Just three months before the Women's World Cup of Soccer in France, the U.S. women's national soccer team is suing the United States Soccer Federation for "institutionalized gender discrimination," according to ESPN. The lawsuit was filed under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act with all 28 members of the team signing onto the suit.
The class-action lawsuit essentially boils down to the fact that the women's team is not paid the same as the men's team, despite putting up better results on the field. In 2015, the women's team won the World Cup, while the men's team wasn't even able to qualify for the World Cup in 2018.
"Despite the fact that these female and male players are called upon to perform the same job responsibilities on their teams and participate in international competitions for their single common employer, the USSF, the female players have been consistently paid less money than their male counterparts," the lawsuit says. "This is true even though their performance has been superior to that of the male players -- with the female players, in contrast to male players, becoming world champions."
The 2019 women's world cup begins on June 7th with the United States opening up their title defense against Thailand.
