Brava Title IX Anniversary!
This week marks the 40-year anniversary of Title IX, which mandated schools—high schools and colleges—that receive federal funding, cannot discriminate on the basis of gender. It meant the beginning of legitimate women’s sports. I think it’s significant that this law was put into place the same year (1972) that Ms. Magazine dropped its first issue. It was on a street corner in New York City; a truck full of magazines came around the corner. It was just as the dawn was breaking, and several hundred of us women (it felt like thousands!) were standing around that corner, cheering and hugging each other. Finally! A magazine that told the truth about discrimination of women in every aspect of our life. The magazine title alone was a triumph. To think there was another salutation for a woman, other than she was married (Mrs. Somebody) or Not Married Yet (Miss Nobody). Young women today may think I am overstating this—I’m not. Back in the bad old days, women were not starting their businesses at twice the rate of men, as they are now. They did not make up over half of the graduate school enrollments in prestigious professions, as they do now. And we didn’t have 51% of this country’s wealth, as we do now. It was truly a man’s world, and we were just living in it. Some of us thought the only way we could enter that world at all was to marry a man, and be “Mrs. Somebody Else.” So when Title IX came along, it made possible a whole new generation of women—now three generations—who play competitive sports, who have women heroes in sports, and don’t know what Title IX even is. Well, good, I say.
I have every issue of Ms. Magazine, since the first in 1972. Some of it is painful to read: discrimination against women has not ended, and is acted out quite violently in less civilized countries than ours (don’t get me started right now . . .) I didn’t write my book, Necessary Roughness, for these young women. I wrote it for women of a certain age, like me, who made my mother write notes to get me out of Phys. Ed. “If I sweat, my hair will frizz!” Horrors! We never played competitive sports, and now I watch it like mad. Nothing motivates me as much as sports, and the more contact the better!
So I’m glued to the NBA Finals. Most of these young men don’t even think about 1972. But two generations are on the arena floors. On the Oklahoma City Thunder team, there is James Harden, 22 years old, and our beloved Derek Fisher, who is 37! Very senior age in professional sports! It’s Derek’s 41st Finals game! As one sportscaster pointed out, when Fisher played his first game in the Finals, his now fellow teammate, Harden, was 7 years old! Fisher can still play well—his 3-point shots at crunch time are legendary—but his most important contribution is LEADERSHIP! He guides, he motivates, he mentors, he grounds everyone around him with his solid experience, and his 5 Championship rings!!
I have friends who are 15 and 20 years younger than I am. They are fellow women business owners, and we have more in common than you might first think. Sure, I mentor them, using my 27 years of experience being a business owner, but just as James Harden is “faster” than Derek Fisher, these younger women are “faster” than I am with all the new technology, social media, and man! Do I admire and learn from them! So I give thanks for Title IX for leading the way to all the strong, competitive women who have grown up since then. You guys know how to use “necessary roughness” to talk straight, stand your ground, say ‘no’ and negotiate everything! Brava!