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Women’s sports and the athletes who play them have always encountered obstacles and faced barriers. The metaphorical and literal history books of women playing professional and collegiate sports are filled with dog-eared pages that reference and celebrate those who have had the audacity to identify what is and isn’t fair, to ask for more, and to demand what they know is right.
Though the protracted WNBA CBA negotiations might be frustrating to fans who just want to know there will definitely be a season this year, the fight the players are waging is an important one. Anytime a group of women stand up together, united and strong, it’s a reminder of just how far women have collectively come — and how far we have to go.
Women’s sports history is filled with incredible stories
The players of the WNBA are carrying a lineage of activism and resistance that has been part of women’s sports since they began. It’s difficult to imagine now, but it hasn’t always been easy for women to even seriously play sports, even though there’s plenty of evidence we’ve been doing exactly that for centuries.
The Nineteenth Amendment, passed as a result of the women’s suffragist movement, also included guarantees for girls and women who were playing sports. Each wave of feminism has defended those rights, and ultimately, the passage of Title IX in 1972 cemented gains that had been fought for over decades.
Title IX is a crucial piece of history that is easy to overlook in this hyper-digital age. The landmark legislation, which is always under potential threat, leveled the playing field — or, at least, it made things a lot closer to level. Before Title IX, women were often allowed to play intramural sports with their classmates, but the idea of a women’s collegiate team traveling to play a team from a different institution was unheard of until Smith College introduced intercollegiate sports in 1892.
Women have been changing sports for decades
Like the players of the WNBA, there have been plenty of women who dug in their heels and insisted on change. Babe Didrikson Zaharias, the first woman to play in a PGA event, is one of five women — total — who have played in the league. Toni Stone, who many referred to as the “female Jackie Robinson,” was the first woman to play professional baseball.
Many sports fans know the story of Billie Jean King, the tennis legend who has spent most of her career tirelessly advocating for the advancement of women in tennis and in sports in general. Nancy Lieberman was the first woman to play in a men’s pro basketball league; Venus and Serena Williams blasted apart barriers in the way of Black girls who wanted to play tennis, and did so magnificently.
Those are individual stories that have had a larger impact on the wider women’s sports community, but there are plenty of examples of groups fighting for change, too. The U.S. Women’s National Soccer team famously demanded equity with their male counterparts (and won); the NWSL has been one of the strongest and loudest supporters of the WNBPA’s current labor fight.
The players of the WNBA have made it clear, over and over again, that this fight is for themselves, but that it’s also for future generations of basketball players, and it’s being fought in honor of all of those who came before them. It’s tough to sit around and wait for an agreement to be signed, but it will be worth it — and it’s very likely we’ll look back on this moment as one that changed the game and made conditions better for everyone (the league, the players, the fans — all of us).
