Following intense backlash for sexist language used in a legal filing against the United States women’s national team players last week, new U.S. Soccer Federation president Cindy Parlow Cone is promising a change of course.
U.S. Soccer lawyers argued in last week’s filing that women’s players deserve lower compensation because they have less ability or skill than men, and thus face lesser challenges and bear a lower responsibility to the federation. Even before she assumed her new role, Parlow Cone decried this language on social media. In a statement that was filed as part of the lawsuit and obtained by Sports Illustrated, the Equalizer and The Athletic, Parlow Cone doubled down on rejecting the lawyers’ line of argument.