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Hi John,
I read the recent findings from the U.S. Soccer investigation into the NWSL with a heavy heart – but not much surprise.
The report detailed systemic abuse of players in the NWSL, with owners and coaches alike turning a blind eye to the players' reports of harassment and abuse. I thought about how proud these players must feel to be talented enough to compete in their sport at the professional level, yet to have their career and playing time constantly held over their heads in exchange for unwanted sexualized attention and abuse.
Unfortunately, this happens at the amateur level too...
It's happened to me.
Several years ago, I was organizing the women's division of a soccer league in Philadelphia. There is a shortage of availability of soccer fields in Philly and being a women's division in a male dominated soccer league, we were getting the short end of the stick.
I began to navigate the Philadelphia field system, and network in order to get the women's division their own field. The president of the soccer league took an interest in this project and began to help me with it, but of course, that came with strings attached.
Whenever I tried to set a personal boundary with the president of the soccer league, he refused to help me with the fields. I wanted his help with the fields; I didn't want his sexual attention or his numerous attempts to seduce me. Yet, I figured that I could tolerate his sexual harassment if I could get some good things done for the women's division.
When I found out the president sexually assaulted a woman player, I came forward with my sexual harassment allegations. To be very honest, I still feel a lot of guilt that I didn't speak up sooner and thus compromised the safety of the other women players. It nearly ripped the soccer league in half with several of the male captains standing with me, others refusing to get involved, and the entire women's division backing out of the league. Every single board member stayed silent on the issue or came to the president's defense.
Systemic abuse is a product of a power imbalance. The majority of positions of power are held by men whether it is ownership of a league or a club or a team or a board or the coaching of a team, the majority and better resources go to men, and the good ol' boys club has the good ol' boys club's backs.
The Equal Pay for Equal Play movement is just a portion of the inequality women face in the sporting world. Paying women players equally doesn't change the culture of abuse that is found within athletics, from youth leagues all the way up to professional leagues. As the investigators said in the report, The roots of abuse in women’s soccer run deep and will not be eliminated through reform in the N.W.S.L. alone. Not only the perpetrators should be removed from their positions of power, but so should every person who turned a blind eye to those perpetrators' abuse of power. And that leaves a lot of vacant seats – at every level of the system.
I'll always fight back against sexual harassment and abuse—you know I hold powerful people accountable for their actions, and their failure to act. Help me fight this by contributing $10 or whatever you can spare today.
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