In honor of Black Women Equal Pay Day today, we wanted to share an excerpt with you from our current cover story Angel McCoughtry, team member of the WNBA Atlanta Dream. While the WNBA players do just about the same things as NBA players, the women are not publicized and promoted like the men of the NBA, allowing them the reach and accessibility to a wider fan base, including those who may not be so much into sports but other causes and campaigns, like myself.
It is said that the reason for this is due to the fact that the women’s league only generates $25 million in annual revenue, in comparison to the NBA, who rakes in a whopping $7.4 billion. The NBA also receives more money in broadcast rights than the WNBA according to Black Enterprise. According to the CNBC, “WNBA players earn 20 percent of an NBA player’s minimum salary. So upon learning that I would be speaking on a platform with WNBA Atlanta Dreams team member, Angel McCoughtry, I was very intrigued. It’s not often that I meet women athletes, and it hit me that while their careers and lives are much like other women, their paths are not as similar. Get the scoop below as Angel and I discuss being a woman athlete and equal pay.Â
Fancy: How would you describe your swagher? What makes Angel, Angel?
Angel: Just that I am myself. I love what I do. I am grateful for the things God has blessed me with. I think my swagher comes from inspiring the youth. When I see the kids and how they look up to me, I’m like ‘ok, I have a little swag. They like what I do!’ So, you know that is a blessing that people appreciate what I do.
Fancy: Now I’ve heard you mention that as a woman athlete, your lives aren’t normal, and I don’t think we, the fans, think much on that, but you recently took a year off and you were sharing how good it felt to do so. Can you elaborate more on that?
Angel: Well I’ve been playing for the last ten years, since college, since 2009. I did take a year off in 2017 because I was a little burnt out. I had played for the WNBA and overseas for all those years straight for nine consecutive years! So imagine playing, playing, playing, never having a break, just playing all year round. You know, it’s kinda not normal. Even NBA players get the summer off.
So I said you know what? My body was telling me it was time to take a break. I did that, I got to travel and do some neat things, but then it was unfortunate that I came back this year to play and tore my ACL (anterior cruciate ligament). I’d never been hurt or injured- ever, and it was coming off fresh from taking a year off, so it was definitely devastating. I was like dang, ‘what is this? Why am I having this setback?’ But the blessing of this minor setback is that it’s become a great setup, you know. I’m happy to come back from the injury this year. I think I have a lot more focus since the injury. I won’t take anything for granted, so the injury has been a blessing in disguise.
Fancy: As more women are starting to speak out about the pay gap and demand equal pay, and we know the WNBA players have spoken out, would you say there have been any improvements?
Angel: I do see where there’s hope and things are improving. For example, in women’s tennis, they didn’t always make millions nor have all the things that they have now. It took people like Billie Jean King and those type of women, to speak up. Now they are at a status where people notice; people are watching. They can make that kind of revenue. They deserve it. They work hard for it. We feel the same way, like we want to be appreciated a little more, and we hope that it can cause change. Maybe the desired changes are not for when I play, but maybe for the younger generations. That’s what we are doing; we are not saying we want to make millions like the guys. We’re just saying we are worth more, and there’s nothing wrong with asking for what you are worth.
We get a lot of backlash on social media, and people are talking about we will never be like the men. First of all, we are not comparing ourselves to men. I would never go to your boss at your job and say, ‘hey, don’t give him a raise.’ I would never do that to you. So I feel like respect the women. If we are asking for a raise, respect that because I would want the same thing for you and your job.
Fancy: Right, I recall you saying how a lot of the times, people try to compare the women’s games to the men’s games.
Angel: Well, we all know what the difference is between men and women when it comes to sports and athleticism. We all know God didn’t make our bodies the same as men, so we are not going to do exactly the same things. We can do just about- but no, I can’t jump and dunk like a man, because my body is not built that way. So I always ask people, ‘why are you holding that against us?’ Our bodies just aren’t made to do it.
Aside from playing in the WNBA and overseas basketball, Angel McCoughtry is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist (London 2012, Rio 2016), the owner of McCoughtry’s Ice Cream Shop, as well as a singer, content creator, and she is stepping into film. According to the news, Angel is planning to return to the court for the team’s season finale on September 8 vs. the Liberty at State Farm Arena.
Photo by Delilah Peach Photography.Â
