Women soccer players in Latin America face clear political, cultural and even historical challenges when it comes to soccer and sports overall. <\/p>\n\n\n
Their struggle to close gender gaps is\nentirely different than that faced by a high-profile squad such as the\ndefending world champion U.S. team and its fight for equitable pay, according\nto an article by the Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n
But with the approaching Women’s World Cup\nputting greater focus on their game, Latin American women are increasingly\ncalling attention to their struggles and are starting to see at least\nincremental results.<\/p>\n\n\n
Isabella Echeverri and Melissa Ortiz started a\nhigh-profile social media campaign earlier this year to bring to light some of\nthe issues faced by teammates on the Colombian women’s national team. It gained\ntraction when players from the men’s national team, which went to last year’s\nWorld Cup in Russia, declared their support for the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n
The pair was spurred to action when players stopped getting\nthe $20 a day payment they had received for practice sessions, and other moves\nby the federation. Separate allegations of sexual harassment on Colombia’s\nunder-17 team later emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n
“It came to a point when both of us were\nlike, if not us, who, and if not now, when?” Ortiz told The Associated\nPress.<\/p>\n\n\n
Players scored a victory of sorts with the recent announcement that the women’s professional league in Colombia would continue, despite the talk of its demise. Many of the national team players are part of the pro league, which has not yet begun to play. Colombia went to both the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and the Olympics in 2016 but the team did not make the field for the tournament that opens next month in France.<\/p>\n\n\n
“We have different fights,” Camila\nGarcia, co-founder of the women’s player association in Chile and board member\nfor FifPro, the international player’s union, said about women’s soccer in\nLatin America. “When you see that most of these elite teams have\ncollective-bargaining agreements that we would dream about having, we don’t\nhave any mechanism to negotiate. We can’t be at the table. So we’re trying, for\nthe first step, to raise our voice, to say what we need, and try and figure out\nhow we can develop women’s football.”<\/p>\n\n\n
Argentina recently announced that its women’s\nleague would be granted professional status. Previously, players for the clubs\nwere considered amateurs, something that’s common globally.<\/p>\n\n\n
At least eight players on each of Argentina’s\n16 club teams must now have pro contracts. The Argentine soccer federation will\nkick in $600,000 to help contribute to the salaries.<\/p>\n\n\n
The move comes after Macarena S\u00e1nchez took\nlegal action against her former club team and the federation seeking to be\nrecognized as a professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Argentina’s national team, which went on\nstrike in 2017 after daily stipends of about $10 were cut off, will play in the\nWorld Cup this summer for the first time in 12 years.<\/p>\n\n\n
Brenda Elsey, an associate professor at Hofstra\nUniversity and co-author of the book “Futbolera: A History of Women and\nSports in Latin America,” said some of the strides that have been made can\nbe connected to the rise of the women’s rights movements in Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n
“Their situation, it’s better in terms that they’re\nfairly organized, they’ve got social media audiences that really support\nthem,” Elsey said. “They have connections to the feminist movement\nthat they haven’t had in the past. A lot of this, I think, you could also chalk\nit up to the dynamism of the Ni Una Menos, and the feminist movements in Latin\nAmerica that have changed the idea of what is feminism, and are including a lot\nmore things like women’s sports. So, yes, I think they’re in better shape to\nchallenge that patriarchal structure.”<\/p>\n\n\n
Some of the players adopted the hashtag #fromnowon as a video of their protest quickly spread on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n
“We’re right now just asking for the\nbasics,” Puerto Rico midfielder Nicole Rodriguez said. “Like fields\nto practice on that aren’t waterlogged, and that we’re not the second-choice\nclubs to have priority.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
FIFA, soccer’s international governing body,\nlast fall released its ambitious global strategy to grow women’s soccer. Sarai\nBareman, FIFA’s chief women’s football officer, said one of the goals is to\nemphasize the promotion and commercialization of the women’s game, something\nshe hopes will show federations like those in Latin America that supporting\nwomen’s soccer is an area of untapped growth.<\/p>\n\n\n
Source: Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “We’re right now just asking for the basics…like fields to practice on that aren’t waterlogged, and that we’re not the second-choice clubs to have priority.\u201d
\nNicole Rodriguez, Puerto Rico 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