While you're right the USWNT had proper investment in training, why did US universities start with soccer scholarships? Because youth soccer being co-ed since it became a thing in the US meant it was one of the first sports there was a large enough amount of women who were good players to field teams...and more specifically, it's one of only three team sports that have a lot of women who are good at it [and investing in team sports are very necessary because they're the only real way to make enough of a dent to cover the American football team...and most colleges would cut academics before they cut their excuse for alumni to come back to the school to get drunk on a Saturday and pretend they're still college kids into their 70s.]

Youth soccer being co-ed from an early age IS a big part of it where it just ISN'T in England or overseas. You can invest in women's football NOW, sure, but there's nothing that's going to match up with "when you're kids, you're just not inviting the girls onto the pitch with you, because even just kicking around the ball with your friends could be enough to get a scout for your neighborhood's soccer academy to sign you right there and have a chance to go pro, and having some girls out there could make them not know you're good enough for it" (another difference the US has over European football, since the US has the draft system for their pro leagues including MLS; only MLB teams in Latin America are able to do the "sign any player who looked good in a sandlot game and if even one of them becomes a star, you profit" method European teams do.) Again, men will just get bigger and stronger in puberty, so inevitably the women will fall behind...but it's that time BEFORE that happens when they're kids that you can make girls become really good at the sport first.