Avengers of the Week | Professional Women Soccer Players Fighting for Equal Pay

Ada Hegerberg, a Norwegian professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Division 1 Féminine club Olympique Lyonnais. Photo credit: Steffen Prößdorf [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

The FIFA Women’s World Cup begins today, so it’s only fitting that we highlight the women who are standing up for themselves and their colleagues by fighting for equal pay for professional women soccer players. 28 members of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team have an open lawsuit that alleges gender discrimination by U.S. Soccer because “despite greater success than the U.S. men’s national team, the women’s team has consistently been paid drastically less.”

And it’s not only women in the United States who are bringing the issue of soccer’s inequality into the limelight. One of soccer’s brightest stars, Ada Hegerberg, is sitting out the entire 2019 Women’s World Cup in protest of the huge disparity in recognition, pay, and value of men’s and women’s soccer.

The @USWNT and footballer @AdaStolsmo ‏are not backing down from the fight for equal pay and equal respect, even if it means sitting out the @FIFAWWC. #TimeForAction #FIFAWWC #AvengersOfTheWeek #GenderAvenger https://www.genderavenger.com/blog/avengers-of-the-week-women-soccer-players-equal-pay