If there is one image that will remain etched in our memories and will impose itself d vitam aeternam as a symbol of the success of football among women in the United States, it is that of Brandi Chastain at the end of the Cup. 1999 world played at home: in a black bra, falling to his knees screaming his joy after scoring a decisive penalty that sealed the victory of the American team. Since then, nothing will be the same. Even if this coronation was not the first, it will be the one who will bring this discipline to another scale. Why is soccer more successful for women than for men in Star-Spangled Land? We tell you everything.
At the origin of the roots of success?
In 1972, a law called Title IX was passed prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs funded by the federal government. From there, most sports in the United States received a shock wave. The impact was immediate and above all gigantic. Until this provision came into force, there were many more male teams, especially American football, than female schools, and male students were much more likely to obtain a sports scholarship. Once voted, Title IX suddenly forces universities to offer the same number of scholarships and the same benefits to female athletes. Which creates a dilemma to achieve parity. American football is one of the top grossing sports and attracts a lot of athletes. However, its equivalence does not exist among women, this sport being secular in the country. In terms of other disciplines such as volleyball or basketball, women’s teams have little if any size, no competitiveness or real challenges. The choice of soccer became logical and legitimate. The universities are therefore putting the package on women’s football which has the advantage of attracting and above all hiring a lot of players and of being inexpensive in terms of infrastructure. At the same time, parents, always on the lookout for ways to secure college scholarships for their children, are starting to push their daughters to join the sport. The number of participants is growing very quickly. In 1991, there were 120,000 high school girls playing football, 250,000 in 1999 and 375,000 in 2015, according to figures from the Fivethirtyeight site. Today, it is estimated that well over two million girls of all ages play soccer, and obviously it is one of the most popular women’s sports in the United States.
What about the parallel with men?
If the Americans dominate international football so much and seem so sovereign, it is because they have taken the lead and benefited from a virtual absence of competition. Until a few years ago, women’s football was almost non-existent elsewhere. It was indeed banned in Great Britain and Germany for a good half of the twentieth century before a leveling of values much later. The good proof, at the first Women’s World Cup in 1991, there were only twelve teams. In addition to their coronation on this launch edition, the American players will lift the precious sesame three more times, notably in 1999, 2015 and 2019. Sacred on several occasions at the World Cup, they will also be at the Olympic Games over four editions as well: 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012; all of which explains the unspeakable popularity now tamed by athletes. By way of illustration, the 2015 final against Japan was seen by nearly 23 million American viewers, an absolute record for a football match. By comparison, only 17.3 million watched the 2014 Men’s World Cup final and 11.8 million that of 2018. No wonder the US men’s team is hardly shining. For example, it failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2018 and has never passed the quarter-finals since 1930. It also attracts fewer spectators to the stadiums and, therefore, less income. The comparison is therefore chimerical since the gap is abysmal.
A success that does not prevent “institutionalized sex discrimination”
Despite this pomp and all these hours of glory that it has acquired over the years, the women’s team is treated much less than its male counterparts and, according to her, is the object of blatant discrimination at all levels: in medical treatment, coaches, the stadiums where they play, transport to get to matches, resources devoted to the promotion of matches… Not to mention the thorny and no less essential question of salaries. Even if it may seem inappropriate to compare the emoluments devolved to the two sexes, the contracts or other sponsorship agreements being of various versions, there is reason to ask questions and to be moved. According to the text of a complaint filed a few years ago, the players could win in 20 friendly matches a maximum of $ 4,950 per game won, while the men, with equal performance, pocketed $ 13,166.
In the meantime, the lines will shift a bit. In 2015, the women’s team succeeded in requiring that they no longer play on artificial turf, a surface on which the men refused to play. In 2017, she negotiated a 5-year collective agreement with the federation which grants her a salary increase and bonuses, improves travel conditions and marketing revenues … However, the gap is still present and the remuneration of the players still fall short of those of their male counterparts. Three months before the Women’s World Cup in France in 2019, the 28 members of the national team struck a blow. They brought a lawsuit against their federation for “institutionalized sex discrimination” but the mountain will only give birth to a caterpillar. In May 2020, Team USA will be provisionally dismissed by the courts, collective labor agreements oblige. Later, at the end of the same year, still in the context of the judgment of this case, the American Football Federation agreed to adopt and implement several policies in favor of female footballers providing for resources for charter flights, rooms hotel, playing venues, field surfaces and support services equal to those of the men’s team.
An eye on the course and the aura in the world of sport of athletes like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan makes it possible to realize with sufficient measure the place more and more growing on the sporting planet of women’s football. Obvious now!
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Aremou Rare
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