I’m usually more of an American football fan (#flyeaglesfly), but like many of you this week, I’m watching the *other* type of football. The U.S. Women’s National Team is getting a lot of attention for their 13-goal romp over Thailand in their Women’s World Cup opener, and for the fight against the pay gap that exists between them and their male counterparts.

That Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and team are paid less than male soccer players with far less name recognition is not new information; Morgan and Lloyd were among the members of USWNT that filed a wage-discrimination suit against the U.S. Soccer Federation in 2016. That pay gap has persisted and is even worse when it comes to World Cup winnings: FIFA’s prize pool for the 2019 Women’s World Cup is $30 million. In 2018, the prize pool for the men’s World Cup was $400 million.

The good news is that USWNT’s performance Tuesday was so dominant that even political candidates are chiming in on the need to close the pay gap on the soccer pitch. I hope the calls to action result in real change, because the erstwhile disparity in gameplay is just as glaring: the 13 goals scored against Thailand is more goals in one game than the men’s team scored in the 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cups… combined.

Yours in exasperation,
Maggie

P.S. My favorite advice on the site this week—because I’m constantly questioning whether I could be as confident as those daily affirmation pillows tell me—is this piece on why we need to “fine-tune our radar to determine whether an individual’s self-confidence is grounded in self-awareness.” 

News Of The Day: Modern Fertility Raises $15 Million To Fertilize The Femtech Space

Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy are on a mission to lift the shroud of mystery surrounding fertility--and a recent $15 million fundraising round is giving their startup a major boost. After being featured on Forbes' 30 Under 30 list, the pair founded Modern Fertility, which sells an at-home fertility kit that tests hormone levels for $159, in 2017 after graduating from Y Combinator with an initial $1 million. The round is led by Forerunner Ventures, and founding partner Kirsten Green will be joining the Modern Fertility board.

ICYMI: Stories From The Week

Stitch Fix founder and CEO Katrina Lake became $45 million richer in just one day after her e-commerce company delivered another quarter of double-digit growth.

The women responsible for spearheading the 2016 class action lawsuit that resulted in the elimination of New York state’s tampon tax have joined forces with women’s reproductive health brand LOLA to launch “Tax Free. Period.,” a national campaign aimed at eliminating said tax in 35 remaining states. The movement has attracted some heavy hitting support including from Serena Williams: “A tax on periods is wrong. Telling half of the population that their needs aren't important is wrong.”

As U.S. companies that employ more than 100 people approach a deadline to disclose employee pay by sex, race, ethnicity, and job category, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has released what she calls “the most aggressive equal pay proposal in history.”

The University of Alabama announced it will return a $26.5 million donation from Hugh F. Culverhouse after he called the state’s new abortion restrictions a “trampling of the constitution,” “an attack against women,” and “an affront to the rule of law itself.” Culverhouse has donated so much money over the years that the university named its law school after him, an honor that will also be revoked.

On the other end of the political spectrum, leaders from more than 180 companies such as Bloomberg L.P., Square, Atlantic Records, Yelp, Warby Parker, H&M U.S., Eileen Fisher, and Postmates have taken a stand against restrictive reproductive health laws that can severely impact the lives of workers and their families, and they're urging fellow CEOs to follow suit via a website and full-page ad in the New York Times.

Her Campus, a publication founded in 2009 by then-Harvard undergraduates Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, Annie Wang and Windsor Hanger Western, is graduating to adult content with the recent acquisition of Lala, a media company focused on publishing positive and practical articles for college and recent graduate women.

#1: Prioritize sleep. A six-month “Sleep Score” analysis by FitBit looked at the aggregated data of 10,000 anonymous users as well as at self-reported data from email surveys to find consistent associations between quality sleep and well-being such as mood and energy.

#2: Channel your inner Mindy Kaling. The prolific comedian, writer, director, and actress has a knack for finding fun, identifying her strengths, and doing her research--all while somehow staying relatable.

#3: Put your phone down. For many of us, it’s become a reflex--checking our phones in line, in bed, during meetings, everywhere. Here’s a guide to fighting the addiction.