Equal Pay and Equal Conditions for Women’s Football

By: Alexandra Welke

Brazil's football federation announced this year that it will pay its male and female football players the same amount of compensation for playing on the national football team.[1] Brazil is one of the few countries to make such an agreement.[2] For years, male professional football players in Brazil could earn as much as $125,000 a month, while women earned only about $500 a month.[3] The recent announcement comes after years of fighting for equality within the women’s football community.[4]

In Brazil in 1940, an increased interest in football led to the formation of women’s football teams, and women were eventually allowed to play in big stadiums like Pacaembu (São Paulo).[5] Media coverage on this performance caused intense debates between those who supported the initiative and those who were against it.[6] Once teams started recruiting women, opposition increased and resulted in a full prohibition on women’s football in 1941.[7] Brazil’s National Sports Council drafted Article 54, which stated that women in Brazil would “not be allowed to practice sports incompatible with the conditions of their nature,” such as football, boxing, rugby, polo, water polo, and multiple track and field events.[8] The main reason for the prohibition was related to the belief that women should not take part in sports that would cause health damages.[9] These sports were seen as too “violent” for women.”[10] The prohibition on women’s football and other sports remained in place for over thirty-five years.[11] If women were caught playing football, it resulted in criminal charges.[12] Not until 1979 was the creation of the first league for women’s football legal.[13] Unfortunately, the end of the ban did not mean that women's football was supported by all.[14] It was only after 1982, when “FIFA's president João Havelange sent an official letter to all federations to support female football that the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) assumed the responsibility of developing the women’s game.”[15]

The recent announcement regarding equal pay for professional women football players is a big step for women’s football.[16] The CBF said in a statement that equal pay was "part of the journey of transformation" towards equality in football, the most popular sport in the country, which has thirty-six professional clubs.[17] “The CBF has equalized the prize money and allowances between men's and women's football, which means that the women players will earn the same as the men."[18]  Miraildes Maciel Mota, commonly known as Formiga, is one of Brazil’s longest football players who has lived through the different changes of the law in Brazil.[19] Formiga has played in several World Cups, setting a record for both men and women.[20] Formiga was seventeen years old when she played for the Brazilian team in the 1995 Women’s World Cup in Sweden.[21] She was eighteen years old when women’s football debuted at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.[22] Formiga has been an important player on Brazil’s women's football team, which is ranked amongst the strongest in the game, having reached the World Cup final in 2007 and back-to-back Olympic finals in 2004 and 2008.[23] The recent equal pay decision will finally allow Formiga and other members of her team to be paid the same amount as male football players.[24]

Brazil is not the only country to make a push for equality in football.[25] Even before Brazil’s announcement, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand had already announced that they will pay their men and women internationals the same amount.[26] Unfortunately, the decisions to promote gender equality have not always come peacefully.[27] Australia’s new law came after protests broke out over the lack of gender equality and equal pay.[28] Shortly after the protests, an announcement was made that Australia would close the pay gap between the men’s and women’s national teams.[29] In New Zealand, even though the women’s national team ranked twentieth in the world, compared to the men’s national team ranking one hundred thirty-third, equal pay for women came only after bargaining and negotiations.[30] Lastly, the Norwegian Football Federation finally made an agreement to pay women and men football players equally.[31] This shocked many, because Norway did not officially recognize women's football until 1976.[32]

However, inequality still exists in football teams.[33] Specifically, Brazil’s club football teams still see a large gap in pay between men and women because the recent agreement only covered the professional women’s football league. [34] Unfortunately, countries that have agreed to pay their players equally remain a minority.[35] Additionally, countries continue to favor men’s football teams when faced with budgeting issues.[36] When the coronavirus pandemic hit Africa in 2020, the Confederation of African Football announced that it was canceling the women’s continental championship.[37] The men’s tournament, meanwhile, was simply postponed.[38] Denmark canceled a women's football game over a money dispute with the Danish football association, leading to the men's team to offer $80,000 a year to help cover their costs.[39] Scotland and Nigeria have both seen pay disputes and protests over money owed to women’s football leagues.[40] Additionally, the Republic of Ireland women's football team threatened to go on strike, and a player reported that the team members were being treated poorly by the Football Association of Ireland.[41]

Inequality and favoritism remain prevalent in football, and only a minority of countries have made steps in the right direction by pushing for equal pay agreements. A journalist covering the women’s football league reported that the “women stand on the field wearing the flag of their countries just like the men do – there’s no reason not to treat those experiences with equal value.”[42] Countries need to follow the example that Brazil and a few others have set forth with the passage of equal pay agreements. There is a long way to go until true equality is reached.

#Brazil #Welke #Soccer #Football #Equality #International #Law #Blog #Post

[1] Agence France-Presse, Brazil's football federation announces equal pay for men's and women's national football teams, Firstpost (Sept. 3, 2020), https://www.firstpost.com/sports/brazils-football-federation-announces-equal-pay-for-mens-and-womens-national-football-teams-8780221.html.

[2] Sao Paulo, Brazil Announces Equal Pay on National Football Team, France 24 (Sept. 3, 2020), https://www.france24.com/en/20200902-brazil-announces-equal-pay-on-national-football-teams.

[3] Brenda Elsey, Brazilian women’s soccer shouldn’t also have to fight misogyny, SBNATION (June 9, 2019), https://www.sbnation.com/2019/6/9/18658080/brazil-womens-soccer-sexism-world-cup-history.

[4] See id.

[5] Ana Costa, The history of women's football in Brazil, Sport and Dev (July 1, 2019), https://www.sportanddev.org/en/article/news/history-womens-football-brazil.

[6] Id.

[7] Id.

[8] Lindsay Gibbs, 41-year-old Formiga is last active Brazilian player who was alive when women’s football was illegal, ThinkProgress (June 23, 2019), https://archive.thinkprogress.org/formiga-brazilian-player-womens-football-illegal-world-cup/.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] See Costa, supra note 5.

[12] See id.

[13] Id.

[14] See id.

[15] Id.

[16] See Paulo, supra note 2.

[17] Id.

[18] France-Presse, supra note 1.

[19] Id.

[20] See Gibbs, supra note 8.

[21] Id.

[22] See id.

[23] Sarah Lyall, Formiga Isn’t Going Anywhere, The New York Times (June 13, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/sports/formiga-brazil-womens-world-cup.html.

[24] Id.

[25] See Women’s Football, Brazil gives equal pay to men's and women's national players, BBC (Sept 2, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/54007054.

[26] Id.

[27] See Karen Zraick, Australian Women and Men’s Soccer Teams Reach Deal to Close Pay Gap, The New York Times (Nov. 8, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/06/sports/soccer/australia-soccer-matildas-equal-pay.html.

[28] Id.

[29] Id.

[30] Chris Gelardi, The New Zealand Women’s Soccer Team Finally Won Equal Pay, Global Citizen (May 8, 2018), https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/new-zealand-womens-soccer-equal-pay/.

[31] Aimee Lewis, Norway's footballers sign historic equal pay agreement, CNN (Dec. 14, 2017), https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/football/norway-football-equal-pay-agreement/index.html.

[32] Id.

[33] See Paulo, supra note 2.

[34] Id.

[35] See Colin Udoh, Asisat Oshoala slams CAF over women's Africa Cup of Nations cancellation, ESPN (July 16, 2020), https://www.espn.com/soccer/nigeria-nga/story/4137898/asisat-oshoala-slams-caf-over-womens-africa-cup-of-nations-cancellation.

[36] See id.

[37] Id.

[38] See Lewis, supra note 31.

[39] Id.

[40] Id.

[41] See id.

[42] Ryan Lenora Brown, More nations ending soccer’s gender wage gap, Monitor (Sept. 28, 2020), https://www.csmonitor.com/World/2020/0928/More-nations-ending-soccer-s-gender-wage-gap-This-could-change-things.