Celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day

by Neena Chaudhry, Senior Counsel
National Women’s Law Center

Today is the 23rd annual celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD), which began in 1987 as a day to remember Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman for her athletic achievements and her work to assure equality for women's sports. NGWSD is marked annually with events around the country and on Capitol Hill to commemorate the achievements of girls and women in athletics, and to promote the continued expansion of opportunities for girls to play sports and live physically active lives. This year, we pay special tribute to the life of legendary North Carolina State women’s basketball coach, Kay Yow, who lost her battle with breast cancer a couple weeks ago. She will remain an inspiration to all of us who were lucky enough to watch her in action, and to future generations who will hear about her amazing life.

If Flo Hyman and Coach Yow were here today, they would be with us on Capitol Hill advocating for bills that address the ongoing inequalities girls face in high school sports in particular. Young women in high school still receive 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play sports than do boys, and girls who do play often receive second-class treatment in areas such as facilities, uniforms, and scheduling of games. But unlike colleges, high schools are not required to disclose any data on gender equity in sports, making it hard for schools, students and parents to know if their schools are playing fair.

Two bills that will soon be introduced in Congress would help level the playing field by requiring high schools to make publicly available information on the gender breakdown of their teams and athletics expenditures. Most of this information is already collected by schools and requiring it to be disclosed publicly will simply allow schools, parents and students to evaluate their athletics programs to make sure that they are treating boys and girls equally.

We all need to ask our elected officials to support these two important, bipartisan bills that will make a huge difference in the lives of girls. After all, only when true equity is achieved will we really be able to celebrate.