What Netflix’s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Teach Us About Fighting for Women’s Fair Pay

Note: Some light spoilers for season two of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders ahead. 

When the first season of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders came out last year, everyone was learning Thunderstruck on TikTok. But what really came to light was the visibility around how the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC) were paid very little compared to how much time, effort, training, and mental stress they went through on the field and off. Not to mention the high rate of injuries that the dancers experience because of the caliber of dance they’re required to do (see split jumps).  

So when the second season was released this month, I was excited to see one of the storylines centered around the DCC’s fight for a living wage. The coaches talk about how the DCC are more popular than ever: because of the show, they’re getting more offers for appearances and performances, and they even got their own tour. In some ways, this season felt like a PR campaign orchestrated by the coaches and leaders of the squad in response to the criticism from the first season over how little the dancers get paid. They emphasized all the perks and sponsorships the dancers get, including spray tans, makeup, and Botox. But at the end of the day, perks don’t pay the bills.  

Let’s be clear, this isn’t a problem of lack of resources. The Dallas Cowboys football franchise is one of the oldest in the NFL and they are the most valuable sports franchise in the world. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry. Yes, the cheerleaders aren’t winning games, but they are an integral part of the franchise. How is that reflected in pay? The lowest paid Dallas Cowboy football player is paid $796,000 per season. It was hard to find exact numbers on A Dallas Cowboys cheerleader’s pay, but in the first season it was compared to what someone would make working at Chik-Fil-A full-time. 

The group leaders of DCC are upfront about wanting to ask for more pay. Yet, like many women in the workplace, their discussions with management around pay are fraught from the beginning. Watching things unfold, I saw the coaches use classic tactics to break down the discussions around pay:  

  1. Telling the dancers that being a DCC is the “honor of a lifetime.” This was said over and over again. That and how being a professional dancer is only a short part of people’s lives and they should just be grateful for the opportunity (eye roll). While some dancers said they were lucky to have a reliable 9-5, not everyone did. One dancer, Chandi, admits to working up to four jobs to make ends meet. And other dancers had to take time off work because of how demanding being a DCC was, which they could only afford because they had a partner that could support them financially. The rhetoric that it’s an honor of a lifetime to be a DCC sets people up to think they should just be lucky that they get to dance because they love it, no matter what they get paid. Women in particular are often expected to do work out of love and gratitude rather than financial compensation but here’s the thing, you can do something you love and get paid a living wage. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. 
  2. Comparing DCC’s conditions to the past: “People before you had it worse.” Wow wow wow. I’ve heard this over and over again when it comes to fighting for better pay, better parental leave, and better benefits. Just because your predecessors went through worse, you shouldn’t fight for better? How does that make any sense? It’s not a competition of who suffered more. You should want people to have better than what you had. When a dancer, Amanda, has a meeting with coaches Judy and Kelli, she feels her prominent role in the fight for better pay put her at odds with her coaches. They promise her their relationship hasn’t changed but she’s not getting booked as often for appearances which feels *a lot* like retaliation. Amanda tries to have a conversation about why it’s an important fight because of all the stress it takes on them, their families, and their relationships to do DCC and make ends meet. Linda shrugs and just says “we’ve been in the same boat.” Exactly, Linda. You’ve been in the same boat, so you should know how hard it is and why things need to change.  While the pay of DCC has improved since the days that Linda was a DCC, the argument that women were more exploited before is not a reasonable argument against gender equity and fair pay at work.   
  3. Undervaluing women’s work. In that same conversation with her coaches, Amanda tells Judy and Kelli that she thinks if everyone could, they would quit their full-time jobs to do DCC.  “Why do you want people to quit their full-time jobs when that’s what’s impressive with y’all?” Judy asks. Amanda agrees it’s impressive, but says it doesn’t have to be that way. Being a DCC is impressive enough on its own, without adding on a full-time job on top of what is already a demanding schedule. Of course, jobs that are seen as traditionally more for women, like child care, teaching, and yes—cheerleading—are typically paid less. No one would expect a computer scientist to also work full-time as a librarian, and yet that’s essentially what DCC’s coaches are demanding of their players who can’t afford not to work. The docuseries makes it clear: cheerleading for the NFL is hard work–and yes, it’s work. 
  4. Threatening to replace you for speaking up. The DCC group leaders take it upon themselves to lead the charge for better pay. They start organizing to get everyone on the same page. But it’s shaky from the start: one of the group leaders, Chandi, is clear that she wants to be neutral because she sees both sides and doesn’t want to rock the boat. While I wasn’t a fan of Chandi’s stance, I understand her reluctance to go against the organization that has “given her the honor of a lifetime.” But being united when it comes to demands around pay is crucial. Later on, all the cheerleaders have a Zoom meeting and plan to withhold signing their contracts so that they have some leverage to change their pay for the season. Someone on the Zoom blabs to corporate, and they lose their leverage. While some of the dancers try to hold out on signing their contracts, others are so afraid of getting fired, they sign it anyway. Here at NWLC, we know how collective power helps achieve higher wages, better benefits, and working conditions, especially for women. Unfortunately, after some dancers in DCC signed their contracts out of fear, the collective group lost any hope of disputing their pay for the season.  

By the end of the season, the coaches announce that DCC is getting what ends up being a 400% raise. Amazing news!  

Despite the good news, I can’t help but feel this would not have happened if it weren’t for the bad publicity that the Dallas Cowboys franchise knew would come out if significant changes weren’t made. At the end of the day though, it’s clear that pushing for change and using your collective power as workers are key to making change happen. Telling this story through the show was its own form of organizing and leverage. I was sad to see the group leaders, Amanda and Jada, retire before benefitting from their fight for better pay. But their efforts to secure a living wage for those who will come after them? 

That’s the real honor of a lifetime.

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