Women's Sports Fighting for Recognition in Boston
Competing in a city long sidled with a racist reputation, sports teams and organizations in Boston have long worked toward equality, or at least a perception of it. But in the past few decades, a new battlefield has emerged in the sports-mad city's culture war - women's sports.
This fresh fight, taken up recently by a professional soccer organization and Title IX-backed activists at Boston's many colleges, isn't so much against anti-inclusive bigwigs - modern day Yawkeys - but against norms, financial constraints and fan interest.
The women don't have to prove they have a right to play. They have to prove they can - and people will watch.
WUSA: "Working to Reorganize"
The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) started with big dreams, but thin pocketbooks.
Around the time of the 1999 Women's World Cup, plans were being formulated to start the United States' first ever women's professional soccer league. When the U.S. won the Cup before record crowds and jaw-dropping television figures, it was final. There would be a league, with most of the U.S. Cup roster spread between eight teams, including squads based in Boston, Atlanta, Washingon D.C. and Philadelphia.
The WUSA opened its doors in 2001 to much fanfare - and heavy attendance. Boston's entry, the Breakers, drew 8,101 fans a game, and Washington led the league with a 14,421 average.
Emotionally, things were great. Financially, things weren't. Though investors had put nearly $100 million into startup costs, only Hyundai and Johnson & Johnson signed on as major corporate backers.
Still, the league survived, but only for a while. A business plan that called for heavy corporate sponsorship didn't pan out, and by the September end of the 2003 season, the circumstances were so dire that WUSA executives announced the league was ceasing operation, effectively immediately. As if to complete its "ashes-to-ashes" flavor, announcement coincided with the start of the 2003 Women's World Cup.
"We had some great sponsors," WUSA commissioner Tony DiCicco said. "The way our previous business plan worked, we had to reach a certain number for sponsorship. We knew that after tickets and licensing, we needed this much in sponsorship, and this much from investors. We weren't reaching the number in sponsors, therefore investors had to put in more money."
In the league's three-year run, Boston showed it can support a major professional women's soccer team as well as any city.
The Harlem Renaissance is the name given to a period at the end of World War I through the mid-30s, in which a group of talented African-Americans managed to produce outstanding work through a cultural, social, and artistic explosion. Also known as the New Negro Movement. It is one of the greatest periods of cultural and intellectual development of a population historically repressed. The Harlem Renaissance was the rebirth of art in the African-American community mostly centering in Harlem, New York, during the 1920s. Jazz, literature, and painting emphasized significantly between the artistic creations of the main components of this impressive movement. It was in this time of great
After the end of the civil war African Americans had more opportunity and freedom since the men were soldiers of the civil war. Most African Americans had the plan to leave the south and move to up north because of the racism still lingering in the south, for example the Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court case. This case was about a light-skin colored man sitting in the “white” car of a train. Although he was light-skin he was still considered black and got arrested for sitting in that section of the train. This was an opportunity to express racial equality, but the end result was devastating. The Supreme Court declared that segregation of race was to be still constitutionally acceptable. Also economic status in the south was getting lower and there was not as much labor due to destroyed crops.
Robinson, J., Peg Bradley-Doppes, Charles M. Neinas, John R. Thelin, Christine A. Plonsky, and Michael Messner. “Gender Equity in College Sports: 6 Views.” Chronicle of Higher Education 6 Dec 2002: B7+.
Women don’t receive the spotlight in sports very often. Usually, the men in baseball, football, basketball, and soccer have higher salaries and are paid attention to more. This wasn’t the case with a special league of female baseball players. These ladies sparked a thought in peoples’ heads in the mid 20th-century. Could women really play a professional sport instead of staying home to do the housework? From 1943-1954, women in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League helped to change the rights women were believed to have in society and in the workplace as they began playing a professional sport as a form of entertainment. Men, who would usually fulfill this role, were drafted into the military with the responsibility to serve during the war. The AAGPBL quickly became a world-winning group of women athletes and kept baseball and peoples' hopes alive during a time of weakness in American history.
“The past three decades have witnessed a steady growth in women's sports programs in America along with a remarkable increase in the number of women athletes (Daniel Frankl 2)” From an early age women were thought to be “Lady Like”; they are told not to get all sweaty and dirty. Over 200 years since Maud Watson stepped on the tennis courts of Wimbledon (Sports Media Digest 3); women now compete in all types and levels of sports from softball to National racing. Soccer fans saw Mia Hamm become the face of women’s soccer around the world, Venus and Serena Williams are two of the most popular figures in tennis, and Indy car racing had their first woman racer, Danika Patrick. With all the fame generated by these women in their respective sports, they still don’t receive the same compensation as the men in their respective sports fields.
The Islands of Hawaii are located in the Pacific Ocean with eight main islands. Its climate is mild and summer highs are usually in the upper 80s and winters are in the low 80s. There are also wet and dry seasons on the islands. Due to the rain, The islands has become Lush and green. The Ancient Hawaiians had obtained sustainability through their water conservation and water protection rules. They also protect their environment with water protection rules, fish conservation, and use sustainable farming practices.
The Harlem Renaissance was the name given to the cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York in the 1920s. The renaissance was more than just a literary movement, it involved racial pride. This was a time for cultural explosion, after African Americans had dealt with years of slavery and the fight or abolition. The encounters with music art and literature of the Harlem Renaissance impacted American society by bringing light to artists, such as writers, musicians and painters that challenged the white society’s ideas about African Americans.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of racism, injustice, and importance. Somewhere in between the 1920s and 1930s an African American movement occurred in Harlem, New York City. The Harlem Renaissance exalted the unique culture of African-Americans and redefined African-American expression. It was the result of Blacks migrating in the North, mostly Chicago and New York. There were many significant figures, both male and female, that had taken part in the Harlem Renaissance. Ida B. Wells and Langston Hughes exemplify the like and work of this movement.
It has taken many years for women to gain a semblance of equality in sports. Throughout history, women have been both excluded from playing sports and discriminated against in sports. Men’s sports have always dominated the college athletic field, but women were finally given a fighting chance after Title IX was passed. Title IX, among other things, requires scholarships to be equally proportioned between men and women’s sports. Although this was a huge gain for women, gender inequality still exists in sports today. An example of this persisting inequality can be seen when looking at men’s baseball and women’s softball. In college, baseball and softball are both major NCAA sports. It is widely accepted throughout today’s society that baseball is a man’s sport, and softball is a woman’s sport. Very few people question why the two sexes are separated into two different sports, or wonder why women play softball instead of baseball. Fewer people know that women have been essentially excluded from playing baseball for a long time. This paper will focus on why softball has not changed the way women’s basketball has, why women continue to play softball, the possibilities and dynamics of women playing baseball with and without men, and the most discriminating aspect of women being banned from playing professional baseball.
The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is about 30 miles southwest of Hilo. It is on the big island of Hawaii. This park is the home of Kilauea Volcano. Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes on earth. The chance to see this creation and destruction makes this park one of the most visited National Parks in the United States.
The Harlem Renaissance, a cultural movement that began in the 1920s, brought an excitement and a new found freedom and voice to African-Americans who had been silent and oppressed for a long time. This blossoming of African-American culture in European-American society, particularly in the worlds of art and music, became known as The Harlem Renaissance.
Beginning in the 1919 and lasting through about 1926 thousands of Blacks began to migrate from the southern United States to the North; an estimated 1 million people participated in what has come to be called the Great Migration.[1] The reasons for this mass movement are complicated and numerous, but they include search for better work, which was fueled by a new demand for labor in the North (particularly from the railroad industry) and the destruction of many cotton harvests by the infectious boll weevil ...
Hawaii is rated as one of the top tour destinations in the world. Nearly 8 million tourists visited the islands annually, and eighty-two percent of these tourists traveled to there for the purpose of vacation, honeymoon, or to get married. (Beal). Hawaii is generally viewed as a place to escape from
"In many ways, the creation and growth of women’s soccer in the US was a process of assembling the components. College soccer, the youth programs, amateur clubs, the national team, tournament success, the US Open Cup, farm clubs and finally a professional league. But once it was done (and at an amazingly quick pace at that), the US had gone from a latecomer to the premier women’s soccer program in the world, and is a spearhead that inspires the growth of the women’s game throughout the rest of the world" (Women's 69). The first women's soccer league in the United States wasn't established until 1995. Women's first professional league in the United States was developed in 2001. As women’s soccer became more popular, the style of clothing dramatically changed. Women's soccer used to be played in whatever clothes they wanted. There was a photo that was taken in 1869 of women playing soccer in their dresses. Today, women's soccer has uniforms that they wear for every game. "The four British associations agreed on a uniform code and formed the International Football Association Board" (There
Gender in sports has been a controversial issue ever since sports were invented. In the early years, sports were played only by the men, and the women were to sit on the sidelines and watch. This was another area of life exemplifying the sexism of people in which women were not allowed to do something that men could. However, over the last century in particular, things have begun to change.