On National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Add More Women’s Sports to Your Bubble
February 7th is National Girls and Women in Sports Day. I live in a curated bubble where I see women and girls participating in sports at all levels on a regular basis. I see statistics for recording-breaking attendance at women’s volleyball and know when the presale for my championship-winning Gotham FC season and individual tickets are on sale. It also means I see the statistics and reasons that girls are dropping out of sports.
As a child and adolescent, I was encouraged to participate in the sport of my choosing. My dad coached my little league teams. I was the only girl on a team where the boys made it clear that I was “just a girl” and they talked about perfect body shape for future girlfriends (none of the shapes they outlined were mine). I did not play any kind of baseball after this season and it is part of my Feminist origin story.
As a teenager, I became a swimmer — it was part of my identity. I woke up extra early and jumped into a cold pool while my peers were either sleeping or perfecting their high bangs with aquanet (it was the 1990s, after all). Despite still not having the confidence in my body shape, I lived in my swimsuit. I even swam at my university for half of a semester before the coach made it clear that my early practices would not ever result in me competing.
Sports were valued in my house growing up. (When I ran the New York City Marathon in 2013, my parents, aunt and uncle came to town to cheer me on. My dad often says it was one of his favorite sports moments.)
But watching women’s sports was not in my bubble. College football was always on in my house. We knew the names of the rotating players; some of our dogs were named after them. I learned at an early age that the cheerleaders were not athletes — they were there as support for the real athletes. Professional baseball was something that my dad, brother and I bonded over. In my 20s, I cheered loudly for Jason Varitek. We yelled at the umpires over bad calls.
The only time I ever saw women competing on TV was during the Olympics. And even then it was only for certain sports and when the men’s competition was not on. Some of this had to do with a lack of access to watching women’s sports but some of it was about a lack of interest.
When I began my research on early adolescent girls’ self-worth I was careful not to ask about sports specifically because I did not want to interject my bias. I asked about interests and activities. The participants did talk about sports. In fact many of them identified sports as one of the keys to developing positive self-worth.
They also talked about the bias they see in sports. One participant talked about seeing a poster of Serena Williams with the tagline Best Female Athlete, with the word Female crossed out. She went on to discuss the injustice she felt about being in situations where she felt girls in her school were not taken seriously in sports. Many participants talked about the injustice they felt when they heard people say things like “he throws like a girl.” They never talked about watching sports.
Back in my bubble of women’s sports, I see girls with their teammates attending the Gotham FC matches. Cheering for their favorite players. Yelling at the referee. Waiting after the match to meet their sports sheros. I also know that I paid just $30 to go to the home opener in April where I hope to celebrate their championship. I know that only the bottom level of Red Bull Arena opens for the Gotham matches because
attendance is so low — and even then, often that isn’t even half full. But I know attending matches is so much fun and I invite everyone I can to join me.
I hope that on National Girls and Women in Sports Day we will show children that women’s sports are important. I challenge you to expand your bubble and follow more women athletes and teams.
Here are few profiles I love: Gotham FC
