Major funding for backstory is provided by an anonymous donor, the National Endowment for the Humanities,

and the Robert and Joseph Cornell Memorial Foundation.

For Virginia Humanities, this is backstory.

This is backstory. I'm Ed Ayers.

If you're new to the podcast, each week my colleagues, Brian Ballot, Nathan Conley, Joanne Freeman, and I

explore an aspect of American history that's been in the news.

This month, the U.S. women's soccer team won the World Cup in France.

At the championship game against the Netherlands, there were cheers of victory.

But there was also a protest, particularly regarding the issue of equal pay.

Now, the U.S. women's team have won four.

Count them four. World cups since the tournament started in 1991.

During that time, though, they've been paid significantly less in their male counterparts.

Now, the American women's team is taking the issue of equal pay to federal court.

They filed a complaint against the U.S. soccer federation, what's known as the U.S.S.S.F, alleging that they receive about a quarter of what their male counterparts are paid.

No matter what happens in the lawsuit, the women's victory in France has reignited a heated debate about how athletes use sports to protest inequality on the world.

So, on this episode of Backstory, we're revisiting segments that have explored the issue of sports and equality throughout American history.

We'll look at the famous Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympics and revisit a story from 2018 on how sporting events have opened up discussions about Puerto Rican sovereignty.

But first, I want to take you back to the 1920s.

Many American women could vote thanks to their long and determined campaign for suffrage.

Women were going to college and a booming economy had opened up new and exciting opportunities for them outside of the home.

Except that is when it came to sports.

And so, in 1922, a group of female track and field athletes set out to change that.

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