![]() "These kids had never seen a professional female athlete," said Fisher. The boys outnumbered the girls five to one. Picarte remembers visiting a school in a poor neighborhood in Recife to conduct a workshop with 40 kids. Thaís Picarte, Goalkeeper for the national women's team Centro Olimpico, is one of these ambassadors. The pilot program also includes workshops for youth in major cities where some of the country’s future players will be recruited. The Guerreiras Project received a seed grant through WJP's World Justice Challenge to begin training 25 of Brazil’s top women soccer players as “ambassadors” to address gender discrimination and accessibility for women in sports. After attending the World Justice Forum in 2013 to speak on a panel about sports and the rule of law, Fisher was inspired to include a rule of law focus to her work. The project turned into an opportunity to use those stories to create change. The Guerreiras Project started in 2012 as a way for women players to share stories of prejudice they experienced and the fight they had to go through to play this sport. Pelle, along with American soccer player Caitlin Fisher, is one of the founders of the Guerreiras Project, a group of athletes, academics, and activists that use sport to create discussions around gender discrimination and access."Guerreiras” translates to female warriors in Portuguese, reflecting the struggle that many female players face in playing soccer. I have two Olympic medals and women’s World Cup trophies at home, but on paper I looked like I had been a couch potato for 16 years.” But she faced a difficult realization: without any employment records, she wasn’t able to open a bank account, buy a car, or lease an apartment. “We had to buy our own gear and play on dangerous fields while got cleats, shin guards and uniforms.” The women athletes had to pay for everything, but they were often paid minimum wage and sometimes not even that.Įventually, Pelle decided to leave the sport for good. Most of the time, she was paid under the table, and sometimes she wasn’t paid at all.Įven at an elite level, as the captain of the Brazilian women's national team, Pelle felt marginalized. In her 16 years as a professional soccer player in Brazil, including playing alongside world-famous “Marta” and winning an Olympic medal, Pelle had only one legal employment contract, and it was when she was 15 years old. Aline “Pelle” Pellegrino still recalls the day she gave up her passion-as an Olympic athlete-for a job that offered reliable pay and a break from the daily discrimination she faced.
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