She Breaks Barriers
- Gillian
- Mar 10, 2019
- 5 min read
She Breaks Barriers is the title of a video that sport brand Adidas posted on their social media that made me feel so incredibly strong. As a female athlete I think its easy for me to say my passion i through athletes that are female and their struggles in the past and in the present. One day I will work to empower, encourage and support female athletes on any and all levels. I am not sure exactly how I will get to that point but I know different stepping stones I can take. Right now I am taking a Women in Sport class for my SPAD major, and I absolutely love it. Every time I talk about it to a teammate or one of my parents, I can't help but light up. Everything I have learned about in that class has been applicable, relate able and knowledgeable. Learning abut the history of the development of female sports at Smith College with basketball to title nine, to female athletics in the media has gained my undivided attention. I feel like most female athletes in college probably find it somewhat interesting, just because they can relate to it well, but I am on a different level. I believe that every female athlete no matter what age or what level should constantly be empowered, and supported in any and all ways possible. Encouraging girls at a young age to play sport and that it does not matter what sport they want to play and that it does not matter what others tell them. A lot of this passion has peaked in the past few years upon entering college athletics, National girls and women in sport day, and National women's day having been recently (also saw Captain Marvel last night which adds to this as well). I grew up in a supportive family but I have definitely have had my fair share of doubts, discouragements and self esteem issues.
https://www.adidas.com/us/shebreaksbarriers
This Link above will take you to the Adidas website that encourages everyone to learn more and take action of some sort for women in sport. And below is the video for Adidas campaign of "She Breaks Barriers"
Now I don't know about you, but I get the goosebumps every time I watch this! I know there are several brands out there that I have posted videos like this (Nike, Puma etc.) but I just have to brag about Adidas because I think they do the best at it. This was not just one simple thing that Adidas posted on Instagram and left it. They continue to create content for an audience that is engaging and action worthy. If you look at all of their platforms, the movement slogan is in their bio, and they post multiple types of content (videos, pictures, links, and written messages) to emphasize the importance and meaning. No offense Nike and Puma, but I do not see this type of initiative and commitment to women sports or female athletes on your social accounts. In fact.... Adidas just announced something so special, that I actually came very close to crying because I was just so in awe.
Once again I have the goosebumps, because of how happy this makes me. I am so incredibly passionate about athlete development but even more passionate about Female athlete development. A dream job one day would to be to help with campaigns like this one day, whether it is more hype videos, actionable ideas like seen above, or content creation to help and continue to empower women. Now I am sure some people out there are thinking, yeah we get it is important but Gillian, why are you going so crazy over this? Allow me to show you some alarming statistics that might make you take a step back and say wow.
1. Before Title IX, women were 2% of the college students participating in sports
2. Women make up only 43% of college athletes
3. Although the law states that schools that violate Title IX will lose their federal funding, in thirty years no school has ever lost federal funding for not complying with Title IX.
4. Male college athletes receive 36% more scholarship dollars than female college athletes at NCAA institutions.
5. Women are 16.9% of the Athletic Directors, 44% of the head coaches of women's teams, 2% of the head coaches of men's teams, and 27.8% of the full time athletic trainers.
6. It is reported that women, compared to men, are less likely to remain in the field of sports information and are usually responsible for lower-profile sports, even when they are SIDs.
7. In 1996 the National Olympic Committees and International Sports Federations established a goal that at least 20% of the positions in all of their decision-making structures be held by women by December 2005. In 2008 the IOC had still failed to meet its goal of 20% female representation, only 14.5% of the members of the IOC were women and there has never been an IOC President.
8. Women's teams account for 37% of athletic program operating expenses
9. Less than 10% of sports media covers women’s sports and less than 2% of sports media covers women’s sports that are deemed masculine.
10. ESPN’s SportsCenter and three Los Angeles networks discovered that only 1.4% of SportsCenter’s coverage and 1.6% of the local networks’ coverage were of women’s sports, the lowest in at least 20 years
If this does not make your skin crawl I do not know what will. I genuinely do not understand. Why is it like this? We have had plenty of time to change this, and while I understand it is not something you can change over night, it could have been helped sooner. I could go on about other types of facts dealing with female sport reporters, or constant sexual harassment in the work place for women working in sport. The list goes on and on and again proves its not just about athletes, but also females in the sport industry. It is sickening and I demand a change. I realize there is not much I can do by myself right now while still in college participating in a sport that no one knows exists. But to tie this all back into this course, I always take it to social media. Whenever Adidas or Nike posts something on their social media platforms I am sure to share it with my audience to help my brand of empowering female athletes. I continue to post badass pictures of my team when we are in our grittiest at practice and do the most I can to spread my word and my beliefs. However, when I get up there in the world of college athletics and I am working for a team or college's social media accounts, you can bet I will be posting anything I can to inspire and empower female athletes. At the end of the day, all I want is for a female athlete to come up to me and go, " Because of you I kept going, because of you, you gave me the confidence of being the strongest athlete I can be". Like I said I have had plenty of doubts and discouragements from peers, coaches and extended family members (those stories are for another day), that I would hate for anyone to feel this way or get knocked down the way I did. Confidence rules the world and I want every female out there, female or not to have the confidence to rule the world.
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