Name: Casey Veldhouse

Social Justice Group: 2021-2022, 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, Henry, Nazir, and I interviewed well known agent, Leonard Armato. Leonard Armato founded Management Plus Enterprises, and has been working for equal pay for men and women in sports. He was a great interviewee due to his knowledge of the sports industry and experience working for change in the gender pay gap. His most well known accomplishment in sports is how he started the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. This was the first Beach Volleyball League and Tournament. This is so prominent in the gender pay gap because he made sure that prize money was equal for men and women. This was really revolutionary for making a change in the pay gap.

Something we, as a group, learned about in this interview was how if you want to make a change, you can’t let anything stop you. Mr. Armato really proved this because in the start of his career, people didn’t believe in him so he convinced them to not pay him for a month and then decide if they wanted to keep him as an agent. Also, even though the gender pay gap wasn’t recognized as much, Leonard still decided to make the pay equal in volleyball. This shows how if we put our mind to something, we can do it.