coverage. She switched to full-time writing, focusing on national sports stories and issues, when she founded The Early Lead blog in 2010. Follow https://twitter.com/cindyboren

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/24/megan-rapinoe-uswnt-white-house/

[mahatmakanejeeves]

1. Megan Rapinoe, USWNT members to attend White House event on equal pay

Megan Rapinoe, USWNT members to attend White House event on equal pay

Link to tweet

[ybbor]

2. I am fine with the USWNT members being paid the same as USMNT

On the other hand, I have seen posts on FB showing a comparison between Sue Bird and Lebron James’ salaries, and do not believe they are valid.

The NBA brings in so much money from TV contracts alone that the WNBA does not. The NBA games have much higher attendance than WNBA games, at higher ticket prices. The NBA plays an 82 game season versus a 34 game regular season for the WNBA.

While I don’t believe any athlete should be getting paid $20-$40 million a year, I am able to see why male athletes get more for the pure financial aspects.

I may be wrong here, but there is much parity in tennis. The women are paid the same for the majors, but they only play best of 3 sets compared to the men’s best of 5 sets. Which is significant.

So again, the USWNT does deserve fair and equal pay to USMNT for the mere reason that they play in front of sold out stadiums, and more importantly, they are consistently the best in the world.

Just my thoughts on this situation, and others along the same vein.