Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has advocated for the closing of the pay gap on Women’s Equality Day.

Curry, one of the most famous athletes in America, has long used his platform to speak out on social issues. In the past, he has clashed with Donald Trump about the president’s policies – something that led to the Warriors not being invited to the White House after clinching the NBA championship.

On Sunday, Curry turned his attention to the pay gap. “I think it’s important that we all come together to figure out how we can make that possible, as soon as possible,” he wrote in the Players’ Tribune. “Not just as ‘fathers of daughters,’ or for those sorts of reasons. And not just on Women’s Equality Day. Every day – that’s when we need to be working to close the pay gap in this country. Because every day is when the pay gap is affecting women. And every day is when the pay gap is sending the wrong message to women about who they are, and how they’re valued, and what they can or cannot become.”

Curry wrote that he has been heavily influenced by his mother and his wife. “I was lucky to be raised by my mom, Sonya — an incredible and fiercely principled woman who had the courage and vision to open her own school, the Christian Montessori School of Lake Norman,” he wrote. “And for the last seven years, I’ve been lucky to be married to another incredible and fiercely principled woman, in Ayesha ... And one lesson from that education that’s really stood out to me is: to always stay listening to women, to always stay believing in women, and – when it comes to anyone’s expectations for women – to always stay challenging the idea of what’s right.”

The pay gap has been a talking point in professional basketball recently. While approximately 50% of NBA revenue goes towards players, their female counterparts in the WNBA get around 25%. “I don’t want to say we complain about the pay, but the large pay gap, a lot of people assume that we’re making millions of dollars, and we’re not,” New York Liberty center Kiah Stokes told the Guardian this month. “We’re not saying that we deserve millions of dollars, but just to inform people.”

Curry has won three NBA title with the Warriors and was named the league’s most valuable player in 2015 and 2016.



