Being new to the whole March Madness phenomenon (although with Georgetown losing, I am done for this year) I was not quite sure how the NCAA tournament was organized. To educate myself, I went on Wikipedia (yes, wikipedia is a fine source for such urgent matters) to read about the topic. Well, among other things I was happy to learn that women also have their NCAA. But then I thought, how come I don't hear about it nearly as much? I admit that I only watch Georgetown basketball and our men's team has historically done better than our women's basketball team, which means that men's basketball overshadows women's basketball. So, I am in a way missing out on the women's tournament but the media is giving the women's tournament 1/20 of the attention it is giving the men's tournament?
Why is that? Thoughts?
Article from the Nation
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Women in the sports
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1 comment:
oooooh, don't get me started!
First things first: Ever wonder why the Georgetown women get the short end of the stick? Y'all have a history of doing that at your school. Google it.
Second, as a HUGE fan of women's basketball, I think it's not useful to compare the coverage of men's v. women's basketball and expect it to be "equal." Some very practical reasons, not the least of which men's bball has a huge fan base and makes the schools a lot of money... fans equals happy advertisers....
Third - Take a moment to understand the history of women's basketball. Monarych Notes version: Wbball started at the same time as men's: 1892. Spread like wildfire across the country and in to high schools and colleges. Mid-20's early 30's it's still huge, especially at the HS level - thousands attending state tournaments across the country.
But there's a backlash - people don't think it's right for women to be competitive. People are threatened by strong girls and women. It's not lady like. They claim women are too delicate and their uteruses will fall out or dry up... As a result, there's a successful movement to BAN all state tournmanets. By the end of the 30's, they're all gone (except in Iowa. But that's another story.)
Stubborn women continue to find ways and places to play. AAU is a huge outlet - (there are AAU Americans named from 1929 to 1979). Finally, Title IX happens.
Of course, the NCAA fights tooth and nail against it (do remember that IX was NOT specifically aimed at sports, but equality in services w/in federally funded schools. One of the reasons women outnumber men in colleges and post graduate degrees (and boy, are they GRUMPY about that!!) is Title IX).
Anyhoo - NCAA did all it could to undermine Title IX. Didn't want to sponsor a tournament, so the AIAW was formed to run women's tourneys. Eventually, the NCAA got interested, wiped out the AIAW and most of the women who'd been running it... 1982 was the first year the NCAA held a women's bball championship... Current prez Myles Brand is a breath of fresh air in his activism FOR gender equity.
Finally - we're not even going to talk about the old boy network within colleges and the sports media. Nor homophobia and society's biases.... :-)
BUT, you can check out a women's basketball history timeline here:
http://womensbasketballonline.com/history/wbbtimeline.html
And a history of women's basketball championships (going back to 1926) here:
http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/sports/article.html?record=161
And don't forget the Women's Hoops Blog (though the comments box is refusing to recognize the password. :-)
Helen
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