by AAUW-NYS for our first county-wide promotion of NGWSD!
Updated: February 2, 2010
The 24th annual National Girls & Women In Sports Day will take place on February 3, 2010. The St. Lawrence County Branch invites you, your team, or organization to participate in the 2010 celebration of girls and women in sports.
National Girls & Women In Sports Day (NGWSD) is a special day for girls and women to celebrate their participation in sports and athletics.
When Title IX was enacted in 1971, 1 in 27 girls in high school participated in athletics. One in three girls participate in athletics in high school now! Women participated in only 13 of the 24 events of the 1984 Olympic Games; in Beijing in 2008, female athletes competed in 28 of the 32 Olympic events. There has been an explosion in the number of athletic opportunities open to women and girls of all ages and levels of ability.
"Stay Strong, Play On" is the theme for the 2010 National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD). NGWSD presents a prime opportunity to communicate to others what Title IX has accomplished and how many girls and women it truly helps.
The St. Lawrence County Branch of the American Association of University Women invites all area schools and colleges to commemorate National Girls & Women In Sports Day by encouraging all girls and young women to wear a T-shirt or jersey that identifies her participation in sports and athletics on February 3, 2010. From summer T-ball to youth soccer to figure skating to ice hockey to basketball to softball to lacrosse or other sports, celebrate the participation and accomplishments of your female athletes.
Download a 2010 NGWSD branch brochure with more information.
February 3, 2010: Join the Value U. Video staff for a How-to Do a Value U. Video at the downtown Snell Hall Theater at Clarkson University at 7 pm! The deadline to submit a video is extended to Feb. 26 for final showing on Feb. 28.
February 28: If you are a member of a girls or college women's sports team, take part in our 2010 NGWSD-Value U. Video Contest. Get all the details and submit your video by Feb. 26 on YouTube!
The 2010 Community Action Kit (1.9 MB) is designed to help you plan, organize, promote and host NGWSD activities. It will be made available only in an online publication format.
Submit photographs and newspaper stories about the athletic contributions of young women in your school to your local newspapers.
School and local libraries can create special displays of books which feature women athletes for the celebration. Hold a women's sports poster contest! You could ask young women athletes to read to younger students or come into elementary classrooms to talk about what participating in sports means to them. Turn the creative energy of your school loose to celebrate National Girls & Women In Sports Day on February 3, 2010.
On February 3, 2010, thousands of sports educators, coaches, athletic directors, recreation directors, association members, sponsors, students, and parents across the country will show their support of the Day and of this year's theme, "tay Strong, Play On" NGWSD is celebrated in all 50 states with community-based events, award ceremonies, and activities honoring the achievements and encouraging participation of girls and women in sports. Whether you are a new participant or a veteran, your support of the Day will go a long way to increase visibility for female athletes and advance their struggle for equality in sports.
For more information, contact St. Lawrence County Branch AAUW member Donna Seymour.
AAUW Releases Report on Title IX at 35
The National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, chaired by AAUW, hosted a congressional briefing on Wednesday to release their new report, Title IX at 35: Beyond the Headlines. The new report goes beyond the media headlines to discuss how Title IX has affected athletics, career and technical education, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education, employment, sexual harassment, and single-sex education in schools, and presents recommendations from the experts on how to reach equity in education. AAUW contributed the chapter on sexual harassment, and AAUW Director of Public Policy and Government Relations Lisa Maatz lead the briefing. The report can be downloaded from the website for the NCWGE. For more information on AAUW’s stance on Title IX, read our position papers.
ACTION: Several specific pieces of legislation that are affected by or have an effect on Title IX were discussed at the briefing, including the Higher Education Act reauthorization, the No Child Left Behind reauthorization, and legislation enforcing Title IX in high school athletics. AAUW encourages you to learn more about these pieces of legislation through resources on our website, and then use AAUW’s Two-Minute Activist online to make your voice heard on Capitol Hill.
- from AAUW's Washington Update for January 25, 2008.
January 30: A week of NGWSD events kicks off at Clarkson University on Sat., Jan., 30 with CU Golden Knight women's basketball 2:00 pm in the Alumni Gym vs. William Smith College. The afternoon concludes with the women's hockey at Cheel Arena against Cornell University at 4 pm. If a girl wears a jersey, she can get in to the women's hockey game for free. There will be various give-a-ways during the periods and games in between periods. There is also the popular "Skate with a Knight" after the game where kids can go on the ice and skate with their favorite golden Knight in honor of NGWSD.
February 2: The 24th annual celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day hosted by St. Lawrence University at Burkman Gymnasium. Registration begins at 5:30 pm, the event is from 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm - WEAR RED as a way of showing support for the Saints and recognizing the national event. It is held in conjunction with our Women’s Basketball Game vs. Clarkson on February 2nd, 2010 at 6 pm followed by our Women’s Hockey game vs. Clarkson at 7 pm. Please join us for a half-time celebration including contests for kids, giveaways, and a brief presentation followed by an autograph signing. Time Out Café, located in Newell Field House will be selling food and beverages during the event. View a poster of the details.
February 3: Join the Value U. Video staff for a How-to Do a Value U. Video at the downtown Snell Hall Theater at Clarkson University at 7 pm! The deadline to submit a video is extended to March 24.
February 5: On SUNY Potsdam's center court at Maxcy Hall, Bear Pride Night features the SUNY Potsdam Lady Bears vs. Buffalo State in women's basketball at 6 pm. Any girl wearing any sport jersey can get into the game free to watch the excitement. There will be lots of Bear Pride activities, including face painting and half-time shoot outs.
March 24: If you are a member of a girls or college women's sports team, take part in our 2010 NGWSD-Value U. Video Contest. Get all the details and submit your video on YouTube!
On June 23, 1972, Congress enacted Title IX of the Educational Amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It states, in part, that: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
Title IX applies to any educational program in an institution that receives any federal funds. This applies to the majority of schools in this country, elementary through university level. If educational institutions are found to be in violation of Title IX, they risk losing their Federal funding. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) of the Department of Education is the primary government office that enforces Title IX.
According to the specific regulations of Title IX, each school or entity receiving Federal funding must have a designated Title IX compliance officer to oversee efforts and investigate any complaints that are filed. This individuals contact information must be made known to all students and employees of the institution or organization. Do you know who your Title IX compliance officer is?
With no immediate intervention, one in three American children born in 2000 will contract Type II Diabetes and currently one in six girls today is obese or overweight.
Be a leader! National Girls and Women in Sports Day is a great time to practice your leadership skills. Have your team or class commit to doing one action a day for 10 consecutive days to change the world for sports girls following in their footsteps! Why 10? Because if a girl does not play sports by the time she is 10 years old,there 's less than a 10% chance she'll be playing when she's 25.
Sports Experience Contributes to Business Success
As women break through the glass ceiling, researchers are on the lookout for what these new leaders have in common. One emerging trait for these women is a background in athletics. Successful executive women interviewed say their experiences in sports helped them develop skills, strategies, and habits that contribute to success in business. Teamwork, discipline, leadership, perseverance, risk-taking, winning and losing, time management, and networking are all common elements for success in sports, business, and life.
82% of executive businesswomen played organized sports after elementary school according to the Oppenheimer report completed by the mutual fund company in 2002. Some examples:
Find out what sportswomen have been doing since 776 B.C.!!!!
You can be an Advocate for female athletes TODAY! Contact the sports directors for your regional and local newspapers:
Thanks to Mitzi Witchger for many of these suggestions.
Mitzi Witchger, nationally recognized authority on Title IX, is the founder of GREAT! Girls Really Expect A Team! As an advocate of equitable sports opportunities for girls and women, she works with athletes, parents, interested community members and administrators to address sports compliance issues in schools across the country. She is a contributor to Gender Equity in Athletics; serves on the national Women's Sports Foundation Advocacy Taskforce; and is a board member of the Indiana Citizens for Sports Equity. Witchger was spotlighted as a Newsmaker of '95 by the MN Women's Press, and was featured in Glamour magazine (May, '96) as a 'Mom Who Made a Difference'. As well as in Indiana and Minnesota, she has led workshops in Washington, DC, Chicago, Louisville, Boston, throughout upstate New York, and at Brown, Harvard, and Cornell.
"Equity is about splitting the sports pie so that both males and females are nourished. It is about empowering so that all may have an equitable shot at the prize of becoming an athlete and learning the life skills that participating in sports inherently teaches. After all, more and more girls are learning what boys have known for so long: Sports are about so much more than the score."
Read the remarks of Mitzi Witchger, GREAT! who was the keynoter for our Celebrating 35 Years of Change: Title IX & Girls' & Women's Sports event on March 5, 2007. Hear an audio interview with her on NCPR!