“Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything” a famous line by Colin Kaepernick in one of the most controversial Nike ads – a line so inspiring yet simultaneously so hypocritical as the company continues to exploit their female athletes by denying them their basic human rights. Nike’s programs and contracts are designed to advantage men as they continue to dominate the sports scene and enjoy a full career, while women are treated as if their job and livelihood are a hobby; their labor is thus exploitable by Nike.
Unlike most job contracts, Nike’s contracts for their women athletes do not ensure maternity leave, meaning that these sports women could end up having to go several months without pay or any income to help provide for their family and newborn. Some of these women athletes spoke publicly about the issue, but few voices were heard. It wasn’t until track stars such as Allyson Felix and Alysia Montaño made their voices heard through interviews with The New York Times that the public started to take notice. The stories were documented on their website and YouTube, eventually garnering over three million views and 8,500 comments. The public outrage not only pressured Nike but also three other sportswear apparel companies to update their contract rules. So, if it wasn’t for these superstar athletes attacking their image, Nike would have done nothing to fix the matter.
These athlete-moms are not the only ones that face this problem, mothers in general have the same issue of giving up on their hopes and dreams to stay at home and take care of their family. In fact, the book, Mother Through Precarity: Women’s Work and Digital Media, features interviews with several moms with the same dilemma. Carly, one of the mothers interviewed, was working at her ideal job, until it became apparent that she couldn’t keep up with her work and family simultaneously. The neoliberal economy has been taking a toll on the middle and lower class as it has decreased job security. So, Carly was forced to settle for a boring 9-to-5 job so she could allocate enough time for taking care of her children. Her work as an assistant program director at a local radio station had to be put on hold as it did not accommodate her schedule of being a mother. “So I left a career that I love. I left a career that I loved and dreamed about for my family.”
Carly’s work switch meant that she’d have to put in a lot of emotional labor as a mother and worker, hiding all the emotions and thoughts while performing the affective responses that society deemed appropriate for a young mother. We see a similar case with Felix: “I’ve always known that expressing myself could hurt my career. I’ve tried not to show emotion, to anticipate what people expect from me and to do it. I don’t like to let people down. But you can’t change anything with silence.” This played a big role in breaking her silence and publicly announcing Nike’s wrongdoings. Although she lost her contract and sponsorships, she won the appreciation of thousands of feminists and people online by encouraging them to point out gendered inequalities in society.
Massive companies like Nike are to blame as they shape the public opinion on gendered work. Society has managed to partition men and women into different jobs based solely on their gender. We can see that men dominate the sports industry; therefore, it is labelled as a masculine labor, which is one of the main reasons we see inequality between the genders in sports. Women are given little to no recognition in the sports industry. As such, their careers in the fields can be precarious and unpredictable. The moment Felix spoke up about the problems with Nike, she automatically got her contract terminated. Unfortunately, our economy depends on a neoliberal model, and so Nike sees its female athletes as disposable entities rather than valuable employees. These capitalist companies are one of the reasons our society slowly deteriorates. As they gradually increase the number of underpaid employees, unequal pay will soon become a normality. Capitalism has been an issue for everyone, but it is the marginalized groups who take the biggest hit. As minorities, these groups have no choice but to live up to what society expects them to do throughout their lives. Societal norms are to blame, as we keep miseducating the next generation and supplying them with false information based on gendered and exploitative assumptions.