A new chapter for championing girls and women in sports has begun with Champion Women, a non-profit organization founded by its CEO, Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a civil rights attorney, prolific scholar, speaker and Olympic champion.
As its mission, Champion Women (WWW.CHAMPIONWOMEN.ORG) “is committed to using sport to improve the lives of girls and women, bringing together nationally known and committed experts to its board and working committees.”
Hogshead-Maker implied that the timing could not be better for such an organization.
“Our most powerful and influential athletic institutions are falling short in addressing critical gender issues,” she said. “Champion Women will engage its followers, as well as other organizations to target equality, accountability and transparency throughout sports culture.”
She added that Champion Women “will amplify the voices of girls and women who may not be able to speak for themselves,” initially focusing on issues such as:
Too many colleges and universities are out of compliance with the most basic Title IX athletics requirements, when local constituencies could be empowered to push for more women’s teams.
Too many colleges, universities and high schools fail to comply with the basic legal requirements after they are confronted with allegations that their athletes have committed sexual assault or engaged in sexual harassment, oftentimes creating a hostile environment for the student body.
Collegiate sports will be restructured in the coming years in response to the legal rulings in the Northwestern and O’Bannon cases, making advocacy for women’s sports all that more important.
Women’s coaches face unfair and discriminatory employment conditions in the world of collegiate athletics, receiving far less pay than their male counterparts, being locked out of the men’s coaching market (despite male coaches having coaching opportunities in women’s sports) and overseeing programs with disproportionate less facilities and scholarships than male sports programs.
The U.S. Olympic Committee is creating a separate non-government agency to investigate and sanction sexually abusive coaches, an effort that will fail if the agency does not have independence and for which strong advocacy for women will be necessary.
Champion Women also announced its board and committee members, which includes the following distinguished athletes and advocates: Judy Sweet, Donna de Varona, Richard Lapchick, Donna Lopiano, Chris Voelz, Christine Grant, Diane Milutinovich, Micki King, Erin Buzuvis, and Terri Lakowski.
Lopiano, the president of Sports Management Resources, has great hope for the organization.
“There has been a great need for a women’s sports organization whose sole focus is addressing unfairness, discrimination and lack of respect for women in a worldwide sport culture,” she said. “Champion Women is such an organization and its pledge to pursue social justice as an independent expert force unfettered by the economic or political power of transgressors is critically important. Too many organizations refrain from strong advocacy voices because they fear loss of funding sources or the wrath of powerful players who may be subject to criticism. I’m confident that founder Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an Olympic gold medalist and highly respected sports attorney, along with the experts committed to working on the E&SA team, will always embrace the role of ‘responsible voice’ and a course of ‘right action.’”
Ellen J. Staurowsky, a professor in the Department of Sport Management at Drexel University, suggested that Hogshead-Makar is a perfect fit for the job.
“In Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the United States finds one of its most genuine, sincere, and important voices for social justice on behalf of girls and women in sport,” she said. “With this new venture, Champion Women, Nancy will have a platform to continue her work in realizing the full power of sport to promote the social good, confronting the mistreatment and abuse of girls and women in the sport system, and creating sport environments that are safe and supportive for girls and women.”
