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Equal footing Women's field of dreams takes a worldwide stage
Posted: Thursday July 01, 1999 11:21 PM
ATLANTA (CNN/SI)-- Two weekends ago, nearly 80,000 enthusiastic spectators watched the U.S. defeat Denmark in the first-round of the women's world cup. This weekend fans will continue to get a kick from women's soccer, 12 women's basketball squads will score points in the league of their own, golfers will drive toward a title at the Kroger Classic in Ohio and women tennis players will serve up smashing play at Wimbledon. For decades, they have felt at home on Centre Court and on championship golf courses. But behold them now, competing for a World Cup and inspiring hoop dreams. Female athletes now play team sports, traditionally the province of men, as if those games have always been theirs. It's the most telling sign that women's sports have moved from the shadows into the spotlight. "It's a good time for women's sport right now and the team sports and that's the most important thing," says tennis great Chris Evert who won 18 career Grand Slam singles titles. "Individual sports made it a while back like tennis and golf."
"America is really ready, really hungry for women's sports," said Nikki McCray, a guard with the WNBA's Washington Mystics. "It's tremendous how much in my lifetime how things have changed. The exposure, the competion and it is a great time for women's sports right now." For 1976 Olympic Gold skater Dorothy Hamill, it's more than timing. It's also reflects a change in attitude. "It's okay for our girls to grow up and want to be basketball players or hockey players." It's not only permissible, it's profitable. Female athletes in a variety of sports now earn athletic scholarships. And thanks to ballooning purses, the LPGA and WTA tours are home to dozens of female millionaires.
"I'm very appreciative of what I have and what I can play for," says Julie Inkster who won the LPGA Championship this past weekend to become just the fourth woman to win a career Grand Slam. For many professionals, opportunity means not only playing for fun, but now having the chance to play for a living. "People of my generation can make a living doing it and people before me were doing it for the love of doing it," said professional volleyball player Gabrielle Reese. However soccer icon Mia Hamm of the U.S. national team and a current member of the U.S. Women's World Cup team says without sponsorships, many athletes would be unable to take part in the competition. "Obviously, the endorsements, we don't have a league that basically lets us do this full time, and if it wasn't for these sponsors that come out and basically supports us, we couldn't train full time, and we couldn't keep our level where it needs to be to compete." Although the two-year-old American Basketball League folded in December and the WNBA has had marketing help from its big brother, the NBA, women's professional basketball is a success story. Propelled by the Gold Medal winning performance of the 1996 USA women's Olympic basketball team, the pro leagues inherited a roster of recognizable stars, a list of prestigious sponsors and a base of fans, both male and female, spanning all generations. "The first year, the WNBA spent $15 millin dollars on marketing, $1 milliin dollars on salaries," said Billie Jean King, founder of the Women's Tennis Association. "So they have the marketing tool and the exposure. Television exposure, that's really what you need." "I think now we are even going to get better," McCray says. "We have top college players coming into our league, the ratings are definitely going to go up, the competition is getting better." Women's sports probably wouldn't have had much of a future without the passage 27 years ago of Title IX. That federal legislation mandated equal opportunities for female athletes in high schools and colleges. It also meant that athletes long considered fringe players and oddities of their gender had to be taken seriously. No one can appreciate that particular aspect any more than Dot Richardson won an Olympic Gold Medal for softball in 1996.
"When I was ten years old, I was asked if I would play on a boy's baseball team, but in order to do it I would have had to cut my hair short and give myself a boy's name. I would have had to call myself 'Bob.' So we have come a long way." Evert remembers another obstacle. "When I started playing tennis in the early '70s, the stereotype of women athletes was very masculine and a little butch. I hate to use the word 'butch' but that was the image of a women athlete. I think that society was just afraid to see a women who was strong and aggressive." But for all the ground gained, there is still much territory to conquer. For example, the women's tennis tour has no title sponsor and the womens' champion at Wimbledon this year will earn some $70,000 less than the men's.
Meanwhile, as Martina Hingis demonstrated with her ill-considered remarks earlier this year at the Australian Open that fellow pro Amelie Mauresmo, who is gay, was "half a man," the issue of lesbianism still hangs over tennis and other women's sports like a dark cloud. "Every person in the world deserves equal opportunity, equal rights no matter their gender, their religion. And sexual orientation should be a part of that statement and very strongly," says King. "You should be judged on your ability and that should be it," Evert said. However, Inkster says the stereotype will be a difficult one to erase. "I think it's a stigma that will always be there with any woman's sport becuase everyone thinks you can't be a lady and play women's sports. But you can." As they continue to fight on the political and financial battlefields, female athletes take heart from their past victories and relish their recent successes on the playing field. If the roars from the crowds are any indication, it would seem to indicate that these are indeed the best of times that can only get better.
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