Category: Sports

For 50 Years, Title IX Has Transformed Girls’ and Women’s Education. The Job Is Not Yet Done.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in educational programs or activities. Because almost all schools receive federal funds, the law applies in nearly every educational context. Most people associate Title IX with athletics, where it has indeed had a profound effect on girls and women. Before Title IX, women and girls were virtually excluded from most athletic opportunities in schools.

The Pew Research Center did a national survey to gauge awareness and attitudes about Title IX 50 years after its passage. Among those who know about Title IX, there are both gender and political gaps in how they think about it.

Four Reasons Men’s Sports Are Not the Gold Standard

As women’s sports make progress (however slow), it is imperative to examine the crucial problems characteristic of the industry and decide what equality can look like. Is the male model of sports really the standard worth striving for?  What does a healthy sports culture look like and how can we foster that with the evolution of women’s sports?

Here are four reasons why men’s sports are not the gold standard—they’re the relic of a problematic past.

A Social Movement That Happens To Play Soccer

A Social Movement That Happens To Play Soccer

For years, U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team players have repeatedly complained that they’ve been getting as little as 40 percent of the salary their male counterparts get—especially considering the women’s team has four World Cup titles and the men’s team has … none.

On Tuesday, the players reached a $24 million settlement with the U.S. Soccer Federation over their equal pay lawsuit. The bulk of the settlement is, in fact, back pay—a tacit admission that compensation for the men’s and women’s teams had been unequal for years.

Keeping Score: Women Win Big in the Winter Olympics; State Legislatures Widen the Abortion Access Gap; Supreme Court Dilutes the Power of Black Voters in Alabama

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in in this biweekly round-up.

This week: Women brought home 17 of Team USA’s 25 Olympic medals in Beijing; Wisconsin, New Hampshire and Georgia Republicans target abortion rights, while Vermont passes Reproductive Liberty amendment; more Latina women are running for governor than ever before; a record 36 openly LGBTQ+ athletes competed in the Winter Olympics; and more.

Weekend Reading on Women’s Representation: 2022 Winter Olympics Are the Most Gender-Balanced Ever; Women’s Activism Threatens Authoritarian Leaders

Weekend Reading for Women’s Representation is a compilation of stories about women’s representation.

This week: Activism by women and gender minorities threatens authoritarian leaders; running for statewide executive office can be especially challenging for women; ranked-choice voting helps eliminate a split vote among women candidates; the 2022 winter Olympic games are the most gender balanced ever; how did Iceland become a model of gender parity?

Ms. Global: Muslim Leaders Make Women’s Rights Plea to Taliban; Pakistan Reckons with Femicide and #JusticeForNoor

Ms. Global: Muslim Leaders Make Women’s Rights Plea to Taliban; Pakistan Reckons with Femicide and #JusticeForNoor

The U.S. ranks as the 19th most dangerous country for women, 11th in maternal mortality, 30th in closing the gender pay gap, 75th in women’s political representation, and painfully lacks paid family leave and equal access to health care. But Ms. has always understood: Feminist movements around the world hold answers to some of the U.S.’s most intractable problems. Ms. Global is taking note of feminists worldwide.

This week: A former senior diplomat in Israel alleges late-President Shimon Peres sexually assaulted her in the ’80s; Morocco’s new Parliament elects most women ministers in country’s history; Soccer players in Venezuela and Australia join the global #MeToo movement; Pakistan struggles to come to terms with a gruesome femicide; and more.