We’re not talking enough about labor progress in women's sports

Female athletes in leagues like the WNBA and NWSL are rapid achieving—or surpassing—labor gains long sought by their male counterparts.

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On Tuesday some of the WNBA’s biggest stars took commissioner Cathy Engelbert to task over a televised interview she gave earlier in the day.

Asked about fans that have inserted race and sexuality into discourse about star rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, often in ugly and vitriolic ways, Engelbert answered by talking about the growth of the league. She compared it to the NBA’s Larry Bird/Magic Johnson rivalry in the late 1970s, adding: “The one thing I know about sports, you need a rivalry… They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.”

WNBA players were quick to call out what they considered an inadequate response. Former No. 1 pick Kelsey Plum said Engelbert’s comments were “hard to hear” and that “there’s a difference between rivalries and racism.” Six-time all-star Chelsea Gray said the commissioner did “a disservice to the majority of this league in not talking about the part that it's consumed and played by Black women.” The players union responded with what it wished Engelbert had said. Tuesday night, the commissioner clarified her remarks.

The incident was just the latest in a recent series of examples of women’s sports stars successfully flexing their collective muscle. In the WNBA, that’s included outspoken criticism of their new NBA-led TV deal, a big win on charter flights, and a few years prior, their forcing the sale of a team owned by a woman critical of the league’s racial justice initiatives. In professional women’s hockey, some of the sport’s biggest stars spent years fighting leagues they didn’t like, before finally landing one—the PWHL—that met many of their demands.

In the NWSL, where commercial growth and valuations are soaring, players emerged from an ugly abuse scandal and are speed-running labor progress. In 2022, the league had its first free agent class (this happened in 1976 in MLB; in 1993 in the NFL). Last month, less than two years later, the league and NWSLPA agreed to a surprising new labor accord that’s unlike anything in U.S. sports. Players can’t get traded without their consent. There’s no more draft. Minimum salaries will jump 135% over the next seven years.  

It seems women’s athletes, at least in the last few years, are better at this than their male counterparts. Why? Here are a few quick thoughts:

- Young Leagues: The WNBA launched in 1997, and this version of the NWSL is even younger. There’s a lot less of the this is how it’s always been done attitude often used to impede progress.

- Underfunded and Underpaid: Professional women’s sports have long been underfunded, and its stars have likely long been underpaid. They’ve also been subject to often-abusive work conditions that were long overlooked. Now that attention and commercial growth are on the rise, franchise owners—many of them new investors—also recognize the need to make up for lost time.

- Outsized Influence: As compared to men’s leagues, the biggest stars in many women’s leagues have outsized influence. My mom knows Megan Rapinoe, but can’t name a team she played for (Hi Mom! 👋). That gives them a lot of leverage.

- Liberal fans: Women’s sports leagues have fanbases that skew more liberal than most men’s leagues. That leads to a group that is generally more pro-labor, more attuned to gender inequity, and more vocal about both. 

When there’s labor unrest in major U.S. men’s leagues like the NFL or NBA, a large subset of fans are typically angry with players, who they view as spoiled millionaires already paid handsomely to play sports. If there was a strike in a women’s league, I think the fanbase would be overwhelmingly pro-player.

We may soon find out. The WNBA’s current collective bargaining agreement runs through 2027, but there’s a mutual opt-out after this season. It’s a stone-cold lock that the players will choose to terminate that deal in the coming months. I wouldn’t want to be the WNBA/NBA negotiators when those talks begin in earnest.

tl;dr: 👩 ⛹️‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️ 💪 💪 🙋 💰

NWSL Trivia (answer at the bottom): Of the 14 teams currently competing in the NWSL, how many have the same control owner as they had in 2020?

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