Since 1991, the U.S. women's soccer team (USWNT) has won four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals. The men's team has not won any, and did not even qualify for the 2018 World Cup or the past three Olympics. Yet, for years, the women's team has had to fight for equal rates of pay.
That will now change, thanks to a $24 million settlement reached between the players and the U.S. Soccer Federation, marking the end of a gender discrimination case that has reverberations across the sport - and beyond. U.S. Soccer agreed to pay $22 million to the 28 players who filed the suit and a further $2 million to a charitable fund for girls' and women's soccer. Most significantly, it promised to pay men and women at an equal rate going forward, including in lucrative World Cup bonuses.