Secret deodorant is getting in on the fight for equal pay in a big way.
On Sunday, July 14, the Proctor & Gamble-owned deodorant brand took out a full-page ad in The New York Times to announce a donation of $529,000 to help close the pay gap between the men’s and women’s national soccer teams. This symbolically represents $23,000 donated for each of the 23 players that won the World Cup just over a week ago.
For a little refresher, back in March the USWNT filed a lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation, insisting that they deserved the same pay rate as their male counterparts for performances. Just to help put it into perspective, in a hypothetical situation cited in the lawsuit, if both the women’s and men’s teams won 20 games in a row in a season, the women would only make 38 percent of what the men would.
“Women just made history, but they have always deserved equal pay,” Sunday’s ad stated at the very top. It continued to ask the U.S. Soccer Federation to “be on the right side of history.”
“But after all the toasts, cheers, parades and awards subside, the issue remains. Inequality is about more than pay and players; it’s about values,” it read. “Let’s take this moment of celebration to propel women’s sports forward. We urge the U.S. Soccer Federation to be a beacon of strength and end gender pay inequality once and for all, for all players.”
P&G, a sponsor for the US Women’s National Soccer Team, isn’t the only brand getting in on the conversation. Just minutes after the U.S. women’s team beat the Netherlands 2-0 in the championship game, Nike ran an T.V. ad celebrating the victory while focusing on how their win is about more than just winning a soccer title.
