Athletics

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 »

Today is National Girls and Women in Sports Day! This annual event is celebrated on the first Wednesday of February, and this year, we're bringing together some bloggers for a blog carnival to honor women, girls, and the role of sports in their lives.

While writers from around the web are sharing their thoughts, we want you to hear yours, too! Do you have a story about how sports have helped you or a woman or girl you know? Share your story below in the comments section by clicking here.

In the meantime, you can read reflections from our own staff and bloggers from around the net after the break.

What are YOU doing next Wednesday? No plans?

Well, we’re about to change that. February 1^st is National Girls and Women in Sports Day, a day to celebrate and promote girls’ and women’s participation and excellence in 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 we’ve got some big things in the works that you can participate in! Read more »

As the old adage goes, you can't solve a problem unless you're able to define it.

We know that girls who play sports reap benefits both on and off the field. But we also know that girls across the country are still not getting equal opportunities to play sports or equal treatment when they do play. To make matters worse, when parents and students try to find out how their schools are allocating valuable athletic opportunities and resources, they are not able to get information.

High schools, like colleges, should be required to make information about their sports programs publicly available. Please ask your Members of Congress to support the High School Athletics Accountability Act, H.R. 458, and the High School Data Transparency Act, S. 1269. These two bills would require high schools to report information, broken down by gender, on sports participation and expenditures. Schools are already collecting this information, but since it is not public, parents and students cannot evaluate their athletics programs to make sure that girls are being treated fairly. Read more »