LOS ANGELES — For Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman of the United States, gender inequity isn't complicated. It's simply wrong.

"It's not right. It's not fair," he said Wednesday during a brief visit to the practice facility for Angel City FC, the NWSL team that trains at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

"It's actually discrimination," he said. "There is a misconception out there that if somehow a woman is succeeding, some guy out there is not. That's not true. Women succeed, we all get lifted up."

And the disparities may be starkest in professional sports. While women in the workplace make 16% less than men for doing the same job, the minimum wage in the NWSL is about 40% of what it is in MLS, a difference of nearly $50,000. In basketball, the gap between the base salary for the first pick in the WNBA draft and NBA is more than $1 million.

"This is about more than compensation," Emhoff said. "It's about respect. It's about dignity."

The second gentleman's appearance alongside Angel City co-owner Lorrie Fair Allen and Angela Hucles Mangano, the team's general manager, amounted to little more than a photo opportunity. But it was meant to highlight the Biden-Harris administration's commitment to gender equity.

As a California senator, Kamala Harris — the vice president and Emhoff's wife — sponsored the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, which both addressed pay inequities. And last year President Biden approved a law requiring that all athletes representing the U.S. in global competition receive equal pay and benefits, regardless of gender.

"A lot of what I do is talk about equity and unfairness and tackling that, and what role can men play in helping," Emhoff said. "It's just the right thing to do."

Emhoff, who graduated from Agoura Hills High, toured Angel City's offices and chatted with players in the team's gym, which is generally off limits to visitors. The groundwork for the visit was laid last summer, when Emhoff met Fair, a former world champion and Olympic medalist as a player, at the women's World Cup in New Zealand.

"He's leaning into the work around gender equity. It's personal to him," Fair said. "And it's not just like gender equity around sport. It's across the entire workforce, talking about women's access, family leave, parental leave, child care, affordable child care, valuing some of the some of the jobs that are traditionally held by women."

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