Name: Henry Byrne

Social Justice Group: Pay Gap for Women Athletes

Date of Fieldwork: February 25, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Leonard Armato

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

On Friday February 25th, Nazir, Casey, and I interviewed Leonard Armato. Leonard Armato is currently the founder of Management plus Enterprises or MPE, and has made a change in the Gender Wage Gap. We decided to Interview him because of his experience in the sports industry and his general experience in the Gender Wage Gap. He has made many changed in sports but one of the biggest ones is how he founded the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. This was the first Beach Volleyball League and Tournament. The reason this has to do with the Gender Pay Gap is because he made the prize money for both genders equal. This may not sound like a big deal but this was part of the first big step towards fixing the Wage Gap.

Nazir, Casey, and I learned a lot in this interview. Something we learned in this interview was if you really want to change something you have to really work for it. Leonard experienced this when he decided to not get paid for a month to prove he would be the best for his job. Also when he realized how poorly female Athletes were being treated in sports he made the league with equal prize money because he wanted to do everything he could to make a change. This helped us get a better view of what we can do.