Who is... Megan Rapinoe! by Avni Rao
She is an American professional soccer player who plays as a winger and captains OL Reign of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), as well as the United States national team. Rapinoe is internationally for her style of play and being an advocate for equality in sports, work, and love. She is the first player, male or female, to score a goal directly from a corner at the Olympic Games. Rapinoe garnered national attention for kneeling during the national anthem at a match in 2016 in solidarity with NFL Colin Kaepernick. Following the match, she stated:
“It was a little nod to Kaepernick and everything that he’s standing for right now. I think it's actually pretty disgusting the way he was treated and the way that a lot of the media has covered it and made it about something that it absolutely isn't. [...] Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it.
The U.S. Women's National Team, co-captained by Megan Rapinoe, has been a symbol of gender equality ever since they filed a lawsuit in March 2019 against the U.S. Soccer Federation alleging pay discrimination. In fact, during the 2019 Women's World Cup finals, when the U.S. team stormed the field in celebration after the game, thousands of fans chanted, "Equal pay! Equal Pay!"
Players in the women’s soccer team earn significantly less than their male counterparts, as has been made clear by Rapinoe. This is despite the fact that the women’s team has consistently done better than the men’s team - the women’s team has won 4 world cups, and the men’s team has won none.
Rapinoe says that when it comes to pay equity, the U.S. is due for a "paradigm shift" in how we understand the value and potential of women.
"Men are so often paid and compensated on the potential that they show, not necessarily what they've done," Rapinoe says. "And women are so often paid on what they've actually done — which normally I would say, we outperform what our contract was."
Women are consistently paid less than men in not only sports but also in medicine, tech, and many other service jobs. This pay inequity gets worse when we stop talking about it. Millions of people are marginalized because of gender. This disparity only gets worse when it’s not acted upon. Megan Rapinoe is one of the changemakers working on pay inequity, along with LGBTQ+ rights.
