Spotted: Kicking for Consciousness

It's been a minute.

But that minute has been well spent.

Since my last post, I have laughed and cried and everything in between. Boredom has become strange to me, having grown used to at least one thing swimming around in the back of my mind almost constantly. As I have learnt in the past week however, I am happy in spite and because of those mixed emotions - more than ever.

School here is different. Not only because of the technology at our disposal, but the motivation behind the way of the teaching. In fact, it doesn't feel like school. I am doing exactly what I want to, creating art in every sense, learning and growing from the process and sentiments i put into it. Writing an essay of 1.500 words seemed like an obstacle that needed to be tackled when it was first assigned, now it seems like an opportunity that begs to be seized.

Since listing everything I have been up to for the past month would result in an endless breath, I am going to share one of my essays instead. Two weeks ago we had to engage with a topic that has been widely acknowledged but rather avoided and silenced: the wage gap between men and women. With the most recent success of the U.S. National Women's soccer team, the discussion has resurfaced and is here to stay.

I invite you to dive into the issue.

Enjoy.

Kicking for Consciousness

In the year of 1930, the same year that marked the beginning of the Great Depression, the US national soccer team reached the semi-finals during the inaugural tournaments of the first FIFA World Cup. Only 72 years later, the team fought for their place in the quarterfinals of the seventeenth World Cup in 2002, dropping out shortly after. Although it has improved over the course of the years, it has yet to call a World Cup their own.

In the year of 1991, the same year The Silence of the Lambs appeared on cinema screensall over the globe, the first FIFA Women’s World Cup was held. It was won by the US. Only eight years later, the team achieved their second victory, followed by their third in 2015 and their fourth in 2019, which makes them Champions two times in a row within five years.In March this year, the US Women’s national soccer team filed a lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation, raising awareness on gender discrimination when it comes to monetary compensation for their achievements.

For most sports history, participation had been preserved for male audiences only. From the first Olympic Games in 776 BC to monks enjoying early approaches of tennis during the 11th century, onward to England almost eight hundred years later, where the basic rules for soccer were invented. It wasn’t until the late 19th century, that women took part in the world of sports, participating in the second Olympic Games of 1900, competing in golf and tennis. The first woman to win a gold medal in the Olympic Games, was british Charlotte Cooper for her achievements in tennis that same year.Inclusive sports has come a long way, having conquered social obstacles like Pierre de Coubertin’s attitude towards female presence in sports, founding patriarch of the Olympics Games, labeling it as being “impractical, uninteresting, ungainly and [...] improper.”

Traces of this reluctance can however still be felt by competing women in modern times. According to sources of The Guardian, each team member of the US women’s soccer team is paid $260,000 for winning a World Cup, whereas their male opponents are paid more than $1.1 Million. Provided that was an event with actual probability. The lawsuit against the US soccer federation states, that women would be given only 38% of the earnings a member of the male team had made. In response to most recent accusations, the U.S. Soccer Federation claims, that any pay disparities would be “based on differences in aggregated revenue”, adding that the team “perform[s] a different work”.

Research shows, it is not only doing the same job, it is doing it far better than its male opponents. The total revenue of games engaged in by the Men’s team between 2016 and 2018 was $49,9 Million, whereas the Women’s team generated a staggering $50,8 Million, as reported by The Washington Post. While the USNT (U.S. National Team) competed in ten of the 21 FIFA World Cups held since its birthing hour in 1930, reaching third place for the first and last time in that same year, the USWNT (U.S. Women’s National Team) qualified for all eight of the Women’s World Cups to date, taking home a trophy four times.It shows yet again how only the extremes succeed in drawing global attention on social issues. Winning the World Cup four times and filing a federal lawsuit finally got the media coverage it deserves - and needs.

This phenomenon isn’t limited to the world of sports after all. The pay gap between men and women is a creeping controversy of both past and present life. It is only now, in times of global connectedness and wakening mentality, that society acknowledges its faults head-on and yet tries to avoid responsibility.

As a matter of fact, women reportedly make 79 cents of every dollar a man earns in median salary in 2019, stated by payscale. Even though the controlled gender pay gap, which only looks at the median salary of men and women with the same job and qualifications, is at a hopeful 98 cents per earned dollar by a man, gender discrimination is still a part of women’s reality and the gap resulting from it, an obstacle that needs to be tackled. Statistics by payscale show a one percent improvement of the ‘raw’ pay gap from 2018 and a five percent improvement from 2015, demonstrating change for the better. But why is it even a conversation to begin with? Why do women have to fight more for the same dollar?

Looking back at the 1950s, workforce was split into a much higher percentage of men and a much lower percentage of women contribution. While close to ninety percent of men were participating in work labour, only thirty percent of women were maintaining a job. This came primarily as a result of women not having the same education opportunities as men, facing the popular perception of housewives and mothers and career paths being widely reserved for men throughout the 1960s. Eventually these restrictions started to be lifted during the 1970s, when women took the streets, protesting for equal rights and opportunities among the freedom for personal flourish. The Women’s Rights Movement enabled a new perspective of the labour landscape to become reality- or at least to be considered.

Ever since, women have been taking on jobs that could not have been imagined to be carried out by a female before. Even though there has been an optimistic improvement, we still haven't reached the ideal yet.

However, sports is still dominated by the opposite gender. Since urban soccer was set up by the Football Association in 1863 in London, it has been considered a sport for men first and foremost celebrated by men. After a trailblazing game between two all-female soccer teams in Liverpool in 1920 had attracted more than 53.000 spectateurs, the Football Association, feeling threatened by the rising interest in a women’s league, cast a band for women in soccer that should last at least until 1970. While british female players were restricted of competing, all of Europe started establishing women’s leagues of their own in the years that followed. When the british ban was finally lifted, 35 countries had thriving women’s teams.

Leading up to the first Women’s World Cups in 1991, the female conquest of a previously male-privileged sport gained more and more popularity. Now, there have been eight Women’s World Cups in total, won by four teams. The national team of Norway and Japan have won one time each, whereas the German team has won two times and the U.S. team four times. As of this year, the USWNT prides itself with having won two titles in a row, they are however not the first to do so.

In the year of 2003, the championship title was brought home by the German national soccer team. Again in 2007, meaning no break in between. For those who have been consciously walking the earth back then, there is no recollection of this event happening. Simply, because there wasn’t yet the social interest in it.

Back in 2005, only five percent of US adults were using social media, a percentage that has risen to a staggering 79 percent in 2019. With the ongoing process of globalisation and intercontinental connection, the exchange and formation of opinions has drastically changed since the early 2000s. Nowadays, the demand of feminism, freedom and social justice is almost seen as a given, compared to the situation fifteen years ago. Ultimately media follows the public's opinion- and the public's money. Where there is controversy, there is a fortune to make. So even though we are given the impression of revolutionized media coverage, there’s still the same motivation, adjusted to the most recent demands.

The debate of pay disparity is after all dependent on the media. The reason why the wage gap between men and women in soccer hasn’t been a big deal back when Germany won two titles in a row, is simply because the public wasn’t asking for this kind of content. The USWNT has today the unprecedented advantage of a globalized media landscape and world perception. Having to win two titles in a row to gain the recognition it deserves, however there’s still gender discrimination. Even though, the shift towards social media facilitates news spread for the women’s team, gender bias dominates the soccer scene. After all, the Men’ World Cup gets news and media coverage all over the world and is celebrated like a tradition within the countries.

In the year 2019, the U.S. Women’s National Team won the Women’s World Cup title for the second time in a row. It is also the year where women drew the line, not only hoping, but fighting for the attention they deserve.Where there’s determination mixed with hope, there’s change.

-This post is dedicated to Chris, thinking back to the multiple heated discussions and as a sign that I haven't forgotten about them.-