The Disparity in treatment for Male and Female athletes of the NCAA
The beginning of March Madness brought us cheers for the bit of normalcy we yearned for a year ago. We set aside our afternoons (or mornings here on the West coast) to watch our favorite collegiate teams prepare for a battle unlike the ones before, their own personal bubble. NCAA fans men and women alike were eager to see the games played out under those circumstances. Especially since when the NBA bubble was taking place players and pundits alike compared it to a collegiate or AAU type setting we knew this going to big for these athletes ( well if you are the right gender).
As we all know female and male rights have never been equal, not even in sports today, in the year of 2021. As of just last week the NCAA was called out for the lack of amenities in the women's workout room versus the men's workout room. The first person to call them out on the issue was Stanford sports performance coach Ali Kershner posted two photos one of how the men's workout room looks with all different types of equipment and benches in contrast to the women's workout room with only a set of free weights and a few yoga mats. A few hours after Ali posted her post, NCAA vice president of women's basketball Lynn Holzman, to paraphrase, stated that some amenities teams usually have access to aren´t available due to the limited space of being in a controlled environment. As well as stating that the original plan was to expand the workout area once additional space was available later in the tournament. After Lynn Holzman made that statement, Sedona Prince of the Oregon Ducks contradicted that there is limited space and posted a video showing all the extra space that they had to add more equipment. She also added a statement saying, ¨If you´re not upset by this problem, then you´re part of it.¨ After the photos from Ali were posted and the video from Sedona was uploaded, multiple NBA and WNBA players tweeted and shared on other social media platforms addressing the problem including A´ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu, CJ MCollum, Steph Curry and others. After the NCAA was exposed for the disparities in men and women amenities in the workout rooms, others posted and retweeted about the food options. Sedona also posted the men´s food options having excellent food while the women had lower than subpar lunch food. Also photos and videos were shared of the difference in their swag bags. As well as the covid tests, women are getting lower quality tests rather than the men. After all this many people took it as the NCAA being disrespectful and disgraceful. People were furious, and everyone that was angry with the problem was reposting the different photos and videos on every platform they can. Following all the criticism NCAA officials apologize. Lynn Holzman promised to have improvements and she stated that the issue hit a nerve with her, since she was a former college basketball player. The NCAA has since put in better equipment in the weight room for the women. Sedona posted another video showing all of the new amenities that has been added. Though the NCAA added more amenities, this is just a small part of the problem that we have with women's sports in general. For example the number of Division 1 women's teams only compete in 64 tournaments versus the men´s that compete in 68. That is just one of many examples of the inequalities within women's sports. South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley said in a statement that ¨Women's basketball is a popular sport whose stock and presence continues to rise on a global level. It is time for the NCAA leadership to reevaluate the value they place on women.¨ Which is completely correct. Some may use the argument that Men's Basketball generates more revenue than Women's basketball programs, but if this argument was to be true why are lower level cinderella teams also being privy to the bountiful buffet and fully equipped weight room but women's programs like a South Carolina should. So this reasoning clearly does not hold water. Simply put we need to make a change with the inequalities that these women and women in general are facing and like Sedona said if you're not upset by this problem, then you're part of it.
