Hope Solo on equality fight: my name is not forgotten, it's ignored
The 2015 USWNT World Cup champion and goalkeeper, Hope Solo, feels excluded from the equal pay fight, despite being one of the organizers since 2016.
Former US national team goalkeeper, Hope Solo, was one of the pioneers of the equal pay fight, along with Carli Lloyd, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and Becky Sauerbrunn back in March of 2016. They joined forces to file a gender pay discrimination charge against the US Soccer Federation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where they asked for the same payment as the Men's National Team.
At the time, US Soccer answered with graphics showing the USMNT produced twice as much as the women did, with a spokesman mentioning that the gains published by the players were "deceptive, inaccurate or both," despite television network, FOX Sports, proving the women's game had more audience than men's.
But that lawsuit didn't garner the attention of the 2019 one as the world united with the USWNT to ask for "equal pay", with captain Megan Rapinoe one of the central characters in this fight. However, in an interview with The Washington Post Hope Solo explains how it all began with her.
"What hurt me the most is when the new women's rights movement wasn't en vogue, I didn't have the support of the team," said Solo followed with the statement. "My name hasn't been forgotten, it's been purposely ignored."
Hope Solo hasn't stopped her fight for equality
In August 2018, Hope Solo filed a new lawsuit against US Soccer for gender discrimination, while the US women's national team did the same early in 2019. Hope mentions how her legal team tried to recruit her teammates for her court fight (Lloyd, Sauerbrunn, Morgan, and Rapinoe) but they refused.
To which she adds, "My husband tells me the tip of the spear takes the most hits, I feel a little bit battered and beat down. But we want future generations to benefit. So there has to be a historic win."
Hope Solo has one goal and she won't move on until she succeed: "give equal pay and let's move on."