Do Women’s Sports Matter?
Women's sports have been around for years, but not many people know about these remarkable women who have changed the world and made a difference. You might know Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Alex Morgan, Mia Hamm, and others, but do you really know what they did for women's sports? For this, we’ll be more focused on soccer, specifically women's soccer. Women's soccer has been here for a long time, but in England in 1970 women were banned from playing it. They were told that women couldn't play soccer, that “it is a man's sport” which is 100% false. Women and girls can play soccer now but of course that wasn't the case back then, why you may ask? Because men around the world still agree that soccer is a men’s sport, not a women's sport.
Even though it's been years, women’s soccer and women's sports have grown TREMENDOUSLY; there's players like Aitana Bonmati, who are getting paid millions of dollars and players like Trinity Rodman, who has an excellent future ahead of her. But.. none of this happened in 2014 and beyond, there were and still are players that still have to work other jobs in order to make a living, and have a stable life because they were not getting paid well enough. The equal pay wasnt enough, and the men would get paid millions of dollars while the women would only get 10k which is not that great. In 2019, the USWNT sued the US Soccer Federation for not paying them equally as the USMNT. Many people around the world supported them during this and players actually protested. Keep in mind the women actually win world cups and the men get eliminated during group stages. But many didn't because, well, they're women and according to men “they don't belong in sports, they belong in the kitchen”
They did end up getting their justice… but after 2 or 3 years. After those 2 or 3 years, women's soccer took a huge turn during the 2023 Women's World Cup. I witnessed this huge turn -I remember it - because it's engraved into my heart; that's how much it meant to me. Women's soccer was finally getting the love that it deserved, players were finally getting recognized not just for their beauty, but for their talent, and women were finally getting paid good enough. But I feel that no matter how much it changes and no matter how much people know about it, there's always going to be a side where people would say that women don't belong in sports, but cleaning and in the kitchen. I see women still getting sexualized. I see it everywhere, the players comment section on their Instagram, Tiktok, EVERYWHERE. Mostly, 13-year-old boys tell everyone, “Ronaldo or Messi?”. But women DO belong; girls can play, and soccer doesn't have a gender because it's for everyone no matter what.
It warms my heart when I see a boy wearing a women's player on the back of their shirts or when they go to the stadium. It warms my heart that Tom Cruise and Shaq are at a USWNT game. It warms my heart when stadiums sell out. It warms my heart when people now include women in awards, and to see who their favorite player is, because that's what these women needed in the beginning. These women are risking their careers so that younger girls around the world can have a better one. So yes, women's sports do matter.
