Dunn was often her country’s only black starter at the 2019 World Cup, later celebrated as the most diverse US women’s team.
“There are so many more great young players out there who are a better mix of what this country is,” Scurry said. “This country is not just white.”
Children’s exposure to football is often where inequality begins
The increase in diversity at the top level of US women’s soccer coincides with a multi-year effort to get more minority kids onto the field.
“It is often difficult and takes time to broaden the demographic of young players,” said Solomon of the Aspen Institute.
The institute’s most recent survey found that 39% of Hispanic students and 20% of white students had played high school soccer versus just 10% of black students.
A 2008 US Soccer Foundation survey found that even as the game experienced tremendous national growth at the youth level, large swaths of the country were falling behind.
“We developed a strategy and business plan that focused and prioritized increasing access and opportunity for underrepresented populations, particularly children in underserved and underrepresented communities,” the CEO of the Soccer Foundation said in an interview. from the USA, Ed Foster-Simeon.
The foundation has provided free programs to more than half a million children in “low-income” communities, building more than 600 “mini-courts” designed for youth play across the country.
While minority participation has improved “quite a bit,” Foster-Simeon said, “it’s nowhere near where we want it to be.”
The problem has not been limited to soccer.
Girls in predominantly white high schools typically see 82% of the sports opportunities that boys do, according to a Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF) report last year. That number drops to 67% in schools where students of color are the majority.
Girls of color are “let down” in school programs and clubs, said FSM director of research Karen Issokson-Silver.
“Sport is a microcosm of society, so a lot of the things that we see in society, whether it’s systemic racism or archaic gender norms… you’re likely to see in sport,” she said.
Founded nine years ago along with espnW, the women’s sports arm of the cable network, WSF’s Sports 4 Life program works to increase the participation of girls of color.
The opportunity to see a World Cup team with many diverse players will play a big role for the next generation, Issokson-Silver said.
“When it comes to girls having the opportunity to see what’s possible for themselves, that kind of visibility, whether it’s at the high school level, the college level, or … at the elite levels of the game. It’s monumental,” he said.
That message isn’t lost on the women of the 2023 US National Team.
“Growing up, I don’t really feel like that was something I saw in professional football and national teams,” 23-year-old defender Naomi Girma, who is making her World Cup debut, told reporters. “I am honored to be that representation.”
At a media event last month, Dunn noted that even things like finding hairstylists and makeup artists who work with black women for team events can be challenging.
She hopes to leave the sport in a place where those who follow her “don’t have to fight for the same things.”
“I can’t hide that I’m a black woman,” Dunn said. “And I think for me, the more I get into that space and acknowledge it, she’s really enabled and given the green light to other women of color.”
