One of the most popular sports among American youth, soccer captures the national stage whenever the World Cup comes around. And while the men’s World Cup gets tremendous viewership, it’s actually the Women’s World Cup which gets more engagement and excitement. After all, it’s the version of soccer that America is actually good at. Yet despite the victories over the past Women’s World Cup, women’s soccer is suffering in America due to unequal funding and unequal support. What kind of message does this send to the millions of girls who love playing soccer and idolize the World Cup stars?

Together with the United States Soccer Federation, TakePart produced An Equal Playing Field to shine a spotlight on this unequal reality for women’s soccer through the personal journey of one of the team’s stars: Christen Press. This film sparked a conversation among sports enthusiasts, parents, and media elites on what it takes to create equal opportunity and to support young girls who have the dream to pursue any sport or passion.

TakePart engaged some of the most respected filmmakers to produce a best-in-class documentary about gender equality in soccer. We partnered with Kennedy-Marshall, who produced The Armstrong Lie, to bring their expertise in storytelling. To keep the film authentic, we engaged Gwendolyn Oxenham and Rebekah Ferguson to direct – two female directors who were also college soccer players.

Production spanned a number of locations – from the women’s team practice facility to game venues across the country. What’s more, we built a strong relationship with US Soccer who provided us the access to the team, venues, and footage of past games.

It was a distinct challenge and honor to be able to capture the passion, the heart, and the struggle of these amazing women – with the hope that they would catalyze a discussion on the importance of gender equality in sport.

An Equal Playing Field accomplished everything we hoped for and more. It reached over 7 million people and received positive coverage on a number of sports and news outlets. The film itself garnered more than 1,000,000 views.

What’s more, we drove a conversation around gender equality through sites like Sports Illustrated, Sporting News, Mashable, MSNBC, and The Huffington Post. On social media, the film saw significant traction with influencers like the official Bob Marley profile, ESPN, Julie Foudy, and Grant Wahl all promoting the film. In fact, Twitter utilizes the program as a case study (https://biz.twitter.com/success-stories/takepart) as it had a 13% engagement rate.

In addition to sparking a conversation around equality during the Women’s World Cup, the film had a positive impact by showcasing the amazing efforts of US Soccer in helping to promote the women’s game and to support girls youth soccer around the country.