By Sam Keller ’19, Staff Writer

When is the last time that you saw a women’s team featured in a video game? Likely never. Perhaps that is because traditionally women’s sports have not been valued at the same level as those played by their male counterparts. For decades, women in the athletic industry have been noticed for their appearance rather than their strength or talent.

This disparity is evident in high school and collegiate sports as well.

It was not until 1972 that women’s athletics became more popular, when under President Nixon’s leadership “Title IX” became law. Passed by the Supreme Court, Title IX worked to eliminate discrimination in high schools and universities, mandating that women receive the same opportunities as men. However, despite this mandate, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation, “not only do collegiate institutions spend just 24% of their athletic operating budgets on female sports, but also offer only 33% of scholarship budgets to female athletes.” (Women’s Sports Foundation on Collegiate Spending) Women may have gained more opportunities to play sports in college and high school, but women’s sports continue to not be taken as seriously as men’s.

Fast-forward 40 years. Women athletes are beginning to get noticed. For example, over the past few decades, the U.S. Women’s Soccer team has become highly visible in the world of athletics. But this success did not appear out of nowhere. It took the U.S. Women’s Soccer team three World Cup wins over the past 25 years to be recognized as a powerful force in the athletic industry. The success of the team has increased the popularity of girl’s soccer in the U.S. and has had an impact on all American girls’ sports. According to Benjamin Morris, a researcher and writer for FiveThirtyEight, an authoritative source for sports analytics, “in the late ’70s, the number of American high school women playing soccer was in the low five figures. By the time America won the World Cup in 1991, there were more than 120,000. Now it is approaching 20 percent of all high school female athletes at about 375,000, surpassing softball as the third-most-played team sport.” (FiveThirtyEight on Women’s Soccer) Players such as Hope Solo, Mia Hamm, and Carli Lloyd have caused media stations and public viewers around the world to pay attention to their talent, becoming household names and role models for young girls nationwide.

Although the U.S. women’s soccer team’s win in the Women’s World Cup this past summer attracted extensive media attention and gave young girls inspiration, there remains profound financial inequity in men’s and women’s sports. In 2014, the German soccer team, the men’s World Cup Champions, took home a winning purse of $35 Million and the U.S. team, who finished in 11^th place, collected $9 million. In comparison, this celebrated U.S. Women’s winning team only received $2 million for their win.

However, with their decisive win over Japan in 2015, the members of the U.S. Women’s soccer team have not only proven themselves as champions, but have raised their importance beyond the athletic world. For the first time in history, they will enter the gaming world, as FIFA CEO Andrew Wilson announced EA’s decision to add the player development of women to their gaming system for the release of FIFA 16. With soccer as one of the most popular U.S. women’s sports, people question why it took so long for EA to add women to the gaming system. David Rutter, head of the FIFA series, tells The Guardian “that the feature has been in the works for some time, but that the developer waited until it could be done properly.” (David Rutter on FIFA 16)

Like elsewhere around the nation, women’s athletics have also begun to make their mark within the Newark Academy community. When asked about the role of gender in NA athletics, Dana Press ’17, starting center defender and key player for the Newark Academy girl’s soccer team, responded, “I definitely think that the guys teams and the school have increased their support for girls soccer. As a whole, I’ve noticed at every home game, that the boys teams and the Newark Academy community are present in larger numbers to support and cheer on our team.” With more support and a growing importance in and outside of schools, women’s sports can only become stronger.

While the inclusion of women’s teams in FIFA 16 is a small victory in comparison to their 2015 World Cup win, it represents a symbolic step forward in gender equality in sports. While at Newark Academy, female athletes may not find themselves in video games in the near future, they can look forward to success at the same level as their male counterparts.