Women’s Soccer Symposium Hosted in Israel

Soccer may be known worldwide as “the beautiful game,” but for its female participants who play the sport professionally, the pursuit of equality hasn’t been such a delightful experience.

The gaping disparity in pay afforded to men’s and women’s professional teams has been a point of contention for decades. And it wasn’t until last year, with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team scoring a massive legal victory by reaching a settlement with U.S. Soccer (which is not only their employer but also the sport’s national governing body), which included a $24 million payout to current and former players and a pledge to ensure financial parity between the men’s and women’s teams, that the four-time World Cup winning program made significant headway. With the U.S. at the vanguard of this revolution, one that represents arguably the greatest plight for gender equality since Title IX, other soccer-crazed nations, including Israel, are starting to follow suit.

Last month, as a prelude to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Tel Aviv-Yafo hosted an event championing women’s soccer in Israel by highlighting the tremendous strides made by female players in the country. Held in conjunction with the U.S. Embassy in Israel, the Israel Football Association, the Olympic Committee of Israel, the Athena Center for Promoting Women’s Sports in Israel, and the Israeli Ministry of Sport and Culture, the event featured a screening of the award-winning documentary, “LFG,” which chronicles the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team’s crusade for obtaining equal compensation within the United States Soccer Federation.

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Narrated by Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, and Sam Mewis and directed by Academy Award-winners Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine, “LFG” interweaves the squad’s World Cup triumph in 2019 with the players’ relentless pursuit for equal compensation, and in doing so, illuminated the dual challenge of being a world-class athlete staying in tip-top condition while maintaining unflinching determination to drive forward long-lasting societal change.

While such painstaking efforts in the U.S. have yielded significant progress, in Israel, women’s soccer is vastly underfunded compared to its men’s soccer program, a striking imbalance that has hindered the development of the sport played by legions of young Israeli women.

“We firmly believe that empowering women in sports is not only about scoring goals on the field but also about breaking down barriers and challenging societal norms,” remarked Tami Hay Sagiv, deputy director general for education, Peres Center for Peace and Innovation, who served as one of the event’s keynote speakers. “Through this event and our regular activities, The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation is committed to fostering an environment where women’s soccer in Israel and across the Middle East can flourish, inspiring future generations of female athletes to dream big and achieve greatness.”

Since the early 2000s, The Peres Center for Peace and Innovation has been running women’s soccer programs, providing thousands of amateur players with opportunities for participation, training, and development. While the sport remains wildly popular in Israel due in part to such support, Israeli women trying to establish themselves in the professional ranks continue to face insurmountable odds in carving out a living.

“We don’t get paid enough, so we have to work on the side — we can’t be 100 percent focused on just being soccer players,” said Rachel Steinschneider, who plays for the Hapoel Jerusalem women’s team and moonlights as a data engineer for General Motors to pay the bills. “I feel like there’s a change taking place. Every time I talk to a young female player, I say: ‘Things might seem bleak now, but there are good things coming up.’”

In addition to the panel of speakers, which also included Stephanie Hallett, U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, deputy chief of mission, there was a virtual address delivered by Moroccan social entrepreneur Fatima Zahra Benfares, who serves as the director of the government-sponsored program, “She Plays Football,” which strives to broaden opportunities for girls in the North African country to play soccer.

Girls now, they don’t want to imitate a male player when they want to be taken seriously. If you ask her who her favorite player is, she won’t say Christiano Ronaldo anymore, she might say Alex Morgan. They have role models, representation matters.

Speaking over Zoom from her home in Rabat, Benfares declared, “We still have a long way to go, we still have some major barriers facing women’s sport in the region, but we are making incredible progress in shifting the culture and bringing more and more women into sports.

“Girls now, they don’t want to imitate a male player when they want to be taken seriously. If you ask her who her favorite player is, she won’t say Christiano Ronaldo anymore, she might say Alex Morgan. They have role models, representation matters.”

While the evening’s underlying theme was that Israeli women soccer players would no longer tolerate being second-class citizens compared to their male counterparts, a broader message — that soccer can serve as a means for transformative social change in Israel, the Middle East, and across the planet – was also articulated.

“Today’s event represents the U.S. Embassy’s effort to promote American values such as equal opportunity and is part of our continuing effort to promote sports as a means for advancing equality, opportunity, and leadership, especially among women and girls,” noted Hallett. “We will continue to support and promote equal opportunities, not only for women but for other disadvantaged communities, to help build a stronger and more resilient Israeli society.”