“Sports: Paid by Performance” by Zoe Statzer

The gender pay gap has been a long-debated topic and the fight for wage equality has been straining between the sexes. Only recently are women being paid more, yet it is still only an average of seventy-nine cents to the man’s dollar. However, most minorities, both men and women, have it even worse than their white counterparts; while African Americans make sixty-one cents, Native Americans make fifty-nine cents, and Latinx make fifty-five cents to the white man’s dollar. According to the World Economic Forum, women around the globe earn on average $12,000 a year, compared to a man’s $21,000. Yet, most people still think that “this pay gap is not evidence of discrimination, but is instead a statistical artifact of failing to adjust for factors that could drive earnings differences between men and women” (Schieder). If it is not discrimination then what is it?

Major league sports are a noticeable area where this pay gap can be distinctly viewed. Women in sports such as Billie Jean King, a world-famous tennis player, and many players from the United States Women’s National Soccer Team, also known as the USWNT, are fighting to end this inequality and discrimination once and for all. Athletes should be paid on the basis of how well the team performs, not of the basis of gender, and they should be given equal training and game field conditions to their male counterparts.

To give context to a previous lawsuit, in 2016, five of the highest-ranking players on the USWNT: Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, and Becky Sauerbrunn, filed a suit against the United States Soccer Federation, or USSF, for the first time. Much like in their most recent lawsuit against the federation, the women felt that they were being discriminated against based on their gender. Unfortunately, the case was quickly ended when the USSF “recounted the role the federation has played in the growth of women’s soccer, including its introduction to the Olympic Games and in providing full-time salaries for top players” (Das, “Top Female Players Accuse”). It is here where the federation essentially tells the women that they are lucky to have the ability to play soccer at the national level and to compete in the World Cup and Olympic games, which is not something often said to men because they have always been seen as righteous in sports and women must prove their way to even be allowed to play at a competitive level. This goes hand in hand with how “opportunities for women to participate in sports have increased greatly in the more than 40 years since the passage of the gender-equity legislation known as Title IX. But sports officials continue to struggle with matters of compensation” (Das, “Top Female Players Accuse”). Rendering the federation’s actions not only unethical but also illegal. This leads up to the most recent lawsuit.

On March 8, 2019, International Women’s Day, twenty-eight the United States Women’s National Team players came forward and filed another lawsuit after receiving confirmation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, that they could pursue one under the Equal Pay Act and the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. “The EEOC probably put a lot of resources and effort into trying to get it solved and investigating it... and finally said, 'Look, we can't get anything else done. You've got to go pursue your lawsuit or not.” (Hays). The team hopes to follow in the footsteps of Billie Jean King, a woman who started paving the way for woman to fight for equal pay by beating one of the greatest male tennis players of that time, Bobby Riggs, in a 1973 tennis match that was appropriately deemed the name “Battle of the Sexes”. Billie Jean King’s victory of this match is often credited with both starting a movement in women’s sports participation with the achievement of title IX which states “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (Department of Justice), and for empowering women to advocate for equal pay in all sectors of the workforce, not just sports.

Not only did Billie Jean King fight for equality in tennis, but even to this day she is still campaigning for equality in women’s soccer too. In a New York Times article, King reportedly states “It’s not like they don’t know it... when there’s a crisis, there’s an opportunity. It’s a moment to have a historic transformation at FIFA, and I will make my case” (Clarey). Here King suggests that if FIFA and the USSF can come together and make changes to the league it would be a historical time that is long overdue for the women. The players along with the help of King “are seeking equitable pay and treatment… The class-action request would allow any players for the team since February 2015 to join the case” (Hays). This ability to include past USWNT players like Hope Solo and Abby Wambach, who were a part of the original 2016 lawsuit, will make their class stronger and show how the USSF has discriminated against the women for so long. The Equal Pay Act prohibits discrimination of pay based on sex and according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “Title VII also makes it illegal to discriminate based on sex in pay and benefits. Therefore, someone who has an Equal Pay Act claim may also have a claim under Title VII” (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). However, “It is clear that if the pay gap is to be fully addressed, a complex response is needed. Yet, as a closer look reveals, the Equal Pay Act is ill-equipped to deal with this challenge.” (Fredman). Being able to give these women the justice they deserve starts with reforming the Equal Pay Act and Title IX.

Given the following numbers, the men’s team would make more money for simply qualifying for the World Cup than the women’s team would for winning the World Cup. In an article, “The Difference Between What the US Men's and Women's Soccer Players Make is Shocking” published by Business Insider, a chart is provided that compares the statistical pay difference between the two teams if each were to win or lose the minimum required twenty “friendly” games, as well as if they were to win or lose half of their twenty games. If both teams lost all twenty games the men would make a maximum of $100,000 while the women would cap out at solely $72,000. This is a twenty-eight percent difference in player pay. Given that each team won all twenty games, the men’s team would receive up to $263,320 and the women’s team would only get up to $99,000, a sixty-two percent difference in pay (Gaines). Why is this difference so high when the women are winning nearly all of their games? Simply for qualifying for the World Cup, the men’s team would be rewarded $2.5 million compared to the women's team’s $345,000 and for winning the World Cup the men would receive $9.3 million while the women’s award would be only $1.8 million. The pay gap is very evident if you look at the numbers.

Not only is the pay gap blatantly gender discriminatory, but the women’s team is far superior, performance wise than the men’s team in terms of wins and losses of friendly matches, Olympic medals, and World Cups. Co-captain of the Women’s National Team, Carli Lloyd, in her lawsuit statements said "In light of our team's unparalleled success on the field, it's a shame that we still are fighting for treatment that reflects our achievements and contributions to the sport. We have made progress in narrowing the gender pay gap, however, progress does not mean that we will stop working to realize our legal rights and make equality a reality for our sport." (Baxer). In 2018, the USWNT won ninety percent, tied twenty percent, and lost none of their twenty games. Compared to the United States Men’s National Team, or USMNT, who won thirty percent, tied twenty percent, and lost forty percent of their ten games. The women's team has also won a total of three World Cups so far and hope to win their fourth this summer of 2019 in France while the men have still yet to win a World Cup failing to even qualify for the World Cup in 2018. As an article by ABC News states “Women Earn the Glory While Men Earn the Money in U.S. Soccer” (Davis). Not only have the women won more World Cups, but they have also won four Olympic gold medals whereas the men have not won any.

The USWNT has also been ranked number one in the world for ten of the past eleven years and has broken the record for the most watched soccer game in the history of America between men or women, while the men remain ranked at twenty-fourth in the world. The women’s national team has undoubtedly outperformed their male counterparts and the men’s team knows it as they support the women’s lawsuit as Alex Morgan states in an interview, “The men have also come out and said that they are in support of us as well and so we respect them so much for that… you know you are doing something right when you gain that support from people around you to help lift you up” (Bankert). The men showing their support for the women’s team should make it very clear to the USSF that the women deserve to be given what they have earned.

Travel expenses, otherwise known as the per diem rate, is another area where the women are not equally compensated. The women's team receives only fifty dollars a day for domestic travel and sixty dollars a day for international travel compared to the men’s team’s sixty-two dollars for domestic travel and seventy-five dollars a day for international travel. Carli Lloyd ridiculed the United States Soccer Federation over this difference in her New York Times essay, writing that “maybe they think women are smaller and thus eat less” (Das, “Pay Disparity in U.S. Soccer?”). What makes the men worthy of receiving more money than the women for simply traveling to their games?

The women’s team is also subject to poorer field conditions compared to the men’s team. The Women’s National Team is consistently being forced to play their games, including the World Cup, on artificial turf, also known as astroturf, rather than on natural grass. In 2015, Hope Solo, then the USWNT’s goalkeeper, posted a photo of the ripped artificial turf they were expected to play on that night and stated, “Our loyal fans: Thanks for standing with us against field conditions and standing tall for #equal treatment” (Solo). Artificial turf is very harmful to an athlete’s body. In an article by the Hospital for Special Surgery some of the most common injuries that were listed are anterior cruciate ligament tears, commonly known as an ACL tear, concussions, ankle sprains, major knee injuries, and turf burn (Drakos). Turf also heats up forty to seventy degrees more than the temperature outside sometimes reaching temperatures of one hundred- and eighty-degrees Fahrenheit oftentimes melting cleats and causing heat stroke, which can be very detrimental to the safety and health of the players. The women should not be subject to these poor conditions just because they are not the men who the Soccer Federation favors.

Opposing views claim that women deserve to earn less and should just get second jobs such as Gavin McInnes who states “Women do earn less in America because they chose to… you are playing a man’s game by a man’s rules this is the way it is in our world. You have got to earn it.” When given the suggestion to just get second jobs Hope Solo responded “We do not have time to go be an Uber driver. We put in the time to win gold medals for this team.” (Minhaj). Others believe that the women just do not bring in any money as an NBC Sports article states, “...The fact is, women's soccer just doesn't generate the sort of money -- at least so far -- that the men's game does” (Jaynes). However, according to the United States Soccer Federation’s own numbers, the women’s national team has brought in nearly seventeen million in profit each year and the men’s national team consistently loses the federation nearly two million in profit.

In conclusion, female athletes should not just be fighting for equal pay, they should be fighting to be paid more than the men’s team in addition to benefiting from equal per diems and field conditions. Salary should be paid based upon how the team performs not based on whether they are male or female. The evidence makes it overwhelmingly clear that the United States Women’s National Team outperforms the Men’s National Team in all aspects of play to which they deserve the same treatment and field conditions and that they have earned the right to be paid more than the men. As Alex Morgan, USWNT forward states, “Each of us is extremely proud to wear the United States jersey, and we also take seriously the responsibility that comes with that. We believe that fighting for gender equality in sports is a part of that responsibility. As players, we deserved to be paid equally for our work, regardless of our gender” (Hays). I encourage you and others to support female sports in order to cease the inequality between the sexes. 

Pulling That Weight: How Colleges Fail Survivors of Sexual Assault by Sarah Baum

When they were a senior at Columbia University, Emma Sulkowitz (who uses they/them pronouns) was raped in their dorm by an acquaintance. They reported it to campus authorities but fell on deaf ears. When that failed, they reported their assault to the NYPD, and their case was ridiculed and dismissed. So, Emma coped with their pain and trauma through art. A visual arts major, Emma conducted their senior thesis on their assault. They called it “Carry That Weight” in reference to the emotional weight one carries after an assault and the psychological pain Emma endured knowing their rapist was still at their school. They carried with them a 50 pound mattress, identical to the one on which they were assaulted, everywhere on campus for the entire rest of their time at Columbia. “Carry That Weight” went viral; Emma was featured in The New York Times. But the sensation did nothing to help their case. Along with the knowledge their rapist would never be punished for his crime, they ended up carrying the mattress with them to get their diploma during graduation. These stories are commonplace on campuses today. Colleges do not have the resources nor the motive to protect their students from sexual violence.

One in five women will be assaulted on a college campus (RAINN). Yet, when a student is a victim of sexual assault on campus, they have no ally in their school. College campuses fail to address proper prevention and intervention tactics, such as as consent education. According to The Atlantic, “Students arriving on campus are, by many measures, less socially developed than were those of previous generations...They also create an environment in which sexual experimentation followed by shame or regret is common, as is poor communication by both parties” (par. 2).  Most states do not have any requirements for sexual assault prevention training. Of those that do, many are one-time requirements of presentations or lectures that do not resonate with students. But these programs are integral to preventing sexual assault. According to The New York Times, of a small sample size of 400 or so women, 9% of people in the control group had been sexually assaulted, contrary to 3% of those who received training. It also found that just 22 women needed to receive the training to prevent one sexual assault (par 4-5). Yet these programs continue to be cut in lieu of more profitable endeavors. Students are damned by their schools before they can even be victimized by their classmates.

Moreover, colleges lack the tools needed to react in a just, swift and ethical way to allegations of sexual assault. Title IX laws are unclear and being implemented at polarizing extremes. On one hand, it may lead to a galvanizing force for college campuses that largely use the single investigator model wherein one staff member serves as judge, jury and prosecutor.  Meanwhile, a letter sent out to university officials by the Obama administration instructed schools “to investigate any reports of possible sexual misconduct, including those that came from a third party and those in which the allTitle IX, eged victim refused to cooperate. (Paradoxically, they were also told to defer to alleged victims’ wishes, creating no small amount of confusion among administrators)” (The Atlantic, par. 7). This policy, though well intentioned, has the potential to further traumatize victims. Sexual assault is an act of taking power and control away, and by doing the same in the aftermath rubs salt in the wound. Yet, these “third party reporter” cases made up 30% of undergraduate cases of sexual violence. The same article found the timespan of college sexual assault investigations have increased from 289 days to over 900.  Such practices lead to incidents like that of Kojo Bonsu, a University of Massachusetts-Amherst student who was banned him from all campus activities and housing once allegations against him were made in an effort to adhere to Title IX policies. While precautions like these can be integral in keeping victims safe, the investigation lasted six months, only for him to be found innocent of sexual assault. By then his physical and mental health had plummeted, and he had to withdraw from classes. He will still graduate but two years too late and at another school. He is a victim of a different kind, subjugated under the very same broken system which lets actual sexual predators walk free.

On the other hand, many schools fail to do much of anything in response to claims of sexual assault. Emma Sulkowicz was one of four Columbia students to bring accusations against the same man, Paul Nungesser, but Columbia University delivered justice for none of them. Similarly, the award-winning documentary The Hunting Ground found that over a ten year period, Harvard University saw 135 reported assaults and just ten suspensions; University of California-Berkeley had 78 reported assaults and just 3 expulsions; Dartmouth College had 155 reported assaults and 3 expulsions; Stanford University had 259 assaults and just one expulsion; and the University of North Carolina and University of Virginia had 205 and 136 reported assaults respectively, with a combined total of zero expulsions (meanwhile, UVA saw 183 expulsions for other breaches of its honor code, such as plagiarism, in the same time span). These numbers do not match the statistic which found one in five women will be sexually assaulted on campus. In fact, in 2015, 89% of colleges reported no sexual assaults at all (American Association of University Women).

This transcription occurs because colleges want to produce artificially low numbers to protect their image. Colleges do not wish to be seen as a place with high rates of sexual assault, something that may deter potential students and donors. Yet, instead of solving the problem for the betterment of students, they sweep it under the rug in a “quick fix” effort to save their bottom line. Their other reason is to protect “priority” students. According to The Dallas Morning News, Baylor University coach Art Briles was on staff for years and made aware of 52 rapes committed by 31 players, but he did not act. During a gang rape in 2012, Briles had placed the blame on the victim, saying “Those are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys?” Similarly, a lawsuit against the University of Tennessee found it showed unfair bias in favor of alleged perpetrators, particularly athletes, providing them exclusive access to a list of recommended lawyers. Then, in 2002, a Penn State football player was found guilty of rape and suspended for two semesters, yet he was still allowed to travel and play with the team. College sports, being a multi-billion dollar industry, is a great revenue generator for many institutions of higher education. It all boils down to profit; it is more profitable to retain star athletes, no matter the cost, than it is to protect rape victims.  Not only does this strip victims of justice but endangers others, as many are repeat offenders. FiveThirtyEight reported most rapes are done by a small group of people, as the average sexual predator will commit 6 rapes apiece. But because they are athletes, they get away with it, a phenomenon the Department of Education said led student athletes “to believe that there were special rules for people with special talents.”

Hofstra University is no stranger to these pitfalls. Its student policy “prohibits discriminatory harassment, relationship violence and sexual violence,” meant to ensure “an environment conducive to personal and intellectual growth.” Yet in May of last year, New York state courts found Hofstra to be in violation of its own policy regarding sexual assault when it took over a year to resolve a claim of domestic violence, in which a student alleged her boyfriend tried to strangle her and threw pepper in her eyes (Nixon Peabody). Throughout the year-long dispute, Hofstra violated the school’s own policy which calls for claims to be resolved “with reasonable promptness” defined as up to 60 days. The court also found that Hofstra acted “capriciously” in banning the male student from the dorms before having a formal hearing. Moreover, according to The Hofstra Chronicle, our Title IX Officer resigned, was replaced by a new staff member with a new title and had their office moved. But Hofstra never made this information known. So, when students with concerns of sexual harassment or violence came forward, they faced substantial roadblocks in finding the right person to contact.  It was a severe breach in transparency that was only resolved when student reporters pressured officials into sending a public email to make the information known.

In essence, college campuses are ill-equipped to deal with allegations of sexual assault and violence. No federal law mandates the consent training that is integral to reducing sexual assault on campus. Therefore, thousands of students each year embark on their college journey without it. Then, when instances of rape do arise, colleges fail to resolve the matter in a just and swift fashion, to the disservice of both the the complainant and the accused. They either hyper-galvanize the cause or ignore it all together. Colleges even have incentive to suppress these numbers. As a result, students cannot feel safe on campus. The very institutions bound to protect them literally put their lives in danger. Students’ bodies are weighed with profit, and oftentimes, profit wins. The only way to resolve the epidemic of rape on college campuses is to work together with government institutions to implement meaningful legislation that holds universities accountable and provides realistic and specific guidelines on to how stop the issue at its core. Only then will students be safe on campus. We all have a torch to bare and a role to play in carrying that weight.

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