Women’s Equality Day is August 26th…and yes, we still need it!

Today is Women’s Equality Day. Some may wonder why such a day exists, or that because women are achieving at all levels, why such a day should exist. Here are a few facts that point to the idea that women are far from achieving equality and Women’s Equality Day is still needed:

• The Gender Pay Gap: women on average earn .77 cents to every dollar earned by a male (click here or here from more info)
• Men outnumber women in all positions of power in all contexts (click here)
• Women far outnumber men as victims of sexual violence, harassment and discrimination (click here)
• The structure of our society disadvantages women who work outside the home, and who for the most part are still primarily responsible for care taking and household upkeep. Families need more flexible work schedules, comprehensive child care policies, redesigned family and medical leave, and equal pay as to help females succeed in life-work balance. (click here)
• Women and girls are constantly exposed to what Susan J. Douglas (2010) calls Enlightened Sexism (a response to a perceived threat to the existing gender regime of male power) and bombarded by the media with messages that “purchasing power and sexual power are much more gratifying than political or economic power”…buying stuff and performing hyperfemininity has emerged as the way female empowerment (See Douglas’ book, Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism’s Work is Done for a complete explanation of the deleterious affects of enlightened sexism)
• Female athletes are rarely seen in sport media and when they are athletic competence is minimized (click here).

What other ways can you think of in which females are not equal participants? Please comment and add to this list…

Study links sport participation and opportunity for girls

A study by Betsey Stevenson, the author of the research and an assistant professor of business and public policy at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, reveals data that indicates playing sports leads to greater educational and employment opportunities for girls. To read the report click here.

espnW, cheerleading, violence, Nike, Title IX…so many things to share!

Sorry if I’ve been blogging less lately, there are to many things going on to take the time to blog! That said, I wanted to share with you some information you might find interesting.

1. A key Title IX ruling was recently passed down that has implications for girls and women in sport. In essence the judge ruled that cheerleading can not count towards compliance with Title IX.

2. Look for more changes regarding the way in which the NCAA calculates and oversees their Academic Progress Rates (APR). New data analysis reveals that current standards may be weaker than originally intended.

3. On the youth sport news front, The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre commissioned and released a new report on PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM VIOLENCE IN SPORT: A review with a focus on industrialized countries. The report focuses on the fact that “it has become evident that sport is not always a safe space for children, and that the same types of violence and abuse sometimes found in families and communities can also occur in sport and play programmes. Child athletes are rarely consulted about their sporting experiences, and awareness of and education on child protection issues among sport teachers, coaches and other stakeholders is too often lacking. Overall, appropriate structures and policies need to be developed for preventing, reporting and responding appropriately to violence in children’s sport” (p.vii)

New espnW logo

4. I have two related bits I’ve recently been involved with regarding big sport brands wanting to create social change. What they also have in common is both initiatives have women in charge. You can imagine I’m a bit skeptical on both, but I’m currently cautiously optimistic on both fronts.

The first is the new ESPN  initiative to capture more female consumers–it is called espnW. (the “W” stands for Women). Its launch has gotten a little media buzz. I will keep you posted as I’ve been in communication with the folks at ESPN who are spearheading this new initiative. They are lead by a very sharp woman and her small staff and I believe the resources ESPN has dedicated demonstrates a desire to get this right (unlike Sports Illustrated for Women, which was a miserable failure). So far the process seems on target as they are asking key stakeholders to join the conversation and provide insight.   Added NOTE (7/28/10): Read the MinnPost article titled “Media critic and women’s sports advocate Mary Jo Kane is about to step into the belly of the ESPN beast”

The second initiative is a project of the Nike Social Innovation team, also lead by two sharp women. Nike wants to use current sport science research to help leverage their resources and brand to promote and sustain physical activity in the US and UK. I was asked to be part of a multidisciplinary think tank facilitated by ShiftN (a really cool company) earlier in the month where we examined a research-based systems model of the correlates, barriers and potential outcomes of physical activity.

I am excited and honored to be a part of both these initiatives, however I am both happy and concerned that women are at the helm of these new, risky initiatives. I’ve written in an earlier post about the research on the glass cliff and I wonder if this is what is operating in the background in these instances where two big brands are taking risks.

While the glass ceiling is metaphor commonly used to describe the often subtle and unseen social-structural gendered barriers that prevent women from reaching the highest echelons of corporate leadership.

The glass cliff is a similar metaphor used to describe the phenomenon of women’s appointments to precarious leadership positions. The glass cliff illuminates the stress experienced by women who have made it through the glass ceiling (i.e., Head Coaches, CEOs, Presidents of WNBA teams) and find themselves in a more vulnerable and precarious position than their male counterparts. Women on the glass cliff often fight an uphill battle for success, without the support, information and resources needed to effectively execute the job.

Researchers have recently uncovered that when organizations are in crisis and have a high risk for failure, women are more often appointed to positions of leadership. Two explanations are offered: 1) women are perceived as particularly well-suited to manage the crisis, or 2) women are appointed to glass cliff positions because those who appoint them want to protect men (or expose women).

I hope I’m wrong, because the women I’ve met and talked to in charge of these initiatives are movers and shakers I want to see succeed in their visions.

Sustainable Physical Activity & Golfing Mothers

I’ll be gone for a few days to London for a think tank workshop on examining and verifying a systems model approach of sustainable physical activity. I will have more to report upon returning. The most interesting part is the company that is sponsoring the think tank. I’m not sure I can reveal the company, so before I get myself in trouble, I’ll keep you in suspense.

In the meantime, take a look at the New York Times series on the LPGA and motherhood here and here (thanks ES!). Anyone want to comment?

#WIN Women Make Hockey Hall of Fame

Hockey players Angela James and Cammi Granato have been voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Let’s also not forget that Angela Ruggiero earned her place in the Hockey Hall of Fame as the first brother-sister duo to play pro hockey together.

In most of the press about James can Granato, their hockey achievements have been featured alongside their credentials as mothers and wives (see below), while the same attention to the father-husband roles of former NHL player Dino Ciccarelli is absent. The reporting of irrelevant gender roles should at least be consistent across male and female athletes.

“James is now a mother of three children and works as a sports co-ordinator at Seneca College in Toronto.

Granato, who lives in Vancouver and is married to former NHL player Ray Ferraro, is the only woman to participate in each of the first nine women’s world championships sanctioned by the IIHF.”

To view entire article click here.

One a separate but related note, as one reader pointed out, “Ironically, on the 38th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, I have only seen men’s soccer matches on tv. Sigh.”

Listen to Expert Discuss Report on Gender in Televised Sports

Earlier in the week I posted a blog about the new report on gender in televised sports. Professor Cheryl Cooky, co-author of the report, was interviewed by Wisconsin Public Radio and talks in depth about the report.  You can listen to the interview and hear her insightful thoughts about the report and about issues pertaining to girls’ and women’s participation in sports. To download to interview go here. (you’ll have listen to it with VLC media player you can download for free). It is well worth your time to listen.

Blogs, Balls, Babes and Morality

My Blogs With Balls Experience: A Summary

If you follow this blog you  might of known I went to Chicago last weekend to attend the Blog With Balls 3.0 (BWB) Conference, and was invited to be part of the “You’ve Gotta Fight For Your Right…to Blog?: A Legal and Ethical Primer to Sports Media in 2010” panel. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I certainly was feeling like the odd girl out (literally One Sport Voice), as I explained it to the audience:  I represented a ‘Trifecta of Tokenism’ as 1) one of the few females in attendance (~15 of 150 attendees were female), 2) an academic who studies and critiques sport media, and 3) someone who writes and advocates for women’s sport. I’d add one more…I don’t blog to make money, my blog is an offshoot of my teaching, research and outreach. After this weekend where I learned that some blogs get +3 million unique visitors a month, I’m fairly certain I’ll never make money from my One Sport Voice blog.

As my fellow panelists and I were attempting to discuss various legal and ethical issues in an engaging way, the best part of the panel is that we did not agree on anything. You can see a video of most of the panel here courtesy of Justin.tv I think there are not enough instances where people can disagree publicly and have an engaged discussion-I’ve written about this in a previous blog. Our panel I think accomplished this task. I enjoyed meeting my fellow panelists and some have posted their thoughts of their experiences at BWB 3.0 including Alana G of Yardbarker and Josh Zerkle of PUNTE. I learned a great deal from them and others in attendance.

Whether you thought the panel was great or stunk (follow the Twitter hash tag #bwb3 to tweets about conference and our panel), there were some big  picture BWB take-aways for me.

1. Most people (including mainstream sport bloggers) do not care about women’s sport, female athletes, gender issues or the sexualization of women in general. I did not hear ONE mention or discussion of female athletes or women’s sport in the entire conference. When females were mentioned it was as a) sexual objects of professional male athletes or, b) “mommy bloggers”. It seemed the assumption at BWB was that if women blog, they blog about mom stuff but if you are a male blogger you blog about sports. I did not hear anyone refer to themselves or other male bloggers in attendance as “daddy bloggers”. This may seem trivial, but the language used to describe “mommy” bloggers marginalizes them and makes it seems as if what they write about isn’t valued or important. I could get into a long blog about how the opinions and domestic work of mothers is under valued in society but I won’t. It also erases the fact women do blog about men’s sport (in fact most of the women at BWB wrote exclusively about men’s sport) and that men do blog about women’s sport (although I didn’t meet any of them at BWB).

To witness the many women and men who blog about women’s sports go to the Women Talk Sports Network.

Call to action: Those who blog about women’s sport and those women who call themselves sport bloggers, get yourself to the next Blogs With Balls conference.

2. I mentioned before my fellow panelists did not agree on much, which was both good and bad. As I listened to the opinions and thoughts of my fellow panelists discuss what kind of (ethical) decision making they engage in while deciding to post/not post or break a story, one theme was “everyone makes his/her own choices and decisions” which reflects moral relativism.  Those who adopt a moral relativistic perspective think there are fundamental and irreconcilable disagreements about right and wrong and may believe that respect for others means that we must tolerate value differences. This is obviously problematic and leads to many of the ethical issues which arise in the blogosphere.

Should there be a universal code of ethical decision making regarding what is posted on a blog? I would argue “yes”. Can sport bloggers reach an agreement about right/wrong and guiding principles which guarantee human rights and dignity… sadly, I think not.  I, and other scholars much more versed in moral education, believe there are universal moral principles such as care and fairness. So how do you get people to critically think about what they write about and consume?

Researchers have argued that critical thinkers are much more likely to engage in ethical decision making which have three criteria according to Ennis (2000):

• care that their beliefs are true and that their decisions are justified; that is, they care to get it right to the extent that it is possible;
• care to present a position honestly and clearly, theirs as well as others’; and
• care about the dignity and worth of every person.

Some bloggers may prioritize personal and financial gain and exposure over doing the right thing for the right reason, or doing what is best for all parties considered as a member of a collective society.  Call me naive and Pollyanna but I think striving to make moral and ethical decisions is a worthy endeavor, and one that the blogosphere in general could benefit from undertaking. I think this will increasingly become relevant as digital media becomes the primary source of news and information, and issues of blog censorship arise.

Photo from here.

Fault Lines: Shaking Up Change

Currently I’m staying with a friend/colleague and her family in  Palmerston North, New Zealand. I’ve been learning about the history of NZ, the local culture, the indigenous Maori people, trying local NZ fruit and wine, and seeing a bit of the countryside. I’ve very much enjoyed my time here. The most interesting bit I’ve learned is that NZ sits a top a major fault line where the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates converge (see map..click on it to enlarge).

Upon hearing about the “occasional” NZ earthquake and learning more about the geographic history of NZ at Te Papa Museum of New Zealand, I’ve been thinking about fault lines–a topic I’ve always found fascinating.

Figuratively, how often are we on top of fault lines and remain completely unaware until the ground beneath us cracks and disaster follows?   We all have fault lines we are sitting upon--professional, relational, economic, political, environmental, familial, health, and spiritual fractures, for example. Sometimes we are caught completely unaware, other faults we may sense of feel tremors of larger, life-altering damaging quakes ahead, and sometimes we choose to ignore the fractures and hope the earth doesn’t open up beneath us because it is easier to maintain the status quo than to confront the inevitable, sometimes painful truth.

The earth’s tectonic plates are constantly shifting, as are the dimensions of our lives. How do we stay apprised of shifting plates, remain true to ourselves, try to make a difference in the world, and not become paranoid or despondent that certain doom and destruction may prevail  as nature takes her course? How much agency do we have and how much should fatalism be embraced? I realize this blog is a departure from a sport-oriented theme, but is related to my post-IWG 5th World Congress on Women in Sport thinking on how to create change in the number of females in positions of power in sport. In this sense I think females have to take control, be active and proactive agents in creating fault lines that challenge and change the status quo, rather than wait for the very slow moving plates of existing power regimes to collide and change with time…which may never happen in our life time! We all should all think about how we can affect positive change in our own way, real change that improves the health and well being of people, not just change that improves company profit margins.

What are you doing?

“Not Everything is Found on the Y-Chromosome”

The 5th IWG World Conference on Women in Sport in Sydney has now drawn to a close. The 6th World Conference will be held in Helsinki, Finland in 2014. It was edifying and energizing to meet so many great women, and men, who care deeply about girls and women in sport and to learn about how they are all making a difference in their own ways. One person really can make a difference. The legacy of the conference is the Sydney Scoreboard, which will track the percentage of women in positions of power in sport leadership across the globe (national sport organizations, presidents, CEOs). One message was clear throughout the conference, women are under represented in all position of power in all sports in all countries–we have much work yet to do. This conference helped me to think more deeply and clearly about how the empowerment of women and striving for women in positions of power is a human rights issue. When women help lead a nation or organization, everyone benefits.

Ms. Rachel Mayanja

The International Working Group on Women in Sport (IWG) has begun to build a relationship with the United Nations (UN), to help forward the IWG mission and agenda. The United Nations has a number of groups, resources, and initiatives that have great synergy with the IWG including, The UN Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW), and WomenWatch (information and resources about gender equality and the empowerment of women). The UN also has a Commission on the Status of Women which is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Rachel Mayanja (Uganda), UN Assistant Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women (OSAGI), delivered the opening keynote of the IWG Congress. In her speech she stated: Women’s and girls’ access to and participation in sport is not a privilege. It is a right. The right to participate in sport and physical activity is enshrined in Article 1 of the UNESCO International Charter of Physical Education and Sport, for example, which states that ‘The practice of physical education and sport is a fundamental right for all’.

From this picture, it is clear that MORE can potentially be found on the X-chromosome!

The conference ended with a keynote by The Hon Michael Kirby, former Justice of the High Court of Australia, which was fantastic. He told of how as a boy in 1949 he’d read a the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which shaped his life trajectory. He told us that document existed due to the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt who chaired the committee which drafted the original document that was later adopted by the UN. He stated this is an example that if you want important work to be done, a woman has to be in charge. Kirby also said his colleague Mary Gordon used to tell him, “that not all is found on the Y-chromosome”.

This is a great statement, and until everyone believes and acts in ways that reflect this statement we have work to be done. I am re-energized and committed to continue my work on increasing the number of female coaches in youth sport so that children and youth see women in a position of power in a context they care deeply about. I believe if we are to change attitudes about gender stereotypes and women and leadership we need to have equal numbers (50%) of women as head coaches. To that end and taking up the idea of the Sydney Scoreboard, upon my return I will begin to work with youth sport boards and youth sport organizations to implement policy that requires/mandates that 50% of all coaches are female (currently according to data I have collected in youth soccer, only about 17% of all head coaches are female), and that at least 40% of all board positions are occupied by females.

Notes from the 5th World Congress on Women in Sport

The first full day of the 5^th IWG World Conference on Women in Sport just concluded. Last night was the opening keynote in which Cathy Freeman was in attendance (see photo). A video of Freeman’s 400m race at the 2000 Sydney Olympics was shown. Freeman was the first-ever Aborginal women to win a gold medal and she won it under intense pressure as the favorite on her home soil– still gives me goosebumps. I got to talk to her a bit and she was very gracious.

Dr. Sarah Leberman, Olympian Cathy Freeman, and me (L to R)

My head is swimming with so much information and after meeting so many interesting women from around the world. There are more than 500 delegates in attendance from over 70 countries from every region of the world. The conference charge is PLAY. THINK. CHANGE and emerging themes are the lack of women in positions of power in sport, lack of media coverage, how to increase female participation, and how sport can be a vehicle for social change. This is a very well run and organized conference and it immediately reaffirmed to me that I love the work I do and that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing with my life—attempting to make a difference in the lives of females in and through sport.

The morning keynote by Dr. Toni Bruce (New Zealand) was about media coverage. She argued that mainstream media coverage of female sportswomen has not changed much over 30 years so perhaps it is time we adopt a new paradigm, one that is realistic. She said that new media is a place women can create their own content and not have to rely on traditional media. The Tucker Center’s Fall Distinguished Lecture was on this very topic-women’s sport and social media, so I’ve written about this previously (click here, here, &  here). Bruce gave the Women Talk Sports Network a shout out as an example of how new media for female athlete coverage can work.

However I disagreed when she said that “content is Queen and quality is secondary.” I think that quality is important because if user-generated content is of poor quality or just reinforces the same old gender stereotypes, than I think it could be just as damaging. The need for media literacy and education around how to portray female athletes and why it is important, is a necessary next step in creating real social change in women’s sport.  However, in Bruce’s defense because new media is an opt-in endeavor, perhaps quality is not much of an issue because the consumers are already fans of women’s sport. I doubt YouTube or blogging sites attract new fans to women’s sport, but it does provide a place for those desperately looking for coverage or information outside main stream media. However, I don’t think “we” should abandon fighting for equal coverage in mainstream media because if you see female athletes on TV, it sends a message that women’s sport is important and valued. My favorite quote so far was by our emcee who commenting on the scarcity of women in positions of power, she repeated a quote she’d read, “There is no glass ceiling, only a thick layer of men.” Elizabeth Broderick, one of our keynote speakers wrote a piece for the Sydney Morning Herald titled “Women hit the grass ceiling” which is very clever!

The Aussies claim they are “sport mad” and I’m trying to discern it they are more crazy about sports than we are in the USA. How do you measure that? Is that a good thing, to be the most “sport mad”?  Even though media coverage of women’s sport in Australia is no better than in the USA, right now I am watching a women’s soccer match on prime time network TV of the Matildas (the Aussie national women’s soccer team. The men’s national team is called the Socceroos) verses Korea on the Aussie ABC network (not the same ABC of the USA). You would NEVER see a women’s soccer game on the USA ABC network at 5pm on a Friday evening. More to come….

p.s.-I saw a picture of the 2012 London Olympic mascots in a session today. If you haven’t seen them, please click here. What were they thinking?