6 minutes past 12 programming on NPR is supported by Dahlberg Incorporated and its employees celebrating 50 years of hearing Innovations on the web at www. Miracle - ear.com. Well time now on midday for the College of Saint Catherine's Forum on women and Leadership off we go to the Radisson Hotel in downtown Saint Paul. Good afternoon. Welcome to the sixth annual Saint Catherine Forum on women in leadership brought to you by the College of Saint Katherine and are 1997-98 special series co-sponsors, the law firm of Briggs and Morgan professional association and American Express financial advisors. I'm Maria Pantages director of public relations for the college. Today's topic is women in sport and we are pleased to welcome Donna lopiano, the executive director of the women's sports foundation will begin our program with introductory remarks from Sheila Brown the director of Athletics at Saint Catherine Sheila. Good afternoon. I'm Sheila Brown the director of Athletics at the College of Saint Katherine. And it is my pleasure to welcome you to the final program of this year's Forum on women in leadership, which promotes the public discussion of issues and ideas of significance to women. I'm happy to introduce a friend and a woman who's been a colleague for 20 plus years. Now Donna lopiano, the executive director of the women's sports Foundation. Donna is a champion of equal opportunity for women in sport and the ethical conduct of educational support a title 9 consultant. She is a member of The Advisory board for the center for the study of sport in society and is also an Ethics fellow of the institute for international sport. Listed as one of the nation's 100 most influential people in sport and the 50 most influential people in Collegiate Sports. Donna is a member of the National Sports Hall of Fame the National Softball Hall of Fame and the Texas Women's Hall of Fame among others. She participated in 26 national championships in for sports. Donna was a nine-time All-American at four different positions in softball a sport in which he played on Six National Championship teams. We're lucky to have her with us today as she talks to us about her passion women and sport. Please join me in welcoming Donna lopiano. Thanks so much for having the I have to begin by telling you a short story and I want you to know that since I've been doing public speaking over the last several decades first. Scary. I've always started every single speech. I've given with the story because I think it's a it's better than the introduction that no offense at all, but it's better than the introduction that you typically receive about speakers which and tells you where they came from and how they're listed and how they're ranked but they sell them gives you an insight as to who they really are. And in the story is that unlike many people. I think I've never never had the chance to do the thing that I wanted to do most in life, which was to be a pitcher for the New York Yankees. And you are responding is audiences typically respond. Do you know you laugh at that notion? But I want to tell you how serious a dream that was an age of five to the age of 11 everyday after school. I threw 500 pitches against the side of my parents garage. And by the time I was 11, I had developed a rising fastball. I had a curve that would drop off a table for those of you who are old enough to remember an old Yankee pitcher named Bob Turley. I was working on a Bob Turley drop by the age of 11 and I did what any youngster at that age did if they had aspirations to be a professional baseball player in that was I went out for the little league softball team along with all the other boys on my street. I was drafted number 1 in that little league and on the same day. We were we were drafted assigned two teams. We were lined up to get our uniforms and there I was standing in line. I remember is fourth in line and I think most of you can imagine how important By the first time you get an official uniform. This is something that you know, you walk around in the house with your your uniform shirt on three weeks before your first game, you might you admire yourself in the mirror. I mean you look forward to this as if it is indeed the most important thing in your life and it probably is up until that point. So here I was looking at the table that was stacked with uniforms and I realized that this was an omen it was an omen that I truly was going to eventually become a pitcher for the New York Yankees because the colors of my team were navy blue and white the shirts for my team wear wear Pinstripes Yankee Pinstripes navy blue and white the baseball caps were solid navy blue and they were real wool baseball caps not the ones with plastic in the back but ones where you you had to get to know your head size. This was a legitimate baseball cap. And there I was trembling with excitement at your the whole notion of of soon being able to put on a uniform when a very tall adult came to stand beside me and he opened the Little League rule book and on page 14 in the center of the page where four words that would change my life forever. And those words were girls are not allowed in. This was before parents went to court to give rights to their daughters when it comes to Little League Baseball, but I can remember crying for three months. I can remember going to games and seeing players who are not as good as as I was enjoying this thing called baseball. It was it was easily the most devastating moment of my life. And I think it's probably the reason I do what I do today. I am a firm believer that no child male or female should ever be told that they cannot pursue their dreams and this What this whole thing about gender equity in sport is all about it's not having any limitations on the choices of our children that have to do with their gender are many people who would have you believe that sport is in a one of these ancillary activities and it just at the time when it comes to the budget argument or just at a time when it comes to debating over whether the women's team needs a new softball field to get the feeling that this is fun and games. This is really not as important as math is science it as as all of these other activities, but I'm here to tell you that sport is one of the most important socio-cultural learning environments that we have ever ever designed for our children and up until 25 years ago. You know, we reserved that learning environment for our sons. It is good that our daughters are now being exposed. We know for instance that girls who plays for Are more likely to be confident have higher levels of self-esteem have stronger self-images. We know that from a physiological perspective that as little as four hours of physical activity a week, which is far less than any team spends in practice as little as four hours of physical activity a week can reduce the risk of breast cancer for young girl by up to 60% We know that girls who plays Sports have lower incidences of unintended and unintended pregnancies girls who play sports are 50% less likely to experience an unintended pregnancy than girls who do not play sports. We know what that girls are play sports do better in school. They have better grades than more likely to graduate and all of us here who have ever played Sports know how important it is for the success of a woman in her future post sport life and that life of business and career. It is no accident that a deeper. Sign of the female Executives at Fortune 500 companies self-identify as having been tomboys having played Sports. We learn great things about this thing called team and the Arts not kid ourselves organizations from from Corporate America to schools and colleges are modeled to be reflections of sport teams. If you want to know the rules if you wanted to get ahead if you want to know the language if you want to know how it what what's the most important thing in this cultural milieu, you have to understand sport. So today is remarks on Spore or in that context there in the context of realizing that this is not fun any games. This is important stuff for girls in Beloit. We are we are living right now to very special time. I am very frankly having grown up in the 50s and the 60s. I never thought that I would see the day when Would have a professional to women's professional basketball leagues when we would have a women's Pro fastpitch softball league when were talking about launching next for both the women's professional ice hockey league. And after the 1999 Women's World Cup here in the US launching women's professional soccer league. I never dream that if someone told me even five years ago that the majority of people watching the Summer Olympic Games in 1996 would be women at 65% female audience. I would have never believed that I would have never believed that ice hockey would be in the Olympics or softball or soccer and that we would be winning gold medals. This is truly an extraordinary time for women and I think we have to put it all in perspective. You look at 25 years ago. How many of you were born after after 1970? This is good good group. I talk to I talked to college groups and it makes me nervous when all the hands go up. So I really appreciate the fact that there are very few, but I'm talking to those of you who raised your hand. You may not realize this but before 1970 women were limited to three professions. You could be a teacher. You could be a nurse you could be a social worker. And that was it. There were quotas on the number of women who were allowed were accepted into Medical School law school veterinarian school. You literally were for closed from pursuing your career dreams in so many activities simply because of your gender and fortunately that is not true prior to 1970 girls really weren't allowed to play sports in so many so many institutions educational institutions in outside amateur Sport, and if you looked at what The Stereotype of The Americans Where was prior to 1970? I think you could say with accuracy that the ideal American woman was described as an object. She was a decorative object to it. She was a sex object. She was a caretaker. She was not utilitarian. She was not a door. She was a hundred and eighty degrees from our concept today of an active woman. She was not looked upon nicely. If she was competitive if she was aggressive if she physically used her body and any strength activity and if if Title 9 has done anything for the American female, it is probably this that it has opened up a major cultural change in this Continuum of options of human Pursuit that women are now allowed to do at one end is this decorative objects sex object object in if you want to play that game if you want to be a real Playboy bunny, My guess but at the other end is the Olympic gold medalist athlete the professional athlete the rugby player the girl that wants to wrestle or plays play football. The ideal woman is no longer Twiggy a champion athlete has become an icon for Corporate America has shown, you know, people what the possibilities are in the use of your body and to live in this time. When this Continuum is open to our daughters has to make all of us feel good. Especially those of us who knew deep down when we were growing up that we were not allowed to play. We were not allowed to have those choices. That's not saying that every woman should be Jackie Joyner-Kersee Every Woman must play Ice Hockey, but it is saying that I should be able to play place my ex in life anywhere along this Continuum that I want to according to my skills. My ability my interest and indeed that's what Title Nine is all about. So this is a good time for women and it is especially good time for women in a capitalist society. And I look at the United States as leading the charge in terms of what's going to happen very quickly over the rest of the world. One of the things that Corporate America has discovered is the very simple fact that the nature of the consumer has changed and that consumers primarily a female 80% of all purchased product purchasing decisions are made by women corporations want their consumers to know that they think well of them, I used to laugh when what five five years ago every ad that you saw that was meant to appeal to women portrayed women in three different ways in a 30 second commercial. But you saw a woman as mother as running to work with a briefcase in her hand and playing beach volleyball. It was almost the formula the formula to make sure that I captured every woman and and companies are still advertising agencies are still a little schizophrenic in terms of not knowing how to catch this woman that is sitting on this continue on not knowing where she is anymore. They know she's not over here as a sex object a decorative object. They're not going to make that mistake. They also know she hasn't gotten to hear yet. She's somewhere and they're trying to grab images that appeal to the greatest number of women, but it's it's important to realize that leading this this advertising imagery supporting choices active choices for women is Corporate America who recognizes that females. Have genetic superiority over mounts. I didn't I didn't finish the sentence when it when it comes to the shopping Gene little little sex is on there. But it's it's it's true Corporate America is now going after the active woman in three riesbeck's Corporate America is going after her as a an actually as a fitness physical activity bought Sporting Good manufacturers who never made a glove for a woman who never made a bat for a woman who never made shoes up until 12 years ago that would fit well who women's feet are now producing products and appealing to that woman. They've realized that the men's Market is saturated that like oil saturated markets. It's kind of leveled off its going to decline and guess what they have. No paid no attention at all to a market that is just as big just as lucrative is virtually on Tapped it is uncluttered. It is cost-effective in terms of the advertising by and they're going after the women's sports Market is where the internet was five years ago. Everybody realizes that this is where we have to play but no one's figured out how to do it yet because they haven't figured out where this woman is on this Continuum. So it's an exciting time in that regard and Corporate America, especially this works product Industries are really realizing that women buy this proportional to their participation in sport example, only 20% of all female golfers are women only 20% but they buy 50% of all product with the exception with the exception of clubs if you only have one set of clubs and golf I play with men all the time and it amazes me that one pair of golf shoes, which is at least five or six years old. They wear the same pair of golf pants. They change their shirts because they get free shirts were all the charity tournament. So they participate in You know where women because we grew up in a culture where we were decorative objects. You think much more of our appearances. And yes, we do by Morgan. We own two or three pairs of shoes in your shoes have to match her outfit and God forbid. God forbid. We have to wear the same outfit this in the same round of golf at any week in time. So you can see that this the Sporting Goods industry that Corporate America is embracing this active woman and that is fueling more opportunities for women in sport. We also know that women are being sought as consumers of Men Sport the NFL Major League Baseball the National Hockey League, all of them have special divisions that are going after the female spectator of men's sport and why not women have now grown up loving sport understanding sport been just as passionate about sport as their male counterparts and guess what their fans there 35 45% of the in Arena and television viewing audience is of all men's professional leagues. They're great consumers of licensed products of merchandise for themselves and for their families. So everything's professional league is after this new active female spectator consumer, and now we have a generation 2 of males and females who are The Spectators of women's sports and these people are Fascinating People. There are their mom and dad first generation of mothers and fathers who grew up believing that it was okay for their daughters to play sports the astronauts to be doctors to be lawyers and they're excited about their daughter playing it's composed of them and their young family seeking good family values bass sport. They're sick and tired of professional teams where somebody's getting paid $20. You are arrogant her getting picked up for abusing their wives That's not what we want to see in our sport Heroes and women have created this new appreciative sport hero phenomena that the American public is embracing and families want to bring their children male and female to be a part of this value environment Grandma and Grandpa are also part of this group that is watching the spectating for women's sports because it's the first generation of grandmothers and grandfathers who grew up believing that their daughters granddaughters could play sports at taking her to soccer camp. They're taking her to her ice hockey camps. It's a special time. It is economically being supported women's sports being economically support it in our culture. It is being supported in terms of the values of our families. It is being supported by law. The public has become more sophisticated about Dial nine. It will not allow the football coach to pit a woman's Athletics program against football. It recognizes that the issue is you can't force me to choose between my son and my daughter. I am a member of the taxpaying public. I pay tuition and I want all options open to my children. It's an issue of social justice, you know, we're right there at the time when it's happening and I never never thought that we would be here today. So it's a good time for all of us for all of you who want to play professional baseball for Minneapolis or the or the Yankees, you know, we can continue our dreams and then sleep. Well knowing that maybe one day one of her daughters will be able to do that. But let me ask whether you'd want some questions and answers at this point or questions and answers We'd like to reminder Minnesota Public Radio audience that you were listening to the st. Catharines Forum on women in leadership featuring Donna lopiano on the changing world of women in sport. Miss. Lopiano now will take question. Hello, my name is Teresa hennes. I'm an alarm of Saint Katherine. I noticed in your bio that you are actively involved in more than actively involved. I think in the women's sports Foundation. Could you tell us a little bit about its Mission its Charter and what it hopes to accomplish and changing the the culture for women in sports not mentioning. It women's sports Foundation Title. Nine is about 25 years old. It was started in 1974 by Billie Jean King who was the first female athlete entrepreneur of her day. She started it with a $5,000 purse from a Gillette Cavalcade of sports tennis event. And that was a significant donation Billy at the top of her career never made more than $100,000 a year, but we do for thanks. We do education of dance over a hundred thousand increase a year from members of the general public. We do grants week of anywhere from a half million 2 million dollars a year and girls Sports grants. they also do advocacy and 800 number that any parent can call to see if their daughter is being treated fairly and we do Awards programs could because we believe that the media has not fulfilled its promise in terms of treating male and female athletes are equally and making the public aware of the achievements of women in sport where a 501 c 3 nonprofit and we exist because of people like you Hi, my name is Amy Tysons and I work in the international programs office at the College of Saint Katherine. And I'm wondering if you could comment further on the portrayal of high-profile women athletes in the media in terms of sort of in my personal opinion. It seems like they're Often overshadowed by the fact of their mother. It's it's they don't get full credit for being a strong athlete. So could you, please yes, it's an interesting time to people who are doing the advertising programs. Even the heads of professional leagues are are still a what I call a dinosaur generation hear the 40 to 55 or 60 year old male who grew up being told that in a women shouldn't be allowed to play that they're still the ideal woman is feminine. So it doesn't surprise me that advertising has not kept up with what is the authentic and real Grassroots image of the American athlete and so you see what the WNBA for instance That they select Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo and portray them as beautiful woman who are heterosexual God forbid that the negative stereotype are the allegation of lesbian should be placed on a female athlete anymore. That was a weapon that was used to keep the girls away from sports for many years. And so what you're seeing is the remnants of this decorative object, you know, this narrow view of women being brought to women's sports in an effort to make it palatable to a greater number of people in the public because there were still dinosaurs out there because my family is 40 and under aren't the only people out there. So it is it's it's a an intentional act. It's a strategic act to peel to the broadest possible audience and I think by your your question that somehow It's an insult to you to be portrayed in such a limiting way still makes me very angry that you pick up the sports pages. And before you get to the achievement of the female athlete you've learned that she just recently got married or she's just had her first child 6 months ago and lo and behold my God. She's playing again. I'm Cathy Stevens a sister of st. Joseph and I work in campus ministry at the College of Saint Katherine. The question that I have is is sort of the same but in lots of different categories it has to do with I'm interested in your comments on the relationship between competition and enjoyment the idea of when you need to wear the uniform and when do you play The Sandlot? When do women stop buying things and just enjoy sports and then an aging thing what age do you start teams? And what do women do when they're not as interested in being in teams? What sorts of things are available for? I stay right there because I'm not going to remember all those but it's a very good series of questions. I think it's I think your first one in terms of competition and enjoyment and there is not in a dichotomy between competition and enjoyment. We all know that the primary reason why you stay playing sports is because it's fun and I don't care if you ask a six-year-old or talk to a forty-year-old the moment seizes becoming fun you leave Sport and one of the things we also know is that there is skill is related to front it is no fun. If you strike out three times in a row. It's no fun. If you go to kick the ball in your missing you fall on your rent. So it's important to not be telling girls that I'm so happy. You're playing sports. You're with your friends. It's just to have fun. It's important to take your daughter in the backyard. Like if taking your son in the backyard and you play one-on-one and you make sure there's a lot of repetition and that they learn a skill so that they enjoy sport that they're confident addict competition is not inherently bad we compete from the I'm at work were aware of ourselves in the world. I could I compete with you when I look at you by I Define Myself by the finding myself as taller stronger. My hair is a nicer texture or a nicer color comparison at an early age becomes competition and competition terms of wanting to be good while going to be better wanting to measure Yourself by a previous best is a very healthy growing feeling and most competitors. Look at their especially women competitors. Look at their fellow competitors not as enemies not have someone that I can perpetrate violence against and must went they look at their fellow competitors as or sister competitors as people who helped them become better. The imagery that I Love About Women sport is in a following Wimbleton or the US Open Steffi grass graph and Monica seles in Racing at the net or the relationship between an Evert and Billie Jean King or Martina Navratilova that you knew that they competed against each other, but they were never friends and it's important to teach that to her children. I think one of the things that women are going to do is they're bringing their values to sport which is been previously male and I think we're going to challenge the values of contact hockey. Is it really necessary to throw the puck, you know down the ice and kill somebody before you call it when you know the score a goal or is it the beauty of skating the school of sport that we appreciate most in ice hockey women are going to be asking those questions in the public is going to have to respond and sport is going to be better for it your question in terms of how early did you get involved in sports in a how late can you stay in it? We get calls like this all the time and answer is that there are a hundred different sports out there a hundred. Find sports there's one out there for you for your body type for your interest for making you feel good. No matter what what your skill level there is one out there that you're going to feel confident at that you're going to enjoy and the task in your life is discovering that sport. So I say to parents at an early age do not get kids focused on a single sport do not give them the broadest variety of sport experiences. You can let them discover what's meaningful to them as opposed to you know, what Dad or Mom think they're going to be good at late in life. You have to do the same thing. There are great opportunities for all of us who are 40 + 50 + 60 + 70 and 80 years old in sports. You can be a kayaker a quiet water. That kayaker with no numbers on streams, but there is a sport out there that is beautiful and something that you can identify with and that that is our challenge in life. The third piece that I wanted and I thought was related was it had to do with the wearing of uniforms and I was thinking of it in relation to competition and enjoyment but then put those pieces together, but do women need to be the market focus in the way that you described it is there I mean can we get ourselves out of that? Can we enjoy it without being what companies look at? Is there money makers? I mean, it's a lot like the argument how you try to tell some athletes try to tell us that you know, they're not Role Models will guess what you are you're in the public purview and what do you like it or not? You are and all of us here live in a capitalist Society. You are all consumers. We are going to be sought after by Corporate America and that's not bad. I mean what is driving this renewed interest in women's sports is That there is an economic value to it. And sometimes it's the outcome the end product that's important. How you get there? And I don't think you should be upset about that really don't. Hi, my name is Alan Peterson. And I must do nuts in Catherine's and I'm also not like their I was just wondering what female students athletes no can do to continue your progress and the support of women's sports. The number one thing that any student-athlete can do and all of you is to give back one or two levels down. I think every sport team every at the club level at the the College of Eagle Heights High School. College then your team has to say every year. I'm going to do three clinics a year. I'm going to go down to my closest high schools or junior high schools. And I'm going to make a bunch of girls excited about sports. You know, what other sport teams come to my event. I'm going to make sure I talk to those kids that I sign autographs that I tell him how wonderful it is to play. I'm going to be encouraging just like all of you out here have to determine what acts are comfortable for you to encourage girls to play girls are still dropping out of sport at a rate that is 6 times greater than boys by the age of 14 and they're doing that because they get to this puberty thing. Where are in boys and girls don't talk nice to each other and they're confronted with girlfriends who say Wait, I know you scored 25 points at the game last night, but I have more boyfriends or a boyfriend who comes up and I don't know if I like girls who have muscle and if we haven't done if we haven't done our part at a very early age of taking the other side of the balance sheet and making sure that she knows it's okay for her to play then she's in trouble at that point. And how do we say these things? We say these things when she's 1 year old or she's 2 years old and we give her a gift now is her brother getting a ball and glove. And is she getting Barbie? And what does that child think before she can even speak that it's that Mommy and Daddy thinks that her brother can play sports but they don't think I can does she think I'll maybe girls aren't supposed to play with boys with balls and them so it's important that you give her the dog. Do you make sure she gets the ball in the glove to and you make sure that the Donald speed isn't are permanently deformed to only wear high heels and that there are varied body Images. She can see I'm a Barbie is getting better or knees are now bending the the WNBA Barbie doll will have Barbie whose knees Bend and but it's still devastating that the first flat-footed Barbie came out only two and a half years ago Barbie the gymnast. Someone realize that it was really hard to be on a 4 inch balance beam in arm on high heels. Took a while to go out. Hi Tracy, Mead College of Saint Katherine. I'm just curious as to how you feel. But also what are the sport institutional repercussions of what happened at UConn was the coach permitting an injured senior to play a game so that she could break a school-record and the kind of finagling that he had to do with the other team's coach. I personally was quite disappointed but I didn't hear that as a common feeling and I don't associate that with necessarily women's values as being brought into Sport and I was just anterior cruciate injury that answer that ended her career prematurely one or two games late. She was only within two points of her her school scoring record and at the last game of the season. Coach with the full support of his athletic director and the conference commissioner and the coach of the opposite team set up a situation where she took a shot made a 2-point shot without the shop being contested that there was a time out called and did not come out of the Huddle in time to prevent another two point shot for the opposite team that made it to two two and then the game started playing so it was an artificial manufacturing of a record and the answer is this is right now it is absolutely wrong. This was a terrible decision on the part of the athletic director in the conference commissioner. Where were they there in left field and never would have done that if it was a male athlete it is it is wrong. It was wrong on three counts people don't realize is a player have to be told to lie in order for that to occur. You supposed to turn in your lineup 5 minutes before The start of the game so nikisha had to take the place of player who was told to tell the official she was feeling ill so I can justify lying what can justify suspending the rules of the game changing them and creating an uneven playing field and what can justify a double standard being applied to the female athlete what are her records less important than that. I was a bad decision all the way around is unethical. Polaris speaking as a father of a couple of a high school and college daughters. How do you go about getting the people who are now in college who are now just out of college the Title Nine generation. How do you encourage any more active in coaching teams? I know we have a real hard time getting young women to coach our Junior Olympic volleyball team is Frances and all through High School. My daughter is a bad men coaches the main role models and some of them don't role model exactly the kind of things that I might like to see my daughters do a couple of factors at play. We're still teaching women that they have to be quote-unquote qualified in order to apply for job to coach to do things women think they need a degree or somebody else to tell them that there that there are eligible to go after a coaching job where any man who's ever played in a mural basketball thinks. He's a coach and and in this is a function of generations of women not being brought up like generations of boys in the support structure. I remember looking at my nephew playing t-ball for the first time and he was a shortstop and he goes up to the coach and he says I want to be a second basement and the coach looks at him and you would think women probably would think you would say well if you come after every practice if you come and we all hit you a hundred balls at shortstop and after 1000 balls, maybe you can play shorts women would think that that's what would happen. It's not what happens the coach says you're in the School of Hard Knocks, you're playing second tomorrow. I know you can do it and it's trial and error go to and women aren't getting those messages in our society. So we have to be telling women that it's okay to coach. I'd firmly believe that were right now seeing the first generation of women coming through the system who are about to be Rabbit mom coaches and they're following you. They're following father for this reason. Dad had the Sports Experience. And this is a father like movement up until this point. No question. This is his dad LED movement first generation of women who got the chance to play where the late 70s. She didn't get married until she was Thirty but she have children until she's Thirty her child is now 456 if you just look at it over a Continuum and she's just starting to go back into coaching now, so don't worry. She's coming and she's she's going to be very rabbit about it too. But you have to encourage it to tell women that you can if you played you can My name is Aaron George and I'm a staff member the College of Saint Catherine and thinking about the Continuum that you just mentioned as far as women being everything from a Playboy bunny to a professional athlete. How do you respond to the very strong stereotype of a publication like Sports Illustrated continuing to have an annual swimsuit issue featuring supermodels in very scanty outfits. I respond just like you're responding and it's it's sexist. It is absolutely not a part of their business. They know that this isn't an issue of Sports Illustrated. They're creating a Playboy for men around the swimsuit excuse. So, you know, I say the same thing as you do to him, it's terrible but makes so much money. They continue to put it on the market. It's not fun. Hi, I'm Joanna. I'm a coach at st. Catharines and I'm also a research fellow at the Tucker Center for research on girls and women sport earlier. You addressed a question concerning the portrayal of female athletes in the media and I was wondering if you could provide some practical suggestions to how we as consumers can encourage the media to represent us as athletes and less as you know, feminine with your mother and most writers write the way they do and portray women in in ways that don't appear appropriate for for female athletes IE not the same way as they portray male athletes not because it's intentionally done but it's a it's a product of their culture how they were brought up and it's like anything else. You have to call their card. It's like if someone makes racist statement if if someone makes a sexist statement unless you say this is wrong, then it doesn't change. You don't have to say wrong in a very nasty way and just point out and say I'm personally offended and I don't think of public newspaper should create a double standard for women in terms of how they recovered. I had a situation like this just occur where my advocacy intern at the University picked up the Los Angeles Times. I was looking for the score of the Harvard game. She was a Harvard basketball player and there was basketball in the Agate set section basketball and then two pages over in a little corner was women's basketball. So a gender modifier used for basketball when it applied to women but not for men and she wrote a letter to the editor editor and he wrote back and he said I didn't realize that this was being done in our Agate set section and it won't happen again. So I and I really do think you just called the card and you continually call. Somebody's card when that happens. Hi, my name is Lois Joseph and my daughter is graduating college of Saint Catherine's and I own a business and I was a tomboy and have made wonderful and great strides in the professional field of sports. The LPGA. Now we have the WNBA and we'll hopefully have a woman's professional hockey team. How do you feel about the inequity in the financial purses of these Sports? And what can we do as women Spectators and consumers to Advocate equal and share prices for these types of activities that I used to be that the women don't get as many Spectators TV ratings are different there all kinds of excuses about why in women weren't getting equal purses and JC Penny came in. The LPGA Skins game and decided that my primary consumer is female and if the purse for this event is less than the men's skin. Scam what I'm saying in my consumer is I don't value her is as much as men immediately. The purse goes up Evian did the same thing with the women's beach volleyball tour equalizer purses for men and women. So I'm hopeful because I think who's going to do the equalizing are not the promoters are not the Pete the dinosaurs were running those women's leagues but corporate sponsors who are going to see that there's a corporate image risk of being associated with an event that doesn't treat women equally so the answer to your question specifically as you write to the corporate sponsor and you say hey, do you know about this and is there some way that you can make your feelings known about the importance of women compared to men? Hi, my name is Nelly Rios freund and I'm assistant director of Multicultural programs at the College of Saint Catherine. My question is can you comment on the participation of minority women in the professional sports as well as their portrayal in the media? There is no question that racism and Sport segregation continues in both men's and women's sports. It is a crime that men of color are still relegated to track football basketball that women of color are still segregated into two or three young Sports and that we're not making more, you know, if permitted efforts to make sure that all sport is available to all women and I think it's again it's calling somebody's card or as a college student making sure that I take my what maybe a lily-white sport down to A junior high school group that may never be exposed to that Sport and I encouraged them to play my sport women of color in sport are under Double Jeopardy. They appear in half the numbers compared to women in general white woman specifically participation numbers terms of management positions in terms of coaching positions, and you know, it's all of our responsibilities to make sure that changes My name is Laura levander, and I I helped out with a group of 9th graders over on the east side of Saint Paul softball team. And I'm just wondering what are three sentences that you would say to These Girls when there is there so good at sports but yet there's drugs and alcohol and sex and boys competing with sports as well. So what are just three sentences or so of encouragement? Will you have a double responsibility here? And then the first one I think is to keep them involved in sport. We know whether it's teen pregnancy drugs smoking alcohol abuse any risky behaviors girls and boys who play sports usually engage in those risky behaviors to a limited extent alcohol made one exception there and it's for simple reason. I mean, if you're involved in sports you're too tired to do this stuff and you're not available. You're not available to those who would have you do that stuff during the at-risk hours after school. So Sports is like a good gang two types of good gay bad gang games look for ways to occupy their time and lots of time risky behaviors are those choices. We're good gangs are ones that play sports occupy their I'm in non risky behaviors, but we also have a responsibility to use this captive audience situation to educate young girls. All of you were coaching all of your parents have a responsibility to make your values and your feelings known to youngsters that good ball players. Don't smoke. No good ball players make responsible choices a good ball players do this and those are strong affirmative statements value statement that we have to express we can expect that. They're going to get those from other places. We are key influencers. This will be our last question. Hello, my name is Chris Smith and I've gotten involved with golf and swimming and love to watch ice hockey and I'm happy to see my children active in things because I look around in our culture. I see almost a religion of sports worship and we're building the temples to bigger and better sports activities. I see my cousin's spending their Sunday's going to Volcom the league competitive thing. I just like your comments on that there are dangers. I mean, there are extremes to every human activity in America. We have seen the pendulum swing toward Elite Sport. We've see instead of mass participation sport. We seen kids pushed into especially young boys into the three Macho sports baseball basketball and football ice hockey in the north and in a weed it out so that you're there edifices built to contain the games of only those who are the very best. And we have to recognize that is a danger and we can't do those things at the expense of Grassroots Mass participation sport at the expense of Park and Recreation programs. Ultimately all these things are in our control. Somebody wants to build a stadium with your public tax money. Then maybe the condition is that there is a commitment to expanding park and rec programs for little kids don't we all have these responsibilities and choices to make and you you've said it. I mean the the way you phrase your question makes it obvious to all of us that you know, what the right direction is. We have to make it happen. Donna lopiano who is the executive director of the women's sports Foundation speaking today on the changing world of women in sports. He spoke today at the College of Saint Catherine's Forum on women and Leadership the presentation today at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Saint Paul. Hope you had a champion herself in the world of sport to participating in 26 national championships for different sports nine-time All-American at four different the positions in softball played on Six National Championship team. She was a member of the National Sports Hall of Fame National Softball Hall of Fame the women's Texas Women's Hall of Fame and has been traveling the country in recent years speaking out on equality in gender equality in sports. She's been listed as one of the nation's 100 most influential people in sports 50 most into people in college sports Donna. Lopiano speaking today at the College of st. Catharines Forum on women leader in women leadership. Well, we're going to be rebroadcasting the speech at 9 tonight in case you missed part of it would simply like to hear her comments again rebroadcast at 9 this evening here on our midday program. Programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by the Pillsbury company Foundation caring for the community by giving kids a loving lift tomorrow in her mid day program. We're going to hear from Ray Suarez course regular listeners to the station know that Suarez is the host of Talk of the Nation, which is a matter fact. We coming up here momentarily just a couple of minutes on Minnesota Public Radio Ray was in town earlier this month to speak at a meeting of the association for women in Communications and talked about the news media and how the news media affect our perception of reality. And in fact in many instances, according to Ray Suarez distort our perception of reality more importantly. Mr. Suarez talks about what you as a news consumer can and should do to try to straighten out the sins of the media will be able to hear from Ray Suarez tomorrow. Over the noon hour the second hour of our midday program and I hope you'll be able to tune in as we say that does it for midday today, and I hope you'll be able to join us tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in. Reserve your spot today for Minnesota Public Radio 10-day European tour beginning October 21st, visit historic Prague Vienna and Budapest for reservations. Call one 800-228-7123 You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. We have a sunny Sky. It's up to 84 degrees at Kendra W FM 91.1 Minneapolis. And st. Paul sunny windy and warm all afternoon the temperature I should hit the upper eighties yet today tonight 40% chance for a shower or thunderstorm and a 40% chance for showers and thunder showers tomorrow.