Posted on Jun 23, 2022
Benching the patriarchy: 50 years of Title IX and how 4 women fought for change
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https://www.npr.org/2022/06/23/ [login to see] /title-ix-sport-women-university-oregon
There's a glass case in a hallway at the University of Oregon that looks like it should be in a museum. The case sits in the university's state-of-the-art basketball arena and holds an exhibit of women's shoes.
Basketball shoes.
Kelly Graves, the current women's basketball head coach, proudly points to one of them — white, with wings on the back heels, and chartreuse neon trim.
"It's the first shoe Nike ever made specifically for one women's basketball team," he says. "They made that for us our Final Four year."
It's a stylish looking shoe, but it's also something more — a symbol of the hard-fought movement for gender equity in women's sports.
The University of Oregon's (UO) women's basketball team is good, really good.
Under coach Graves, they've won the Pac-12 title three times. In 2019, they made it to the Final Four of the NCAA championships.
There's a glass case in a hallway at the University of Oregon that looks like it should be in a museum. The case sits in the university's state-of-the-art basketball arena and holds an exhibit of women's shoes.
Basketball shoes.
Kelly Graves, the current women's basketball head coach, proudly points to one of them — white, with wings on the back heels, and chartreuse neon trim.
"It's the first shoe Nike ever made specifically for one women's basketball team," he says. "They made that for us our Final Four year."
It's a stylish looking shoe, but it's also something more — a symbol of the hard-fought movement for gender equity in women's sports.
The University of Oregon's (UO) women's basketball team is good, really good.
Under coach Graves, they've won the Pac-12 title three times. In 2019, they made it to the Final Four of the NCAA championships.
Benching the patriarchy: 50 years of Title IX and how 4 women fought for change
Posted from npr.org
Sports
American History
Law
University of Oregon
Basketball
Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 2
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Interesting article. I'm all for Title IX but sometimes 'patriarchy' is not the root problem. I played college tennis and I can tell you firsthand that both men's and women's tennis were at the bottom of the resource totem pole (along with golf). This lack of support extended beyond the tennis courts and into the classroom. If I had to travel to another school for a match during the school week, there was no concession from my professors.
Football and men's basketball received the most attention (money) and academic support. Why? Because they were the biggest money makers. Kudos to these women for advancing women's sports, no question they were pioneers. But in my mind, it's not the patriarchy holding them back, it's greedy college administrators.
Ironically, if we didn't have a patriarchal social construct and all sports teams included both men and women, how do you think women would fare? I think most of them would be sitting on the bench.
Football and men's basketball received the most attention (money) and academic support. Why? Because they were the biggest money makers. Kudos to these women for advancing women's sports, no question they were pioneers. But in my mind, it's not the patriarchy holding them back, it's greedy college administrators.
Ironically, if we didn't have a patriarchal social construct and all sports teams included both men and women, how do you think women would fare? I think most of them would be sitting on the bench.
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