吃瓜大本营

The U.S. Women鈥檚 National Soccer Team has won three World Cup championships. Four times, they鈥檝e won Olympic gold. They鈥檝e been ranked number one in the world for most of the past seven years. They鈥檝e been feted at the White House, where President Obama celebrated them for showing that 鈥減laying like a girl means being the best.鈥� And they鈥檝e been a serious moneymaker for the U.S. Soccer Federation, and for the USF in 2015.

They also, it turns out, are paid a fraction of what their male counterparts earn.

In a charge filed this week with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, five of the most prominent members of the women鈥檚 team 鈥� including co-captains Becky Sauerbrunn and Carli Lloyd (the MVP of the 2015 World Cup) 鈥� allege that U.S. Soccer鈥檚 compensation practices violate both Title VII, the federal law against sex discrimination in employment, and the Equal Pay Act, which specifically addresses sex-based wage disparities.

The charge alleges inequality in all aspects of the USF鈥檚 compensation structure. For instance, with respect to World Cup play, female players earn just $30,000 for being asked to join the roster, while men make more than twice that at $68,750. And those disparities increase as the teams progress through the tournament, such that the U.S. Men鈥檚 National Soccer Team lost in the Round of 16 in the 2015 World Cup but still earned a total of $9 million, while the women鈥檚 team won the tournament and received just $2 million.

Similarly, for instance, both female and male players are committed to 20鈥渇riendly鈥� matches per year, earning different amounts based on the games鈥� outcomes. But the structure assures that if both teams won every game, the women would make 38 percent less than the men.

It now will be up to the EEOC to investigate and to determine whether USF can justify the pay differentials as stemming from legitimate factors other than sex. In the meantime, the women鈥檚 team prepares for the August Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, though have hinted that a boycott might not be off the table.

The players' filing is just the latest and splashiest evidence of disparities between male and female athletes. And even in the few realms where women have finally achieved parity, there is backlash. Last month, the male CEO of one of the year鈥檚 preeminent tennis tournaments women players, who now win the same prize money as men, as 鈥渞id[ing] on the coattails of the men鈥� and claimed that male players 鈥渃arr[y] this sport.鈥� (Runner-up Serena Williams was among those , noting that the 2015 U.S. Open women鈥檚 final sold out before the men鈥檚.) The top-ranked Novak Djokovic chimed in, that women players shouldn鈥檛 earn equal prize money because it鈥檚 the men鈥檚 game that 鈥渁ttracts more attention, spectators鈥� and 鈥渟ells more tickets and stuff like that.鈥�

Because these controversies have embroiled some our most famous athletic heroines, they鈥檝e temporarily won public attention. But the gender wage gap is a daily reality for millions of women who will never be on the front page of the sports section.

The numbers are sobering. Women鈥檚 wages remain stuck at an of men鈥檚. On April 12, advocates will mark Equal Pay Day, the day on which women finally reach the 100 cents on the dollar that men earned, on average, by the end of last year. Black women, though, to earn that full dollar (they make just 63 percent of what white men earn) and Latinas won鈥檛 get , given that they earn just 54 percent of white men.

There鈥檚 plenty of debate about the reasons for these gaps, but some things are for sure. Fifty-three years after the enactment of the Equal Pay Act and 52 years after Congress outlawed all sex discrimination on the job, women still are disproportionately segregated in the lowest-wage fields 鈥� health care, education, social services, and service industries. And that segregation alone , social scientists say. Two strands of recent research are especially dispiriting in their confirmation of how little 鈥渨omen鈥檚 work鈥� is valued. One series of reports that men who work in female-dominated fields earn more than their female coworkers and are promoted into supervisory roles more often. On the flip side, researchers that when women begin entering historically male-dominated jobs, the result is an overall decrease in wages.

So what鈥檚 the way forward? Enacting stronger equal pay legislation, like the Paycheck Fairness Act, can only help, as can litigation to enforce those laws and correct known inequities. Demonstrated zero tolerance from top managers, like the brave CEOs right under her or his nose, also will go a long way. President Obama鈥檚 to require federal contractors and large private employers to regularly track their pay practices 鈥� by race and ethnicity as well as by gender 鈥� reflect yet another strategy for exposing systemic disparities.

But rooting out the age-old stereotypes that fundamentally overvalue the work done by men versus by women 鈥� the ones that divide cleaning staffs into 鈥渏anitors鈥� and 鈥渉ousekeepers,鈥� and pay one group more than the other 鈥� will take years. That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 a welcome jolt when some of the world鈥檚 most celebrated female athletes step forward and tell us that for all of their success and fame, pay discrimination happened to them, too.