Posts Tagged ‘ Title IX ’

Are You Watching Maya Moore?

June 27, 2011
By
Maya Moore

Source: Honda Collegiate Women Sports Awards

There was a time I couldn’t get enough basketball. I grew up in Boston watching Bird, Parrish, McHale, DJ and Ainge. But eventually, the NBA stopped interesting me. The players changed – they were younger than me all of a sudden, not older. The game changed – there were way too many fouls. I got busy. Now I don’t choose to spend my time watching more than one sport and baseball will always come first. (I mentioned I grew up in Boston, right?)

Having attended my fair share of Bruins games over the years, I was thrilled when they won the Stanley Cup. (And maybe I was once escorted from the Garden for being rowdy – I’ll never tell.) But deep down inside there was a part of me that felt conflicted about the win.

It’s difficult to get totally excited about a championship where only men compete. There is no Lady Stanley Cup. And there’s no equivalent World Series for women. As a feminist, I have to tune out a part of me and focus on the tradition and the history to truly enjoy watching my boys of summer.

I admit, I had never heard of Maya Moore before this week, even though I blogged about her team winning 89 straight games and breaking the UCLA men’s team record. But when I heard she won the Honda-Broderick Cup, designating her as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, I was interested. Moore is the second woman to receive the award twice and the only one to win it two consecutive years. Moore is also the first female basketball player to sign an an endorsement deal with Nike’s Jordan Brand.

As we’ve said before, women’s sports don’t typically get the same airtime, endorsements or respect that men’s sports get. Many say that’s because women’s sports don’t draw the same number of eyeballs. Perhaps. But how do we know if that’s because people don’t like watching women athletes or because women’s sports don’t get prime time slots or the same level of funding as men’s sports? What makes an NBA game more compelling than a WNBA game when you strip out all the media fanfare?

So Maya Moore just might make basketball interesting again, for me. I’m willing to watch a  few games. Will you join me? And for more ways to support women’s sports:

“Like” I pledge to attend one woman’s sporting event this year on Facebook. Click here to go to the page.

Visit the website for The Collegiate Women’s Sports Awards to read about the other winners.Click here to go to the page.

Make sure there’s gender equity in your local schools’ athletic programs.  Call 1-855-HERGAME (or 1-855-437-4263) or visit the National Women’s Law Center to ask questions, report concerns or inequities.

Read sports blogs written by women like A League of Her Own, Metsgrll and DraftDaySuit.

 

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Rally for Girl’s Sports

December 8, 2010
By

Last year, our town was considering changing from one high school athletic league to another. I didn’t play any sports in high school and don’t follow any teams (outside of baseball, of course). But when I heard that the league change might cause up to three of the girl’s high school teams to consolidate seasons, dissolve, or  play in less formal and competitive leagues, I got involved.

I attended a meeting to discuss the proposed change and I asked the town officials how the move would impact Title IX, which caused several people in town to assume I was a lawyer. But I wasn’t watching out for a potential costly lawsuit. I was watching out for gender parity.

Research has shown that girls benefit from playing sports. According to the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), “Female athletes have higher levels of self-esteem, a lower incidence of depression and a more positive body image than non-athletes. Female athletes are also more likely to participate in traditionally male-dominated occupations, which are typically higher paying. In addition, more than four out of five executive businesswomen played sports growing up, and the vast majority reported that the lessons they learned on the playing field contributed to their success in business.”

Without formal research, I can see the benefits. I saw it at the town meetings I attended. Several of the female players that would have been affected by the league change spoke to the large crowd about why they wanted to stay in their current league. They were poised, confident and articulate. They also published well-written, well-thought out letters to the local editors.

I see it with my own daughter when she takes the tiny soccer field with her first-grade friends. They get competitive on the field working together and giving out high-fives when they score. Then they shift on the sideline, hugging and picking dandelions and laughing. She and her friends are learning how to work together, enjoy besting the opponent, and then letting it all go when the game is over.

And I see it at the office.  Male-dominated organizations operate like playing fields.  Understanding how to compete, how to cooperate, and how to let it go at the end of the day, are all critical business, and life, skills.

But girls today still face discrimination and an uneven playing field. That’s why the NWLC launched the campaign Rally for Girls’ Sports: She’ll Win More Than a Game, and filed administrative complaints against twelve school districts across the country for failing to provide girls with equal opportunities to play sports, in violation of Title IX. Visit their website for more information. They’ve set up a national hot line, 1-855-HERGAME (or 1-855-437-4263), for reporting concerns or inequities and they offer a webinar to help school administrators and parents learn about Title IX’s requirements.

And for another great way to support women athletes, pledge to attend one women’s sports event this year.

Cheerleading Not a Sport

July 21, 2010
By

A federal judge has determined competitive cheerleading is not a federal sport. The ruling stems from a lawsuit originally filed by Quinnipiac College volleyball players after the school cancelled their sport and added competitive cheerleading. The judge expanded the case as a class action for all female athletes and ruled the college violated Title IX by failing to offer equal opportunity for men and women in its athletic programs.

In his ruling, which is available in its entirety at the Quinnipiac Chronicle website, U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill clarified he was not ruling on the athleticism or merit of cheerleading, but rather on if competitive cheering was “a sport that offers genuine athletic participation for women under Title IX.” Several factors, including the fact the NCAA does not recognize competitive cheering as a sport as well as the squad’s recruiting practices and competitive schedule, led to his decision that cheering did not provide female athletes with opportunities equal to what male athletes received.  In fact, he stated the cheering team had been forced to face a “motley assortment of competitors” during the season.

Despite the fact the ruling is a blow to those who would like to see competitive cheerleading categorized and recognized as a legitimate sport, it is a boost to Title IX, a law requiring gender equity for boys and girls in every educational program that receives federal funding.

Footnote: When we posed the question, “Is cheerleading a sport?” at The Skinny Scoop, the vote was split.

Is Cheerleading a Sport? Updated

June 22, 2010
By

The U.S. District Court in Bridgeport Connecticut is currently hearing a case that asks the question, “Is cheerleading a sport? ”

Five members of the women’s volleyball team plus the coach at Quinnipiac College in Connecticut filed a lawsuit after the school cancelled the volleyball program in favor of a competitive cheering squad. The move was a budget decision but sparked a Title IX debate. Title IX is the 1972 law requiring gender equity in all federally funded sports programs.

The suit is being heard as a class action for all female athletes at Quinnipiac and the judge will determine if the school manipulated its rosters to comply with Title IX and if cheerleading meets the definition of a sport.

Competitive cheerleading certainly requires athleticism and it is widely considered to be dangerous. According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, cheerleading is responsible for 65 percent of all catastrophic injuries in girls’ high school athletics. When cheerleading is done competitively, it seems obvious it could hold its own against any other sport. Certainly all of those jumps, flips and gymnastics moves require as much skill and stamina as spiking a ball over a net or swimming in a pool or certainly, curling.

Perhaps the issue with cheerleading is the baggage it brings. I confess I always vowed that no daughter of mine would ever join the squad – unless they started cheering for the girl’s team. The idea of a group of girls in short skirts rooting for the boys only makes me nuts. I want to see my daughter in the game –  both literally and metaphorically speaking – not on the sidelines.

But competitive cheering is altogether different. There’s an interesting article on the topic in the Sports Journal  from the United States Sports Academy. It raises the idea that because cheerleading is so widely perceived as an activity for girls that it is difficult for the sport to earn respect. Certainly the NFL cheerleaders we see on our television sets every Sunday in the fall and winter don’t help  the cause.

It will be interesting to see how this case in Bridgeport plays out.  Me? I’m cheering for the cheerleaders.

Update: Wednesday, June 23 is the 38th anniversary of Title IX. Is your school in compliance?

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