Adds defender Kelley O’Hara, 30, who’s making her third World Cup appearance this summer: “At the end of the day, we’re all playing soccer because we love it and we’re good at it and it’s something that we’re passionate about. But I do think that it’s important to understand that we have a responsibility. We are in a place where we can impact the game and impact society—this team has always done a great job of balancing those two things.”
The balance isn’t always easy. In March 2016, five of the team’s most recognizable players—Hope Solo, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Megan Rapinoe—filed an official complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission alleging that the U.S. Soccer Federation paid women “substantially less” than men in the sport. Fresh off their World Cup win, they found support: Two months later the U.S. Senate came together to unanimously pass a bipartisan resolution supporting the women and asking the Federation to grant the players equal pay. The resolution was nonbinding, but the players got one step closer to victory regardless. In Feb 2019 the EEOC sent a “right to sue” letter to the team, so this March—on International Women’s Day—that’s exactly what they did. The entire team sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender discrimination.
It’s easy to see why they’re frustrated. The women’s team handily outperforms the men’s: They’re ranked significantly higher, hold more World Cup titles and Olympic medals (four golds), draw bigger TV audiences, and since their 2015 win, have generated more money for U.S. Soccer. (Meanwhile the U.S. men’s team failed to even qualify for the 2018 World Cup.) Still, they’re paid significantly less—some players make just 38 percent of what their male counterparts make, according to the lawsuit. “Right now the structure is set up so that our counterparts on the men’s national team have the opportunity to make so much more money,” says Press. When the men’s team qualified for the 1990 World Cup, each player got a $10,000 bonus; when the women’s team earned the same honor a year later, they reportedly got a T-shirt.
Things haven’t improved much. For the last Women’s World Cup in 2015, FIFA, the international governing body of the sport, offered the winning team $2 million in prize money. The winning men’s team had been paid $35 million—17.5 times more—in the men’s World Cup a year earlier. (The Federation maintains that it hasn’t discriminated against the women’s team, and that the men and women players have fundamentally different jobs, team organizations, and compensation setups.)
Some critics point out the USWNT is among the most well-funded women’s sports programs in the world. But being the highest paid woman at your company who’s still making less than men at your level isn’t equality. “We’re very grateful for what we have, but we’re definitely demanding what we deserve,” says forward Alex Morgan, 29. “My hope is that the next generation will be able to have [total equality]—it will just be a given.” (To help make it a reality, Secret recruited Morgan to launch the brand’s Equal Pay for All campaign, pledging $100,000 to Girls Leading Girls.)
Pissing off the powers that be when they are in some of the most crucial months of their careers is risky for these players—but they aren’t backing down. “It’s part of our job to do this,” says Lloyd. “It’s not something that is comfortable, but in order to get what you deserve, you have to be a little uncomfortable.”
For the first time ever, the most prestigious mathematics prize in the world was awarded to a woman. Karen Uhlenbeck, 76, an emeritus professor at the University of Texas at Austin and current visitor at the Institute for Advanced Study, was honored with the Abel Prize for mathematics. Known as the Nobel Prize for math, the Abel comes with a cash prize of about $700,000. (NBD: It’s up to the King of Norway to give it.) The award was established in 2003, and all previous winners have been men.
Dr. Uhlenbeck was recognized for, “the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.” according to the New York Times. When Dr. Uhlenbeck found out she’d won, she was leaving her Unitarian Universalist Church when she received a text message from a colleague telling her to look out for a call from Norway. “I pressed the button and called [the Abel committee] back and they told me I’d won—and I had to sit down,” Dr. Uhlenbeck told Glamour.
When Dr. Uhlenbeck began teaching mathematics in the 1960s, she had to fight tooth and nail to even procure a professorship. “It was really only at the period of time that I got my degree, that the jobs in academia—and probably elsewhere—were slowly being opened up to women,” she says. “I was right on the edge of that. There were certainly universities that would not consider hiring me. There were universities that said, ‘Oh well why don’t you go teach at a woman’s college.’ I was told things like that, but I guess I have a rebellious streak so I persevered.”
Since there weren’t a huge number of women who had come before her to look up to in STEM, Dr. Uhlenbeck maid attention to women who’d pioneered other fields for inspiration. Famed chef Julia Child was a particular role model. “She was 6’2, a big woman with this immense presence and there was this great incident that I distinctly remember where she dropped a turkey on her television show. And she picked it up, brought it to the back, and came out and said, ‘Luckily we had another one!’ She had presence and wasn’t perfect. The feeling was if Julia Child could do it, maybe you could too,” says Dr. Uhlenbeck.
Dr. Uhlenbeck has emulated Child’ style of being an approachable and human role model to the many women she’s mentored over the years—as well as those who have simply come in her wake. “Since winning the award, I’ve gotten innumerable emails from women telling me how important my being there is, and it’s a great feeling,” says Dr. Uhlenbeck. But this isn’t a coincidence. Dr. Uhlenbeck made it her mission to encourage more women to enter the field. “I have to say that it struck me at some point that if I were to look around and see no women coming up through mathematics behind me, how would I feel? I would feel terrible. Now, I see these lively, enthusiastic, brilliant, wacky young women coming up and doing mathematics. When I was young I couldn’t afford to be wacky. I had to be careful. I couldn’t dye my hair purple and get up and teach calculus class ,but I love seeing it; it’s wonderful to see.”
With a new efforts to get girls into STEM from a young age, Dr. Uhlenbeck is hopeful that we’ll see even more women work in mathematics. “Certainly the problem [of girls not pursuing STEM] starts very young,” she says.” I don’t know how many young girls are still being told that they don’t have to bother taking advanced placement math because they’re a girl and they don’t need it—but I know it still happens. However, all I can say is that it’s getting better [from this push.]”
Things got very awkward during Cardi B‘s headlining set on stage at the Rolling Loud festival in Los Angeles Saturday night: Her soon-to-be ex-husband, Offset, interrupted her performance in a very public way to ask her back. And—spoiler alert—she was not into it.
A quick catch-up: Earlier this month, Cardi B announced that she and Offset, who she’s been married to for a year and has a daughter with, were divorcing after rumors surfaced of his cheating. Offset doesn’t seem to be on board with the split, though, and has been posting on Instagram about how much he misses Cardi. He apparently decided to his “win Cardi back” mission to the next level with a grand gesture that seemed to seriously backfire.
During the rapper’s set at Rolling Loud in Los Angeles, Offset made a surprise appearance onstage with a massive sign that read “Take me back Cardi” in white and red roses.
Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
He interrupted her show to tell her how badly he wanted to reconcile: “I just want to tell you I’m sorry, bruh,” Offset reportedly told her. “In person. In front of the world.”
Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
She just sort of stood there looking (understandably) annoyed as hell.
Scott Dudelson/Getty Images
Eventually, he walked offstage and she went on with her show.
Let’s just say fans weren’t impressed, with some drawing an apt parallel with an ex showing up unexpectedly at work and interrupting a meeting.
After the incident, Cardi posted to Instagram to thank her fans for their support and to clarify that she doesn’t want them attacking Offset in the wake of the event.
“Violating my baby’s father is not going to make me feel any better, because at the end of the day that’s still family,” she said. “Unfortunately, we’re going through things, and that’s not private, it became public. I just want things to die down, I just need time so we can see eye to eye…I can’t predict the future.”
She continued in a second post, “I’m not saying that I’m going to get back together with him, I just don’t like that bashing online thing.”
Eleven months ago, my mom decided to run for Congress in the 2018 midterm elections. Last night, I felt prouder of her than ever.
Here’s the catch—she lost.
From the beginning, the experience watching my mother run was inspiring. Last December, Kathy Manning decided it was time to step up and take action; she couldn’t just stand by and watch as our country veered down a dark and twisted path.
Her decision to run pushed me to quit my own job to do something I felt was more important, too. I started a new audio-first media company to tell the stories of women like her. Through that work, I realized that my mom was by no means alone in her quest to preserve the values that really urge our country towards greatness. I got to know 12 other women running for the House, each of whom said in one way or another, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” Each of whom felt the personal impact of policy and said, “The arc of the universe may bend towards justice, but we’re going to have to push it.”
As Election Day grew ever closer, I spent afternoons knocking on doors in areas of my home district I had never visited. I met strangers at their homes, at churches, in restaurants, and on streets who were so inspired by Kathy Manning that they beamed at the opportunity to shake my hand.
Through grueling, seemingly never-ending days of work, my mom shined. She listened to the concerns of people throughout the district and nightly reported back stories of the tenacity of the people in our area.
Still, she lost. It would be lying by omission to gloss over the pain and anxiety of last night. The race was an uphill battle from the start—North Carolina’s districts have already been deemed too gerrymandered by the courts. They were cut with “surgical precision” to keep districts, including the 13th, where she ran, red. At the first signs of a loss, I felt both wired and deeply saddened.
Enter Kathy Manning. She arrived at the watch party without any sign of tears. She embraced person after person with love and gratitude for the hard work done by all. She asked about other women she knew were running throughout the country, and she was happy to hear so many of her peers won. A record number of women will serve in our next House of Representatives and her fellow Democrats retook the chamber.
When my mom took the stage to speak, she proved once and for all, that Kathy Manning is not just the leader we wanted, she’s the leader we need.
As I looked out at the crowd during her speech on election night, I saw the faces of hundreds of people filled with love, propelled by hope, moved to keep on fighting. She said it better than I ever could: “Because what really makes America great is our desire to be a land of opportunity for all. What really makes us great is our history of setting high ideals and striving to meet them. We may stumble along the way, but we must continue to fight for what is right.”
Kathy Manning’s run for Congress was just the beginning. The way she acted when faced with defeat stoked a full-on fire of activism—not just within me, but within people across the North Carolina’s 13th District and across the country.
A better future can be a reality. Some parts of the country felt it last night. Some didn’t. But midterm elections weren’t our last chance. Change is coming. As this chapter comes to a close, it’s time to double-down and charge ahead.
As my mom said last night, “We know change is possible, and we know change is required. We must continue working together to make this country what it can be and what it should be.”
Jenny Kaplan is the co-founder and CEO of Wonder Media Network, an audio-first media company focused on women and politics. She’s also the host of its flagship podcast Women Belong in the House. Kaplan was formerly an award-winning reporter at Bloomberg News.
On Wednesday America woke up to a redrawn political map, a divided government, and of course countless tweets, sound bites, and stories that declared the “blue wave” that had been promised in the midterm elections was little more than a trickle. That’s just not true.
For starters, Democrats will now command the House of Representatives, drawing (at last!) to a close 24 months of unmitigated powerlessness in Washington. This, THIS is the result we organized and door-knocked and raised small-dollar donations for. Politicians with a conscience (example: those who think immigrant children shouldn’t be housed in cages) can now function as the legislative branch is supposed to, conducting real oversight on an executive branch that has, until now, faced none. I know we’ve gotten used to that sense that haha #nothingmatters, but the real world isn’t Twitter and this wasn’t a game. Power was divvied up. For the first time in what feels like centuries, we got some of it.
So let’s recap: More than 100 women are now bound for D.C. That happened because thousands of women rallied for them—domestic workers and stay-at-home moms and teachers and nurses. Together those women built a new political infrastructure run by—and accountable to—them.
Also notable is that women of color eked out some of the nail-biter victories that control of the House of Representatives depended on. These are the women whom Democrats have relied on to turn out the vote for decades but have never quite empowered to lead. Well, Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, who was shot and killed at 17; Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee and Muslim woman; and Ayanna Pressley, who will soon become the first black congresswoman ever from Massachusetts, didn’t ask for seat at the table. They demanded it.
In Florida, a state that bitterly disappointed progressives on Tuesday night—with Bill Nelson heading into a recount in the Senate race and Andrew Gillum losing his gubernatorial bid—almost 1.5 million people convicted of felonies will have their right to vote restored. To put that in perspective: Nelson is just 34,000 votes from a dead tie. In 2020, when a Democrat will need Florida to have a shot at the Oval Office, this population, whom Democrats have fought for, could decide the race.
We elected some of the best shots we have to battle evil. We put people in office when we could have thrown up our hands.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts enshrined transgender rights. Three blood-red states voted to expand Medicaid, giving hundreds of thousands of people access to health care that will save their lives. Some in the media like to treat politics like a horserace, but the people who cried out at town halls and protested the NRA knew better. It’s not about a point here or there. It’s about survival.
Each loss is a heartbreak. Of course, we wanted Beto O’Rourke to win in Texas. We wanted a decisive triumph for Stacey Abrams, whose opponent in Georgia expelled close to 700,000 voters from the polls in 2017 and is at the moment ahead by a mere 70,000. Alabama approved a ballot measure that will extend full legal rights to fertilized eggs (and thus rescind them for women).
It’s OK to grieve. Gerrymandering and voter suppression are real, and their costs are greater than we can bear.
But how do we build political power? How does that happen?
It happens when Democrats can help draw district lines. (Hello to the seven legislative chambers nationwide that Democrats flipped, with over 300 seats changing from red to blue. Welcome to people like Gretchen Whitmer and Laura Kelly, new governors in Michigan and Kansas.) It happens when people like Beto O’Rourke convince voters in Texas who’ve never bothered to vote that it’s worth it to come out. Democrats picked up at least two GOP-held congressional seats in the Lone Star State. O’Rourke deserves a serious portion of the credit for that. His exuberance and relentless ground game drove some of the unlikeliest people to the polls.
Blind optimism won’t fuel a revolution. But neither will blind despair. Because of the work that women in particular did, a grassroots movement grows in Texas. A lesbian Native American MMA fighter will represent a district in Kansas. In New York, that supposed “bastion of coastal elitism,” Democrats took control of the state senate, which it hasn’t had for almost two decades, and Andrea Stewart-Cousins will now become the first woman ever to lead a legislative chamber in the state.
It’s fine if this all sounds delusional. I have no doubt that the racism and homophobia and sexism and anti-Semitism and xenophobia that fueled the GOP in these elections (and won them, in several cases) have made their mark. But on Tuesday we elected some of the best shots we have to battle those evils. We put people in office when we could have thrown up our hands. No one knows what impact that’ll have—not The New York Times election needle, not Nate Silver, not Wolf Blitzer. No one.
Here is what I know: 990 miles and a million headlines apart, two 29-year-old women were elected to the House of Representatives last night.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one of them, a progressive powerhouse who rose to national attention after she beat Democratic incumbent Representative Joe Crowley in June. The political newcomer launched and led a pitch-perfect race over the summer. She’s one of a thousand reasons I’m not just pleased, but (what is this emotion; I hardly remember it?) hopeful in the aftermath of the midterm elections.
But allow me to introduce another cause for celebration, and one with whom some are less familiar: Meet Abby Finkenauer, the other woman under 30 who won last night. Finkenauer was elected in Dubuque, Iowa, defeating Republican incumbent Rep. Rod Blum. She is only the third Democrat since 1973 to hold this seat. And when she decided to run for the Iowa State House of Representatives (a chamber in which she then served two terms), she was just 24, saddled with student debt and up against three men in their forties. She flattened them.
Ocasio-Cortez and Finkenauer have their political differences, but both are about to launch careers in federal politics that could last decades. Both are women who’ve decided to dedicate their considerable skills and political prowess to the creation of better opportunities for more people. When’s the last time it felt like that happened?
These two women triumphed, not to mention the victories of Deb Haaland and Sharice Davids, the first Native American women ever elected to the House, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first Muslim women ever elected to the House, Lucy McBath, Ayanna Pressley, Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill, Lauren Underwood…
Should I continue?
Because I could find 10,000 more words. I could quote Pressley, who insisted that representation mattered. I could narrate the ascendant McBath, who poured her sorrow into this race and gained the respect of her constituents. I could go on and on.
And that’s the point. That’s the win. There is so much more of this story to write.
Ronna Romney McDaniel loves the phrase “You don’t get what you don’t ask for.”
It became a mantra after a seminal moment early in her career. At 24 she was already the head of her department at a political advertising firm, which was hiring a young man fresh out of college. He’d report to her, she learned, but he’d also make as much money as she did. She was nervous to confront the boss about the lopsided deal (“I didn’t know how to negotiate, and I didn’t know how to advocate for myself,” she says), but plunged ahead anyway. “I cried when I did it,” she admits. “I wouldn’t recommend that.
Nonetheless, she walked away with a $10,000 raise—and a priceless lesson about sticking up for herself.
Today, McDaniel, 45, is supremely confident about asking for what she wants: Since January 2017, when she became the chair of the Republican National Committee, she has helped the party haul in well over $210 million, more than any previous RNC chair during a midterm election cycle. The Michigan-based mom of two has traveled more than 150,000 miles, visiting over half the states. But there’s no time to rest: Republicans are fighting to keep their hold on Congress in a November vote that is widely seen as a referendum on President Donald Trump.
It’s easy to imagine McDaniel as one of those candidates in the arena. She’s deft at delivering GOP talking points (and talking up Trump) and unafraid to jab at Democrats (or the press), and she has the political pedigree (Mitt Romney is her uncle, and both her parents and two grandparents have run for office). But the ugliness of her mom’s 1994 U.S. Senate bid in Michigan doused any interest she might have had in making her own run. Instead she now puts her strategic chops to use behind the scenes for the GOP.
In a sit-down with Glamour, McDaniel talked about bringing more women into the Republican Party under a president who hasn’t (to put it lightly) always been well-spoken in regard to women and about whether we might see another Romney run for office.
Here are the highlights:
Glamour: You come from a political family, you were head of the Michigan GOP, but you’ve also been a full-time mom. How did you get here?
Ronna Romney McDaniel: I was on my PTA; I was room mom …. I was stay-home mom. [Then] we had a budget crisis in our state. One of the favorite teachers in our school got laid off. They couldn’t tell him if he was going to get his job back because the budget hadn’t been passed yet. You realize how things that are happening on your state level, your local level, affect your life…. I didn’t expect it would end here, but it’s an honor and a thrill.
Glamour: And now you’ve raised millions of dollars for the GOP. What drives you?
RM: A lot of it is doing my homework, [explaining why] it’s a good investment—and then not taking no for an answer…. People will blow you up. They’ll be like, “I’m not giving. I’m so mad at the party.” [You have to] listen. Take it in. Have a dialogue, and then say, “OK, let me tell you why you need to invest.”
Glamour: What is it like to work with President Trump? Some say he’s remaking the party, and others think he’s destroying it.
RM: I get along great with him. He and I have a very honest relationship; we have a great rapport…. I see him as a change agent [who] tapped into I think what a lot of people felt like was a frustration with Washington. So that’s where Trump transcended party. He was a deal maker, he’s a businessman…. He’s reached his hand out to Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, trying to work across party lines.
RM: Yes, I know—and then the next day he invites them over. That’s how he is.
PHOTO: Jonno Rattman
McDaniel poses with a group of women at the Indiana Republican State Convention
PHOTO: Jonno Rattman
McDaniel preps for an interview with local television stations in Indiana
Glamour: Do President Trump’s comments about women complicate your job? Even with you running the RNC, people still sometimes say the GOP is a party of “old white dudes.”
RM: There are certain voters who that’s an issue with, but if you go to Main Street, Iowa, or Indiana, or Missouri, where a lot of our battleground races are, most of the voters are thinking about their lives…. I think being a woman has actually helped me with fundraising. I was in Colorado [and] this one guy’s like, “I just think you’re cool, so I’m going to support you because I love that you’re a woman and I have a daughter your [age].” And [I’m] like, “I’ll take it. I’m a lot cooler than you think. Let’s write a bigger check.”
Glamour: President Trump has had some very public fights with your uncle Mitt Romney. It’s been reported that the President wanted you to drop “Romney” from your name. [The chairwoman’s Twitter page identifies her only as “Ronna McDaniel.”]
RM: It’s a ridiculous story. There is no person in the world, not even the President of the United States, who could say, “Change your name.” I want to make sure that the McDaniel doesn’t get left out, because the three people who are supporting me the most have that last name—and when your middle name’s Romney, sometimes people forget the McDaniel, and that’s just not good.
Glamour: The three people are your husband, son, and daughter. How is your job affecting your family?
RM: You have to have a spouse who supports you. I don’t care if you’re male or female. But the amount of hours I’m on the road and being away from the family—[he’s] pretty much a single dad four days a week. My husband works, [so it’s about] balancing raising our kids and doing it well. There are days where it’s a tough day for my kids and I’m not home, and it’s awful. We’re making it work. I actually cooked a dinner on Sunday and it wasn’t terrible. So that’s a huge success in my life.
Glamour: Did you grow up loving politics?
RM: I hated politics. In a political family, you don’t realize what you’re learning through osmosis [at the] dinner table…. It gets heated and people are fighting, and you’re like, “What is wrong with my family? Can’t we just talk about normal, nice things?” My mom’s Senate race [was] brutal, and I just really soured on politics after that. I just didn’t like the negativity, and most of it was from our own party.
Glamour: What if one day your daughter said, “Mom, I’m running for president”?
RM: I’d be so proud of her. [It’s] hard to run for office. A lot of people don’t want to subject themselves to the scrutiny, [but] we’re only going to get the level of service that we deserve if good people step up and run. And I think my daughter would be a great president.
In a pivotal election year, Glamour is keeping track of the historic number of women running (and voting) in the midterm elections. For more on our latest midterm coverage, visit www.glamour.com/midterms.
Celeste Katz is senior politics reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.
