Drop the female and just call us ‘athletes’
The joke in our family is that my dad always wanted a college basketball player. There was a brief stint where he thought he might still get that out of me but then I fell in love with softball.
I’d throw to him most evenings on our driveway, and my dad didn’t coach me any differently than he did my brother. He did not take it easy on me.
A neighbor who would watch our father-daughter training for years also happened to sit on our school board. One day, as I was getting ready to go into high school he told my dad, “I think our district has a Title IX issue.”
That was one of the first times I remember hearing about Title IX.
Every baseball team in our district had a baseball field at the school, but the same was not true for softball teams — most had to compete at a city park.
Our neighbor raised this issue with the school board and before I started high school my school built a field so we could play home games at home.
I was part of one of the first classes that got to play all our games at our home field.
I’m happy for those in my life who defended my Title IX rights for me, but in the next 50 years of Title IX I hope we’re not having to battle as much. I don’t want to be facing those same fights if I have children. Title IX is in place because females deserve equality. We put in the same amount of time or effort into being athletes as men or boys. The sooner we move beyond reiterating these basic points, the sooner we can start to focus on our next challenge:
supporting female professional athletes.
The fact that I even have to preface the phrase “professional athlete” with the word “female” is part of the problem I’m talking about. I’ve never thought of myself as a female athlete, but just as an athlete. I’ve trained as an athlete who wants to be the best at what she does. I just happen to be a she and not a he. What we do is not inferior to what the men do. So, let’s level the playing field.
Talented professional athletes — who happen to be women — shouldn’t have to work side gigs to support themselves just to play the game. This is a major hurdle we need to overcome in order to achieve equality in the next 50 years.
In my time in athletics, from youth to college and professional ball, there have been drastic steps taken. We are going in the right direction. But, Title IX doesn’t extend into the professional realm. Creating more equality throughout all levels of sport starts with the small acts — like ensuring high school girls have a home field to play
on. But it shouldn’t end there. Let’s extend what Title IX means into the professional realm. Let’s move beyond simply ensuring home-field advantage and insist on adequate compensation for talented female athletes who have devoted their lives to their craft.
Cat Osterman is an Olympic gold and two-time silver medalist in softball and national player of the year with the University of Texas. A Cypress Springs graduate, she also played professionally in the National Pro Fastpitch league.