The ever-evolving debate over women playing sports

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The World Cup that kicked off this week in Australia and New Zealand is a time to rejoice in the dominance of American women in international sports.

It also occurs at a time when the conversation about women in sports is turning on its head in the US. After decades spent making sure women have access and support to play sports, there’s now a politically loaded debate over who is considered a woman – a motivating issue for Republicans over the last year.

The US has invested in giving women access to sports like no other country, building for decades on the Title IX law that required equal opportunity.

If the US women lose the FIFA World Cup tournament, it will be a sign that the rest of the world is catching up. But there’s a good chance the American system will have had a direct role in helping the victor.

Twenty-one of the 32 teams taking part in the tournament have at least one woman who played college soccer in the US, according to the NCAA.

While American women achieved a historic agreement last year with the US Soccer Federation to earn wages for their international duty on par with the middling US Men’s National Team, most female athletes still make a fraction of what their male counterparts bring in.

A CNN analysis published Thursday finds that female soccer players earn 25 cents to the dollar of men at the World Cup. And according to a report from the global players’ union, two-thirds of surveyed women competing in World Cup qualifying rounds had to take unpaid leave from another job to compete.

That’s all assuming there is a team in a woman’s country. In Saudi Arabia – which has its sights on taking over multiple professional men’s sports by throwing money at golf and soccer –…