A few months ago, Nebraska’s Women’s Volleyball team set a world attendance record for woman’s sports, drawing over 92,000 people to a match in Memorial Stadium.
Girl Power!!!
LPGA golfer, Lexi Thompson, recently tee’d it up with pro golf’s best men at the PGA Tour’s Shriners Children’s Open in Las Vegas. Thompson played well only to miss the cut by three strokes.
Girl Power!!!
Last weekend in Iowa City, Iowa, the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team hosted an outdoor exhibition game on the school’s football field. This event, billed as the “Crossover at Kinnick“, drew over 55,000 fans. Another record attendance level for the largest crowd to watch an women’s NCAA basketball contest.
Girl Power!!!
Three events, three spectacles of “Girl Power” – or so it has been described. There is no doubt about it: female athletes are doing BIG things – and we should all tell our sons and daughters about it.
Born and raised in Iowa, it seemed that every one of my Facebook friends/family were in attendance to watch the Hawkeyes’ star guard, Caitlyn Clark, lead the black and gold to victory. Clark is truly amazing. After seeing the posts, reading about Lexi Thompson and Nebraska volleyball before, I had a thought: in 2023, how far are our girls from being on equal footing to their male counterparts – on and off the fields of play?
Do these massive spectacles of female achievements enjoyed by so many fans move us closer to a day where we don’t have to use them as lessons that our daughters can do anything a man can do? Frankly, I am hoping my two daughters already believe that. But, is it true?
On the athletic fields and arenas, females are certainly bringing in significantly less revenue and making less in salaries than any male counterparts. In just one example, the NBA’s annual revenue topped $10 billion in 2022, the WNBA grossed just $60 million.
Away from the fields of play, the “girl power” gap widens. As of August 2023, there were 29 female CEO’s in the Fortune 500. It has been famously said males have an equal chance of being named “David” or “John” as a female CEO running a large company in America. At the “C” level of major corporations, white males are still over-represented when compared to any other demographic. Outside of the boardroom, Bloomberg reported that for every 100 male promotions, only 87 females receive the same career boost.
Girl Power?
History tells us that we should take pride in the strides females have made since the “barefoot and pregnant” days of the past. And, while that is true, and no matter how amazing the feats pulled off my Lexi Thompson, Nebraska volleyball, or Iowa basketball, the fact remains that so much is left to do.
So, Girl Power, but….
I see differences in the way my girls (15 and 7 years-old) are treated – even at public school. I’ve long been pissed that my girls are sent home for a mid-thigh length pair of shorts or tank top while their brothers hike the waist band of gym shorts high enough to see their grungy boxer shorts.
Girl Power?
I get annoyed that parents snicker when a girl participates in a traditional “male” sport (ie: football, wrestling, on boys teams). When my oldest son wrestles a female opponent, I am immediately nervous about the possible humiliation of him losing. OMG, that makes me feel like I’m part of the problem our kids must eliminate.
I have a long way to go, too, I guess.
“Girl Power” Becomes “Duh, Dad”
The goal should be to obsolete “girl power” altogether – to help our sons and daughters reach a day where saying that females and males are on equal footing is not revolutionary but, on the contrary, a “duh, Dad” moment.
Whether you love PGA Tour golf, the Nebraska Cornhuskers (yuck:), or the Iowa Hawkeyes does not matter. Take notice AND put your kids on notice that, in spite of this momentous female triumphs, things still need changing.
Parents, champion your kids’ – especially our girls that see the things that statistics show us time and time again. The numbers say that the workplace will not be easier for them, that guys still dominant in many walks of life, that more is often expected of them at home than their male partners.
Girl Power!!!
As sure as Iowa star Caitlyn Clark uncharacteristically air-balled a free throw in front of a record crowd on Sunday in Iowa City, parents and kids cannot allow a “Girl Power” afterglow to hide the work we still need to do.
