When New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced the scheduling of a ticker tape parade following the United States women's national soccer team's (USWNT) winning the FIFA World Cup this past summer, New Yorkers were excited. Who wouldn’t want a parade? The welcoming of the USWNT seemed like a proper homecoming for the athletes, as they had freshly secured a World Cup in the world’s most globally celebrated sport. Soccer is notably a sport with only a few American successes in comparison to the rest of the world. What happened that day was an incredible spectacle, as fans crowded the streets to celebrate the first ticker tape parade for a women’s team. However, as the ticker tape and American color confetti has long settled and been thrown away, calls for equality by both the team and their fans have reminded the world of the continuing barriers professional female athletes have to face in relation to their male counterparts.
Sport, since it’s inception, has always been a male-dominated construction. Despite the recent notable celebrations and acknowledgements of female athletes, it is still very much an uphill battle for female athletes of all ages and levels to attain the same amount of notoriety, interest and equality of resources that are made available to male athletes.
Prior to the parade headlines covering the USWNT players' achievements, media coverage of the team was rife with several members making complaints about the tournament’s turf stadiums. Players pointed out that male players would never be subjected to play on turf, a playing surface that can cause incredible burns from falls and which absorbs heat rapidly, potentially creating a melted playing surface. Several USWNT players were highlighted within this suit against FIFA, including Abby Wambach, which was filed as gender discrimination under Ontario’s Human Rights Laws. Despite this suit, a public outcry and a more publicized analysis of FIFA’s continuing institutional inequalities for female players, the games played on, continuing a system which seems to constantly reminds female athletes to stay quiet and wait for their turn.
With the passing of Title IX around 40 years ago, it is amazing to see progress, success and the popularization of women’s sports in America. But Title IX still has yet to erase the centuries of male-dominated institutions constructed solely to cater the needs and emphasize the grandeur of the male athlete.
Attending the ticker tape parade this summer was an incredible thing to witness. Traveling into the city that day reminded me how much inspirational power female athletes can have. I couldn’t help but smile at all the fans, both young and old, of all genders sporting USWNT’s red, white and blue apparel. It made me think about the team's journey from local recreational soccer leagues, through college soccer and the National Women’s Soccer League, which all led them to their festive tour down the Avenue of Americas, a journey presumably full of barriers, empty stadiums, improper salaries and other challenges male athletes probably didn’t experience. Despite all this, USWNT has been able to generate constructive discussion about sport on a national stage, achieve international success and show the world the emerging power of the voice of the female athlete.
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