Joe Biden Hosts Megan Rapinoe at the White House: ‘Not a Single Thing a Man Can Do That Women Can’t Do As Well’

US President Joe Biden (R) signs a proclamation marking National Equal Pay Day 2021, flank
JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Charlie Spiering

President Joe Biden hosted U.S. women’s soccer athletes Margaret Purce and Megan Rapinoe at the White House on Wednesday, in an effort to highlight the pay gap for women.

“There’s not a single thing a man can do that a woman can’t do as well or better,” Biden said at the event. “Not a single thing.”

He thanked the soccer players for continuing to fight for equal pay for women.

“I’m an unadulterated fan, not a joke,” Biden said to them during the event. “Not a joke. And both you and your entire team have inspired our daughters and granddaughters.”

Rapinoe repeated her claim she was not making as much money as the U.S. men’s soccer team, even though the team continued to win trophies.

“Despite those wins, I’ve been devalued, I’ve been disrespected, and dismissed because I’m a woman, and I’ve been told I don’t deserve any more than less because I am a woman,” she said at the White House.

First Lady Jill Biden also spoke about getting paid less as a teacher than some of her male colleagues.

‘This is personal to me because it’s personal to all women,” she said.

She also praised the soccer team for continuing to fight the battle for equal pay.

“Our paychecks reflect how we are valued by our employers and even by our communities,” she said.

Earlier, White House press secretary Jen Psaki brought Rapinoe to the press briefing room and even sat in the audience for a few minutes.

Rapinoe wore a mask and stood at the podium and pretended to be the press secretary, joking she would “circle back” with reporters.

“Everybody be really friendly and just only ask gentle questions,” Psaki said to the reporters in the room as she sat in the reporter’s chairs.

“Do you get nervous up here?” Rapinoe asked Psaki.

Psaki replied by describing the job as “fun” and it was “an honor to be up there” even though some days she felt the “stakes were high.”

In May 2020, a federal judge dismissed a claim by Rapinoe and the U.S. Women’s World Cup soccer team that they did not get equal pay for their work, pointing to a difference in their contract structure with the Men’s World Cup soccer team.

Rapinoe endorsed Elizabeth Warren for president during the Democrat presidential campaign after several years of protesting former President Donald Trump.

“We have a white nationalist — I think — in the White House,” she said about Trump in May 2020.

She and members of the U.S. Soccer team also knelt in protest during the national anthem at their soccer games to protest racism.

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