The Women's World Cup just concluded and the US won a fourth title. If you haven’t seen the celebratory ad Nike produced, "just do it" now. Never before have so many watched women play the “beautiful game”....and you don’t want to be left out!
Most viewers saw in this event the scene of incredible athletic performance. Others, like Andy Brady Spalding, professor at the University of Richmond and the author of an upcoming book on Governance in Sports, also saw lessons for business men and women.
I caught up with Andy while we were both in France. He was on his way to meetings with FIFA representatives and had spent 4 weeks following the US National Team. I attended the women soccer games as somewhat of a neophyte: Andy was born in America and knew a lot about women’s soccer. I grew up in Europe watching mainly men play the game.
This difference allowed us to debate some of the underpinning issues that emanated from the competition and discuss their meaning for the sport and business world.
For instance: “was Alex Morgan’s tea cup celebration a problem because she’s a woman?”. Or “why should this competition’s grand prize be capped at $4M when the male version is 10 times more?!”
Double Standards?
Spalding observed that women’s soccer is different in many ways. There’s less flopping. Less intent to injure. There may be a little more humanity and what we might call “sportspersonship”.
Women might be bringing a new approach to a scene that has historically been dominated by men...Sound familiar?
The business world is infamously dominated by men. And, it is often believed that the way women succeed is to imitate the way “men behave”. But, could it be that “behaving like women” is the answer for women…. and for men as well?
Take for example the issue with Alex Morgan’s celebration during the US-England game. Morgan celebrated her goal in that semi-final match by pretending to drink a cup of tea.
Some criticized the gesture as arrogant or impolite. Morgan retorted that few object when men celebrate by “grabbing their sacks” and other boyish antics.
She may be right. But, shouldn’t the question be about respectful behavior for both men and women on the pitch?
Through this example, we might be learning that the path to better sport and better business is to create the highest standards for both, rather than justify the behavior of women on the grounds that is is no worse than the men’s...
The issue of double-standard runs deeper than just behavior on the field. It extends to players’ compensation.
Most Valuable Players?!
The US Women's National Team is currently engaged in a lawsuit with the United States Soccer Federation about equal pay. Players argue that the rewards for their work are not at parity with the US Men’s National Team.
Fans at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals impressed upon FIFA President Gianni Infantino their displeasure with this structural inequality, greeting him with a chorus of boos followed by a rousing chant of “Equal pay! Equal pay! Equal pay!”
FIFA and the US Soccer Federation seem to share the perception that women are not performing at men’s standards.
But in many respects, women may actually be exceeding men’s standards. In its most recent earnings report, Nike reported that the women's 2019 stadium home jersey was now the No. 1-selling soccer jersey, men's or women's, ever sold on Nike.com for a single season.
The US Women’s National Team has now won 4 World Cup titles. The US Men’s National Team has never come close. They didn’t even qualify in last year’s edition.
Both in the quality of their play and their style of play, it seems that women are doing much more than merely approximating the standards set by men. They may be exploding those standards, bringing to the game, new and better approaches.
A very uneven playing field...
And in business, results are even bleaker. According to McKinsey and Company’s Women in the Workplace research, women remain underrepresented. Worse, in countries like America, no progress has been made of the last 4 years since the study began (McKinsey’s research is based on four years of data from 462 companies employing more than 19.6 million people).
The report states that in business, “women have to provide more evidence of their competence than men”...
Perhaps sports are reminding us that we are to recognize, honor and reward women’s distinctive contributions in a more systemic and different way.
So, as you turn off your television to go back to work, remember that we all have a role to play in the game of work and life.
It is up to all of us to continue raising these issues and offering to solve them to create an even playing field at work, sports and in life in general, for all women and men.
