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On Friday, the US women’s soccer team defeated France in the World Cup quarterfinals in a match that some anticipated would be “the biggest game in women’s soccer history.” But off the field the US women’s team is engaged in a battle with even higher stakes: the fight for pay equality.
Last week, the US women’s soccer team and US Soccer Federation reportedly agreed to enter mediation over the lawsuit brought by all 28 players against their employer alleging gender discrimination; the Guardian’s analysis of each team’s collective bargaining agreements found that while US women’s soccer players have earned about $90,000 each in World Cup bonuses so far, they would have made $550,000 per person if they were paid like the men.
The fact that women players get paid less than their male counterparts is not in dispute. What US Soccer claimed in response to the lawsuit is that the pay gap is “based on differences in the aggregate revenue generated by the different teams and/or any other factor other than sex.” In other words, since the men bring in more money, they get paid more, too.
But that argument was complicated by a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, which found that US women’s soccer matches actually had stronger ticket sales and brought in more revenue from games than the men’s team between 2016 and 2018. Indeed, excitement about the US women’s team—and about the Women’s World Cup more broadly—is at an all-time high; FIFA expects a total of 1 billion viewers to tune in for the matches. With ticket prices breaking records and women’s national soccer players in places ranging from Australia and Norway to Brazil and Nigeria calling out the gender pay gap in their own countries, employers’ efforts to justify the wage gap look increasingly feeble in sports, and everywhere else, too. —Sarah Todd
Five things on Quartz we especially liked
Show-and-tell. Earlier this month, video conferencing software company Zoom disclosed its first quarterly report since going public. Appropriately, it discussed the results via Zoom itself, skipping and revolutionizing the traditional, standard conference call. Analysts and company executives were essentially chatting face-to-face via video screens. The format, writes Michelle Cheng, introduced a greater degree of transparency and reinvented the notions of what a quarterly earnings call could be—raising the bar for other companies.
Stress relief. There’s a movement to try and measure stress and resilience in babies and small toddlers, akin to the way doctors can now measure things like lead exposure or anemia. Jenny Anderson reports on the team of scientists, pediatricians, and community leaders out of Harvard who are developing a raft of biological and behavioral biomarkers to see who might be suffering most, and thus, who needs help.
Boiling it all down. Claire Saffitz of Bon Appétit’s hit YouTube show Gourmet Makes teaches viewers more than how to make homemade versions of Doritos and Kit-Kats—she demonstrates perseverance, collaboration, and problem-solving in her creative work. Saffitz chatted with Daniel Wolfe on the importance of having a vision, making your own rules, and knowing when to call it a day.
Politics and programming. In Bosnia, politics is complicated—note the three presidents, each representing a different ethnic group—and characterized by high levels of distrust and corruption. Alicia Prager profiles Platforma za progres (“platform for progress”), a fledgling movement hoping to use agent-based modeling and data analytics to inform policy. The approach, being increasingly tested by decision-makers around the world, could eventually, some experts believe, support many political decisions.
You had one job. The FBI spent six months investigating a dark-web Adderall dealer, making several undercover buys for mail delivery. Although the dealers took pains to stay anonymous, the $9 million scheme fell apart after one of the accused bought postage online, inadvertently revealing his name and address to investigators, writes Justin Rohrlich. And, according to court documents, the pills turned out to be methamphetamine.
Five things elsewhere that made us smarter
Hackers check in. The hospitality industry is not known for its digital security. Last year Marriott International learned hackers had made off with massive amounts of customer data, but it was hardly an isolated case. For Bloomberg Businessweek, Patrick Clark follows IT consultants as they expose one vulnerability after another in a hotel—and learns why there are so many. For talented hackers, even remote-control curtains can be a back door to personal data.
A plague of secrecy. Judges, of all people, are partly to blame for the depth of the US opioid epidemic that has claimed half a million lives. As Reuters reveals, judges presiding over cases involving OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma let litigants file sealed information that could have alerted consumers and regulators to dangers. Though court records are presumed to be public in the US, a deadly secrecy pervades product-liability cases.
About face. In the US, walking in public spaces carries a “reasonable” expectation of privacy. But what is reasonable? In the Atlantic, Sidney Fussell describes university projects that used surveillance footage of students walking through campuses to refine machine-learning algorithms or identification software. The resulting data sets, he notes, were later employed around the world by researchers with unknown intentions. Students had no idea (or say over) how their faces were used.
A gritty investigation. The world is running out of sand, at least the type—from rivers in particular—used to make concrete and smartphone screens. It’s so valuable that black markets and sand mafia have emerged in many parts of the world. For National Geographic, Paul Salopek met some straight-talking thugs involved in the odd contraband in India, home to a massive construction boom and, increasingly, dredged-up riverbeds.
Sperm-donor siblings. Eli Baden-Lasar, a photographer and college student, grew up knowing that he was conceived using a sperm donor. What didn’t occur to him, or his moms, was that he had dozens of half-siblings scattered around the US whom he could find and get to know. In a New York Times Magazine piece written with Susan Dominus, he shares his experience of doing just that—along with photographing all 32 of them—and the strange mix of emotions that ensued.
Our best wishes for a relaxing but thought-filled weekend. Please send any news, comments, illicit sand, and homemade junk food to hi@qz.com. Join the next chapter of Quartz by downloading our app and becoming a member. Today’s Weekend Brief was edited by Steve Mollman and Holly Ojalvo.