March Madness and the Grass Ceiling

This week's focus is on NCAA Basketball March Madness. It's fun, it's exciting, and it draws lots of attention. Of course, while we are working to advance the success of women in technology related fields, women in all aspects of life are experiencing their own struggles, including women in sports.

While we have mentioned the glass ceiling, concrete ceiling, and sticky floor phenomena on this list, I recently learned about the term "the grass ceiling", where women in sport at all levels are regularly limited in their ability to succeed and held back by inequitable investments in their teams. While federal Title IX legislation in 1972 has made a huge difference, it has not been enough! This issue was described by Eimear Ryan (sports columnist with the Irish Examiner) in her 2023 award-winning book The Grass Ceiling, discussed here in a short and informative interview.

We can support women in other areas of equity work, and we can also learn from their challenges and successes. Here is my brief analysis of some lessons we can learn:

1. Speaking up can force change: This happened in 2021, "When college women basketball players began to post photos and videos of how they got less food, less accurate COVID-19 testing and less exercise equipment in the NCAA March Madness Tournament bubbles than their male counterparts, a sense of collective outrage ensued."
2. Investment can yield results: "Jadrian Wooten, a Virginia Tech collegiate associate professor in the Department of Economics, explains how investment and interest in women’s basketball has created a 'virtuous cycle' spurring growth in one another to help close the gender equity gap. 'If there’s an increase in financial support, that can be reinvested in improving the sport’s quality,' says Wooten. 'As quality increases, so does viewership, which attracts more advertising and sponsorship. It creates a self-reinforcing loop, where each element of success builds on and magnifies the others, leading to a brighter future for women's college basketball.'
3. Collective action works: "What is really important is that it demonstrates to the players that when you do this en masse, as a collective, you’re also safe. Don’t get me wrong, I love it that players speak out and they use their voice to advocate for change, but many of them do so at the sacrifice or risk of their careers. We can advocate for change on your behalf and keep you protected, you don’t have to stick your neck out in order for there to be structural change when we’re talking about equality and compensation and things like that." The Collective tracks even more data in multiple sports and the data show that "Despite a recent rise in salaries and prize money, systemic inequities related to revenue, infrastructure, and media coverage continue to drive major discrepancies between professional men’s and women’s playing earnings." The Women's Sports Foundation acts in a collective way to speak out, support, and take action. The foundation was "established in 1974 to advance the lives of women and girls through sports and physical activity. Our mission is to enable all girls and women to reach their potential in sports and life."

So, think about how you can take these three lessons, and (while you are enjoying the fun of March Madness), consider how you/we can:

1. speak up for women in IT to help force the changes we all need,
2. make investments that will create self-reinforcing loops that amplify successes, and
3. take collective actions in SUNY to make progress on building equitable gender-inclusive organizations.

Finally, looking to next week: Maria Garrity sent this to me to share with all of you:
Calling all IT Women, There will be a virtual session on Wednesday March 27th at noon. Join the SpeakIT-WomensForum. The event is geared towards women to discuss and share challenges, concerns, and to network and more. A Flyer is below.

All the best,
Holly

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WIT Weekly Wisdom: A message for SUNY WIT list subscribers on the topics of Connecting, Learning, Stretching, Teaching, Reaching, and Balancing. Have a suggestion for a WIT Weekly Wisdom message? Contact Holly Heller-Ross @ hellerhb@plattsburgh.edu

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