Athletics

Welcome to NWLC’s first weekly roundup for April. April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, so I thought I’d kick things off by sharing a few ideas of how you can support victim of sexual assault and help raise awareness during the month. Also this week: our latest infographic, some lady athletes making history, and more.

All throughout April, the National Sexual Violence Resource Center will be providing resources and ways to get involved with Sexual Assault Awareness Month, or SAAM for short. The 2012 SAAM Day of Action passed us already (it was this past Tuesday, April 3), but you can see what other current campaigns are in the works here, including Tweet About It! Tuesdays every Tuesday in April at 2pm ET. SAAM activists from around the country will be using the hashtag #Tweetaboutit for these weekly chats, in addition to #SAAM and #SAAM2012.

You can also check out Take Back The Night’s calendar to see if there will be a TBTN event in your community in the coming weeks.

Yesterday we published a new infographic detailing what tax breaks for millionaires cost. The

 average tax cut per millionaire in 2012 – $143,000 – could help support a number of programs, like Head Start or Pell Grants. Want to learn more? Check out the graphic – it opens in full size if you click on it.

Read more »

It is fitting that 40 years after the passage of Title IX – the law that barred sex discrimination in education, including athletics – last night the Baylor Lady Bears set an NCAA record by being the first men’s or women’s basketball team to end their season with a perfect 40-0 record.

The Lady Bears bested the Notre Dame Fighting Irish 80-61 to win the NCAA Division I national championship.

Baylor was led to the championship by their coach, Kim Mulkey, who according to the New York Times, “represents the sporting possibilities available to women since the passage 40 years ago of the gender-equity legislation known as Title IX: scholarships, championships, Olympic gold medals, financial security and the self-assurance to be forceful and brash and daring without being apologetic.”

Growing up, Mulkey played little league baseball because there was no softball team available for young women. She made the regional all-star team, but was later kept from playing in the championship tournament because she was a girl. Her family initiated a Title IX lawsuit, but halted the legal action because Kim decided she did not want her team to miss out because of the commissioner’s biased decision. Read more »

This week in our roundup, a… unique basketball team, another angle on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, and how the new CEO of IBM is creating a bit of a stir around Augusta National Golf Club – whether she intends to or not.

If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you might know that I am a bit of a basketball fan. So today I’m excited to share with you the story of a team out in Minnesota. They’re called the Faribault Hotshots, and all the team members are women over 50 years old.

They call it granny basketball.

The story is probably best told in their own words, so be sure to watch the news clip below. The grannies – as they call themselves – modify the game a bit: instead of the standard five-on-five full-court game, they divide the court in the three parts. Players can’t run, nor can they leave their designated area, and they play 8 minute quarters. From time to time, the Hotshots will play Minnesota’s only other granny basketball team, which hails from Wanamingo. And when they do, the gym is full of their friends and family to cheer them on.

Earlier this week, the federal district court for the District of Columbia dismissed a case brought by the American Sports Council against the U.S. Department of Education, in which ASC tried to stop the Department from applying to high schools Title IX’s three-part test for determining whether schools are providing males and females with equal opportunities to play sports. Of course, the law has always applied to high schools; this was merely the latest attempt to weaken Title IX’s application to sports.

You would think that everyone would be in favor of treating our sons and daughters equally, but ASC and similar groups have long argued that the law hurts males by requiring schools to cut their opportunities in order to provide girls and women with opportunities that they don’t really want, because they are inherently less interested in playing sports. Fortunately, the federal courts of appeals have unanimously rejected such arguments, which are premised on the very stereotypes that Title IX was enacted to combat. Read more »

We’ve been celebrating and talking about the Affordable Care Act second anniversary all week long, so today I’m going to bring you some non-health-care-related stories. Here’s what you can look forward to: dunks in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, speaking out against street harassment, a new interview that follows up on last week’s bullying documentary on the Cartoon Network, and Amelia Earhart – found at last?

Who says the girls can’t play like the guys? Check out the video of 1-seed Baylor’s Brittney Griner dunking during the Bears’ March 20 NCAAW tournament win vs. 9-seed Florida. Baylor is now headed to the Sweet 16. Brittney’s the second woman to dunk during the NCAAW tournament, and this is the sixth dunk of her college career.

Cool as her moves may be, dunking isn’t Brittney’s favorite. Instead? “My big thing is blocked shots; that's my favorite thing to do.” And you know how the saying goes – offense wins games, but defense wins championships.

Speaking of the NCAAW tourney, in case you need it, here’s the latest bracket.

The whistle just blew. It’s halftime. 

You’re losing. Your coach is telling the team we’ve made progress since the beginning of the season, but we still have a long way to go. You think to yourself, “What is progress? We’re down – what’s the score again?”

A 35-yearlong study on women in intercollegiate sport released the score last week, showing an unprecedented number of women’s teams leading to the highest women’s participation and employment numbers in intercollegiate athletic history.

“Some would point to this progress and say we’ve arrived,” authors R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter wrote in a 2009 Academe article. “But progress is not completion. Movement toward equity is not full equity.”

Increases in athletic participation have not mirrored the percentage of women represented as coaches, athletic administrators and trainers. Despite a record-setting 200,000 intercollegiate female athletes, only 1 in 5 intercollegiate teams is coached by a female and the same number of athletic directors are female, according to report estimates. Read more »

Another weekly roundup has arrived! After the jump, we have a small collection of stories for you on Super Bowl ads, an MIT admissions project, a new report coming out next week, and details on where you can get the latest on contraceptive coverage. Read more »

Hi all, and welcome to another weekly blog roundup! This week we’ve got stories about some anti-choice bills in Virginia, a new video and call to action on SNDA,  an update on Samantha Garvey, some of the perils faced by pregnant women on the job, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure decision on Planned Parenthood, and some wrap-ups on blog carnivals we participated in this week, all after the jump. Read more »

Working on the issue of Title IX and athletics, the thing I hear most from opponents is that “girls just aren’t that interested in sports.” At NWLC, we believe strongly in the mantra “if you build it they will come.” I know it’s true because I’ve watched my sister do just that at a middle school in California.

When my sister, Sarah Egan, started teaching at Benjamin Franklin Intermediate School in 2009, there were only two girls’ basketball teams with about 20 players between them. The boys’ basketball program, on the other hand, was vibrant, had many teams, and over 70 participants. Basketball was a big part of the culture of Ben Franklin, the students talked about it in the hallways all the time, but girls’ participation numbers were extremely low.

Members of the Benjamin Franklin girls’ basketball program attending a Stanford women’s basketball game. Coach Sarah Egan is pictured on the lower left.

Benjamin Franklin is in Daly City, CA – just south of the San Francisco city line. It’s a predominantly low-income Title I school that is 94% minority. More than half of the kids receive free or reduced lunch. Unlike their suburban counterparts, that many of the girls at Ben Franklin lack the access and confidence garnered through early exposure to team sports. Most had never stepped foot on the court.

“I knew and understood the impact that sports had on my life and knew that it could have the same impact on others. I wanted more girls and I set out to find them,” Sarah said. She spent the majority of the first two seasons recruiting players and demonstrating how to shoot with one hand instead of two, how to make a jump stops, and how to pivot. Her first year coaching, the teams had a 3-13 record. The next year wasn’t any better.

But things have started to turn around.

This year the girls are off to a 6-7 start. Eighty girls showed up for six weeks of mandatory open gym before they even got a chance to try-out for the team. Ben Franklin now has 40 girls playing on four girls’ basketball teams – double what it was only two seasons ago. The program boasts five coaches and an assistant coach – all recruited by Sarah. Read more »

Dear Elliana,

I have a confession to make. As your mama, I know I am supposed to expose you to a lot of activities and let you choose your passion. Or at least that’s what the books and blogs tell me to do. But I really hope you end up loving sports. Why? Read more »