March Madness and Women's Collegiate Sports
March 29, 2018
This coming weekend is March Madness, the collegiate basketball championships, a good time to consider the social, policy, and bureaucratic issues that affect women in NCAA basketball. Watch researchers from NIOST and colleagues from the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) and Wellesley College, discuss wins, losses, and fouls in a recent lunchtime seminar.
Georgia Hall, executive director and senior research scientist at the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) and Lisette DeSouza, postdoctoral research scientist at NIOST, organized and facilitated the panel.
Laura McGeary ’19, a research intern at WCW and a member of the Wellesley basketball team, looked at the history of women’s basketball and early rules that emphasized “women shouldn’t overexert themselves.” She also explored the spread of talent among women's teams and how this compares to men's teams.
Laura Pappano, writer-in-residence at WCW and co-author of Playing With the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sport, spoke about the benefits--and limitations--of Title IX.
Bridget Belgiovine, director of athletics and chair of the Department of Physical Education, Recreation and Athletics at Wellesley, looked at leadership positions for women on women's sports teams and how this has changed since Title IX.
