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Fans celebrate the USWNT's World Cup victory, but call out double standards

Fans in Lyon began chanting for equal pay.

Morgan Sung

on July 7, 2019

Fans celebrate the USWNT's World Cup victory, but call out double standards

The win is a victory for the U.S. Women's National Team, but the fight for equal pay is long from over. Credit: Elsa / Getty Images

The U.S. Women's National Team beat the Netherlands 2-0 on the field on Sunday, securing their second consecutive World Cup win.

It's an especially sweet victory after weeks of complaining from other nations, which claimed the American women were celebrating their wins too arrogantly. And although fans celebrated with the team, some pointed out that the USWNT's domination during each match only proved they deserved to be paid just as much as their male counterparts.

A Nike ad appears to nod to the equal pay debate that has mired 2019's World Cup. The women's team escalated their fight for equal pay, suing the U.S. Soccer Federation for "institutional gender discrimination" after a 2016 complaint with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission didn't land salaries anywhere near what the men's team was paid. The complaint noted that although the women's team generated nearly $20 million more in revenue than the men's team did in 2015, the men were paid four times what the women were paid.

The Federation claimed that because the two teams were "performing different work," they were paid differently.

"Victory is when we all win," the Nike account said in a tweet accompanying a victorious montage of the women at the World Cup.

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It's worth noting that the men's team didn't even qualify for 2018's World Cup.

Fans have criticized the way sports announcers framed interviews with the players — Leslie Jones was not having it when a caption noted Megan Rapinoe as the oldest player to score a goal in a World Cup final.

"Look at this warrior ... This girl just won her second World Cup, and that's what y'all gonna put under the caption?" Jones ranted in a video she posted. "Would they do that to a man? Would they put that under a man's fucking name?"

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She tossed in a quip about the women's team not being paid enough.

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Other Twitter users joked about the difference between the men's team and the women's team in their call for equal pay.

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And according to sports reporters, fans in France broke out into chants for equal pay.

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If anything, the win made Americans even more patriotic.

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That's not to say the patriotism came without criticism. After Rapinoe's iconic "I'm not going to the fucking White House" comment in June, the president of the United States spitefully invited the women's team to Washington, D.C. via Twitter. In a series of tweets touting his administration's accomplishments, he told Rapinoe she should be "proud of the Flag" she wears.

"Megan should WIN first before she talks," the president said.

Twitter users are running with that statement.

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And in a bar in France, partiers began chanting "Fuck Trump" behind a Fox News reporter.

More than 50 members of Congress, meanwhile, pressed U.S. Soccer to pay the women's team as much as the men's team. In a letter addressed to U.S. Soccer president Carlos Cordeiro, the representatives wrote, "Despite doing the same job as the U.S. Men’s National Team, USWNT players are receiving inferior wages, working conditions, and investment from U.S. Soccer.”

The USWNT and U.S. Soccer have "tentatively" agreed to a mediation session after the World Cup, according to the Wall Street Journal.