November 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 47

had major strides to make on the
equality front. At that time, it was
commonly believed women were not
physically capable of running long
distances, justified by such silly notions as a women's uterus would fall
out and it would affect her reproductive ability. These beliefs may have
stemmed from writings penned prior
to modern understandings of medicine and anatomy. In 1898, a doctor
in Berlin wrote in the German Journal of Physical Education that, " violent
movements of the body can cause
a shift in the position and a loosening of the uterus as well as prolapse
and bleeding, with resulting sterility,
thus defeating a woman's true purpose in life, i.e., the bringing forth
of strong children. " This was used
as logic against women running long
distances, such as in the 1960 Rome
Olympics when women did not participate in running events exceeding a
distance of 800 meters. It was not until 1984 that the women's marathon
was introduced into the Olympics -
Samuelson was the first to take home
the gold. Samuelson held the American marathon record for years and
her career is studded with many wins

including the Chicago and Boston
Marathons. Throughout her life, she
has been a tireless advocate for Title
IX, and her leadership for advancing
women's running has inspired many.
These dynamic women are but
a small sample of the leaders that
helped get us to where we are today.
The number of participation opportu-

At that time, it was
commonly believed
women were not
physically capable of
running long distances.
nities for girls in high school athletics
grew from fewer than 300,000 before
Title IX to more than 3.2 million by
2012, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. While we have made leaps and
bounds, even in 2014 we are still looking at major inequities in both sports
participation and women in leadership roles around sports. According
to the Women's Sports Foundation,

Although opportunities have opened
up for women and girls to participate in
many more sports than former generations enjoyed, a number of barriers
still exist before true equality can be
achieved.

girls have 1.3 million fewer opportunities to play high school sports than
do boys and there are 12 million 3rdthrough-12th-grade boys playing sports
while only 8 million girls do so. Sadly,
economic disparities also play a role
in the numbers - it is often in impoverished and urban neighborhoods
where girls are left behind.
Some of the largest inequities can
be observed in specific sports that
offer few opportunities for women's
teams or report low female participation numbers. Leading the way in
female participation for organized
sport is track and field, which sees
near equal participation numbers to
its male counterpart. Yet there are
still many sports where women have
limited opportunities or there are
different rules imposed for females.
Young girls aspiring to compete in
sports like football or wrestling often
find significant barriers to even participate on a team. In sports such as
track and field or baseball, there are

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November 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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