International Women's Day: Have Sports Gained Ground?

Today is the day women everywhere are recognized for, well, being women. It's International Women's Day (IWD).

On this day in 1884, one Susan B. Anthony addressed the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to appeal for women's voting rights. They didn't come till much later, and for years, women came together on this day for protests and marches to advance women's rights throughout America.

Women can now vote. They can do anything really. Their salaries are finally starting to creep up behind men's. They have career freedom and more and more women choose to put off childbirth every year. Stay-at-home-dads are probably at an all-time high.

But this is only in America and other developed countries. In third-world countries, the problems continue. Women are regarded as less than men, and in some cases, less than human. They lack rights, and they lack safety. Nearly 540,000 women die a year giving birth.

Yes, the world has it's major problems.

But in the U.S., have things really gotten any better? Obviously, they have, but what hasn't changed that needs to?

Today I opened both Seattle local papers and found exactly zero stories on IWD. Zero.

I couldn't believe it myself, but I half expected it. Turning on the tube, I noted three national stations showing NCAA men's basketball. Only the local FSN had the NCAA women on, despite the fact that the women are in conference tournaments and the men are just wrapping up regular-season play.

I've seen this all before.

I used to write for the University of Washington student newspaper, The Daily. I was eager to get involved in any way possible, and that way turned out to be to cover the women's basketball team. I was excited.

My excitement lasted all three seasons, but unfortunately, interest in the team never grew. Not a fifth of the people that came to watch the men, came to watch the women. In the student section, not 1/100 showed up.

I had run-ins with editors that actually said no one cares about women's basketball. I was taken aback. Which came first, I asked, the chicken or the egg? Who's going to come watch if we never feature the women? Who will care if we don't give them the opportunity to?

Maybe I'm an idealist. I think so. I really think that no one outside of the families and the athletes gives two anythings for women's sports. I don't know why, but it clearly shows that women have a lot of ground left to gain here at home even.

I've seen girls' and womens' basketball games that were more exciting than many boys' and mens' games hands down. I've seen amazing athletes that will never get the accolades of their male counterparts. If you haven't, you haven't looked.

We're all to blame. The family unit has nearly become a thing of the past and in a quest to prove their equality, many women have shunned traditional values for individual freedom. I am a supporter, but I don't think they'll ever reach their mountain top.

That doesn't mean I don't think they should try.