The Women's World Cup

  The American Success

About 90 years ago, in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the American National Soccer Team won the first unofficial Women's World Cup, prevailing over the Netherlands with a final score of 2-0. This very short three day tournament, consisting of only 17 teams, was only one of many events held as a part of the Women's World Games (WWG). The WWG was founded in 1922, originally only holding track and field events, to compensate for the lack of women's events in the Olympics. Due to rising tensions in Europe, the WWG held its final event in 1934 and another Women’s World Cup would not be seen again until the embarrassingly late date of 1991.      

                                                    1934 Women's World Games Overall Best Athlete, Stanislawa Walasiewicz

A significant step towards an eventual Women’s World Cup was made with the advent in 1972 of America’s Title IX, which I have addressed in depth in another post. Title IX had a strong global impact, and played a large part in the slow growth of more international tournaments. Just two years after the passing of Title IX and an astounding forty years after the death of the WWG, women's international tournaments were being held sporadically across the globe. Still, it was not until 1991 that FIFA announced the first official Women’s World Cup would be held in China. The women on the American national team won the initial Women’s World Cup, kicking off a trend of medals and records.  In 1996 women's soccer was finally, belatedly  welcomed into the Olympics.  The US took home gold.   In fact the American women have placed in every Olympic tournament, through to the present day, with the exception of 2016. In addition to a successful history in the Olympics, the American women have never failed to place in the World Cup. The Women's National Soccer Team is the most successful American international team to date.

                    1991, American Women Win the Olympics 

Most of America's successes can be attributed to a head start in sports equality through Title IX and secondarily to the size of America's population.  Some other nations have handicapped themselves through the sexist discouraging of the athletic development of half their population.  Winning is clearly not an issue for the  Americans. Women's soccer’s real challenge in America, is the same challenge that  women's soccer faces across the world. According to FIFA, 1.12 billion people tuned in to watch the 2019 Women’s World Cup, which although impressive, and significantly more than the viewership of the Superbowl, is still only about one-third of the attention that the Men’s World Cup received in 2018. Women's soccer has been growing in popularity over the years, with viewership of the Women’s World Cup regularly jumping 15-50 percent, yet the players are still treated unequally. Female American soccer players are being paid less and questioned more about their actions than any equivalent player on a men’s team, despite the team's incredible successes. America, claiming to be a country of winners, is doing a sorry job supporting the most proportionally successful team in U.S. history. The best thing that any American can do, is to sit back and watch their team win. Viewership matters. Please, tune in to the 2023 Women's World Cup - you can feel virtuous and you might 

even like it.

                                          Recommended Readings for this Post

Charis-Molling July 9, A., & Charis-Molling, E. (2019, July 9A). The Story of the Women's World Cup. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.bpl.org/blogs/post/the-story-of-the-womens-world-cup/ 

This article, though a little unfocused, does a good job stating the minimum amount of information that most people should get to know about this topic. The reading is mostly about the Women's World Cup, but does address other similar topics towards the end.

Soccer, U. (2000). Timeline. Retrieved December 03, 2020, from https://www.ussoccer.com/history/timeline 

US Soccer is a big name in the soccer community and this is a reputable source, although it is hard to navigate. I chose this site mainly because of its huge database of stats regarding teams and individual players, which goes back quite a long time. If you are someone who is interested in current American stats, this is a good place to check out.

Litterer, David. “Womens Soccer in the History USA: An Overview.” American Soccer History Archives, 17 Aug. 2011, soccerhistoryusa.org/ASHA/. https://soccerhistoryusa.org/ASHA/womensoverview.html

This citation appears again! If you’ve stuck with my blog for any length of time then you’ll probably have noticed this citation before. As always author, David Litterer, does a great job exploring this topic in depth. You'll have to skip around to find the sub-pieces on the Women’s World Cup, there are multiples.