SAUDI WOMEN DARE TO DRIVE IN DEFIANCE OF LAW

There are a lot of rights that western women take for granted. One of them is the freedom to drive - an activity that helps women be independent. Not so in every country or culture. Manal, a 32-year-old woman, is planning something she’s never done openly in her native Saudi Arabia: Get in her car and take to the streets, defying a ban on female drivers in the kingdom. Manal and 10 other people are organizing a campaign on Facebook and Twitter urging Saudi women with international driver’s licenses to join them starting June 17, risking their jobs and their freedom. Read more on Saudi Women Driving [Read More]

published May 11, 2011 at 6:15pm CDT

WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Equality Going to the polls to vote, or stepping out on the court to play a basketball game, I realize that I have a voice. My voice stands for all women. Women who were not and still cannot vote for anything. For women who cannot participate in sports and will never know just how good it feels to run up and down a court, dribble a ball, and score a basket.  When I was younger growing up in the 90’s, I knew no other way.  I was always told that when I turned 18 to go register and vote.  When I was five I had a basketball placed in my hands and was told to be active, have fun, and play sports.  Can you imagine turning 18 and someone telling you that your vote, your opinion, your voice was not equal?  Or someone tells you “no sports!” Sometimes I try to imagine my life without sports, basketball in particular, and honestly I can’t.  I am not saying that I am defined by basketball, but I know it has helped shape me into the person that I am today. There have been so many w [Read More]

published August 27, 2010 at 4:46pm CDT

A TITLE IX MUST-READ: GETTING IN THE GAME

Hot off the press! Getting In the Game is a new book by Title IX expert Professor Debbie Brake from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. In the book, Brake examines how Title IX has affected and continues to affect many facets of college and scholastic athletics for men and women. Chapter by chapter, Brake identifies and analyzes the hard and interesting questions that Title IX raises, including the appropriateness of separate teams in the first place, whether and when girls should be able to try out for boys' teams, how to measure equal opportunities and#40;the three-part testand#41;, what counts as athletic opportunities and#40;including the cheerleading issueand#41;, the effect of Title IX on men's sports, the effect of Title IX on women of color and#40;for more, see hereand#41;, what constitutes equal treatment, the tension between equal treatment and acknowledging sex-differences and#40;the pregnancy issueand#41;, and general aspects of the law, such as protection against sexual harassm [Read More]

published August 27, 2010 at 4:14pm CDT

SEXUAL HARASSMENT LITIGATION ROUNDUP

It's time for another roundup of recent decision in Title IX sexual harassment cases:A federal judge in Ohio refused to grant summary judgment to the Southwestern City School District so that a jury can resolve disputed facts about whether district officials knew and took proper action to protect a student from being sexually assaulted by another student who had assaulted her on the school bus earlier that year. The jury will also get to decide whether the plaintiff was suspended in retaliation for speaking out against the ongoing harassment. Evans v. Bd. of Educ, Southwestern Sch. Dist., 2010 WL 2889100 and#40;S. D. Ohio July 20, 2010and#41;.Another judge in the same district dismissed claims against the school district that, like the prior case, also involved sexual assault on the school bus. The court found that district officials responded appropriately when they learned that a 17-year-old high school student forced a 12-year-old seventh grader to perform oral sex on the [Read More]

published August 16, 2010 at 11:17am CDT

SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE MEDIA'S COVERAGE OF THE QUINNIPIAC DECISION

I've been reluctant to post links to the media coverage and commentary regarding the Quinnipiac ruling. This is because most of it that I've read sounds as if the author didn't even read the judge's opinion, but rather, used a generalized version of its conclusion as a starting point for his or her own view about whether cheerleading is a sport in some larger sense. Common themes included, "This judge must just think cheerleading is still about pom poms and good looks -- doesn't he know that it's different now?" "Let him try a partner stunt and then tell me it's not a sport!" "Doesn't this judge know how physically demanding cheerleading is?" "But there are injuries! Cheerleaders work hard! It must be a sport!" Of course, anyone who read the opinion knows that physical athleticism, sports injuries, and hard work were not issues that were in dispute in this case. The judge didn't overlook those factor, he agreed that cheer athletes work hard at physically demanding, dangerous stunt [Read More]

published August 11, 2010 at 6:18pm CDT

HOW A SPORTS BRAND CAN CREATE AWARENESS THROUGH VIRAL VIDEO

One of the best viral videos I’ve seen coming from a sports brand is associated with a powerful advocacy campaign created by the Nike Foundation called the Girl Effect. Although the campaign’s mission is not overtly obvious, the interactive video and#40;seen belowand#41; is very engaging, and, in my opinion, effective in spreading the awareness of the power of girls in the developing world. This video, which is not overtly focused upon sport,  educates an audience of pro-female supporters on how, by supporting  girls in developing countries, we can help end world poverty. I’d like to share it with you today, on Thanksgiving, as we all think about what we’re thankful for. Visit GirlEffect.org for the full experience. To measure its effectiveness, take a look at their Facebook page and#40;over 50,000 fansand#41;. [Read More]

published November 28, 2009 at 10:27am CST

NCAA CAREER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR WOMEN

University of Minnesota women's softball coach Julie Standering / Photo credit: Gophersports.com The NCAA is holding a career development program that’s targeting women, announced today. It’s going to be held on December 17 in conjunction with the women’s volleyball championship at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. Here’s the kicker: Registration is limited to 35 participants and is currently open to female students and student-athletes from any division and sport. Ok, so you’re targeting women. But only 35 of us? How exactly is that intended to make a realistic impact in getting women involved in college sports careers? If you’d like to voice your opinion and#40;or get more informationand#41;, contact Karen Morrison, NCAA director of gender initiatives, at kmorrison@ncaa.org. [Read More]

published October 9, 2009 at 2:44pm CDT

SEXISM WATCH: STEINBERG PLAYWRIGHT AWARDS

It’s not enough to have clear statistics about how women are discriminated in theatre, but now a new award — The Steinberg Playwright Awards — given to “emerging” playwrights has decided that there is no woman good enough to qualify as emerging. Bollocks. This is a brand spanking new award and while the committee and#40;which included several womenand#41; couldn’t decide the definition of “emerging” and#40;is it a person right out of school, or a person who is mid-careerand#41; they easily decided that no woman qualifies. It’s not like this award is $2,500.  There is some serious money — $25,000 and $50,000 — and prestige attached.  I don’t know how people can sit in a room and give out awards and be ok with not including a woman, especially in light of the recent statistics showing how discriminated women playwrights are. Trust Tussles Over Playwright Award Eligibility and#40;NY Timesand#41; [Read More]

published September 20, 2009 at 11:27am CDT

ERIN ANDREWS TELLS PEEP HOLE VICTIMIZATION STORY ON OPRAH

Photo Credit: http://www.earthlingchic.com I Tivo’d Oprah today and got to see a story that I’d been waiting for awhile. ESPN reporter Erin Andrews told the queen of talk television the story of a complete invasion of privacy as a female sports reporter. This is the first and only interview Erin will conduct with herself as the subject of the story. Now that it’s over, she told Oprah she’s ready for football season to begin and, even more importantly, she’s ready to move on. What Erin told Oprah was the story of a classic peeping Tom, only today’s peeping Tom lives in the age of a World Wide Web, an environment where anybody can create content and share it with the world.  While the Web is awesome in its own right, it takes no mercy upon sexy female journalists and#40;especially in the sports worldand#41;. Essentially, someone hid a video camera in the peep hole of her hotel room, video taped her walking around naked, and posted the video to the world. Within minutes, th [Read More]

published September 12, 2009 at 5:42pm CDT

STUDIO FILMS ARE DIRECTED BY WHITE MEN

In a no shit sherlock moment, The NY Times took a look at who has been in the director’s seat for the major studio releases this year. Of the 85 or so live action films to be released by the big studios in 2009 — Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Warner Brothers –93% are directed by white men with an average age of 45 years. Though Hollywood’s power structure remains heavily white, it has opened the ranks to far more women in recent years. But that shift does not yet appear to have changed the makeup of the studio directing pool. The article puts out the point that having a homogenized pool of directors might actually make business sense because box office has been growing and#40;of course they are charging moreand#41; so venturing outside of the boys club is too nerve racking cause who knows if women or people of color can deliver a big box office hit.  This is such bunk. But there is an obvious minu [Read More]

published August 24, 2009 at 5:46pm CDT