Klara Martone, Burlington’s soccer team senior goalie, said her team wanted to bring attention to the pay gap. Did they ever! They’ve been on CNN, Good Morning America, and their activism has gone viral. Taking off their jerseys to reveal t-shirts saying #EqualPay got some team members penalized for breaking a soccer rule, but the girls said they’d been inspired by the US women’s national soccer team’s campaign during the World Cup this summer, and the crowd’s chanting support.
The US team’s lawsuit alleges the women’s team generated $20 million more in revenue than the men’s team while being paid only a quarter of what the men’s team was paid. The high school team has sold 2000 t-shirts and raised $30,000 so far, reports Vermont Digger. We think it matters that the team was supported by their coach, by Change the Story VT, the boys’ soccer team who also wore the shirts, and Vermont US Sen. Patrick Leahy and Marcelle Leahy, who posted pics of them wearing the jerseys, too.
It takes a village—and Title IX and a vision—to raise an assertive team of young women like these who will be tomorrow’s leaders. When the moral bankruptcy of today’s Republican party gets you down, imagine young Vermonters like these joining up with Greta Thunberg to march with Sunrise and Parkland activists. Expect a youth voting surge in 2020!
