Today’s conversations about pay equity in sports and other professions are important because they highlight how gender shapes power—who has it, who is kept from it, and how it is wielded to protect a privileged few.
Megan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe is a former professional soccer player who played for the United States national team and OL Reign of the National Women’s Soccer League. She is an outspoken advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights and intersectional feminism.
Lessons to a Young Girl From Megan Rapinoe
Megan Rapinoe hung up her soccer cleats after the final U.S. game of the 2023 World Cup. Rapinoe has proven herself as one of her generation’s most talented female players. Off the field, Rapinoe has been a leader on crucial social issues like LGBTQ+ rights, racial justice, gender equality and pay equity.
To many of her fans, her profile as a fierce agent for change is the defining component of her legacy. Count me among them.
The Ms. Top Feminists of 2022
With so many of our rights in jeopardy, social justice advocates have had to work even harder to stand up for the causes they believe in. Tackling voting rights, public health, reproductive justice and much more, here are Ms. magazine’s picks for our top feminists of 2022.
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Black Women Win Big at the Emmys; U.S. Women’s Soccer Team Officially Scores Equal Pay
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: U.S. women’s soccer team officially secures equal pay; Black women win big at the Emmys; how ranked-choice voting would help women candidates compete in New York City; and more.
Teaching Students to Write Their Rage
“The Power of Feminist Writing,” a new college course at the University of Washington, Bothell, emboldened young feminist writers during a painful school term.
“I am optimistic that they will mobilize their new skills and write their rage against the most misogynist turn they will hopefully ever see in their lifetime,” said Dr. Julie Shayne, after facing a term of mass shootings and the overturning of constitutional abortion rights with her students.
Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: Women Lawmakers Urge “Immediate Ceasefire in Ukraine”; U.S. Women’s Soccer Scores in Equal Pay Lawsuit
Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.
This week: Women elected officials urge an “immediate ceasefire in Ukraine”; Women’s National Soccer team settled an equal pay lawsuit with the U.S. Soccer Federation; the “authority gap” between men and women; just 0.2 percent of elected positions are held by LGBTQ people
A Social Movement That Happens To Play Soccer (Fall 2019)
The U.S. is now the first country to grant equal pay for its men’s and women’s soccer teams. But for years, U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team players have repeatedly complained that they’ve been getting as little as 40 percent of the salary their male counterparts get—especially considering the women’s team has four World Cup titles and the men’s team has … none.
Keeping Score: House Passes Women’s Health Protection Act With Roe Under Fire; U.S. Soccer Offers Identical Contracts to Women and Men
This week: Providers stand up to Texas six-week abortion ban; U.S. Soccer to grant men’s and women’s teams equal contracts; Boston to elect first woman of color as mayor; 710 Indigenous people are missing in Wyoming; today’s children will experience three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents; and more.
Women Athletes Are Still Being Disrespected—On and off the Field
“Raised a Warrior: A Memoir of Soccer, Grit, and Leveling the Playing Field” by Susie Petruccelli is a trailblazing account of triumph in the face of sexism, self-doubt and injury. In it, she gives a remarkable global tour of the women’s soccer world, and presents a stirring call-to-action to secure equal pay and conditions.
Inside the Fight for Equal Pay for Women Olympians
As athletes prepare for the Tokyo Olympics, women Olympians are still fighting for equal pay.
“What we’ve learned, and what we continue to learn, is that there is no level of status – and there’s no accomplishment or power – that will protect you from the clutches of inequity,” said star soccer player Megan Rapinoe.