“Why would this man say anything disparaging about female tennis stars? Doesn’t he understand how important they are as role models?” That is what I first thought when I read Raymond Moore’s comments (Indian Wells Tennis CEO – MOORE RESIGNATION). Now, the planets have aligned and he has resigned. All of us no longer have to worry about his ignorant perspective on female athletes polluting our airwaves!!
Often, it is the poor behavior of leaders that allows us to pause for thought. In this instance I have to ask, “what does a leader owe the young people in their sport?” In my mind it is two-fold:
As the legendary basketball commentator Dick Vital once said, “A kid, a ball and a dream!”
To no one’s surprise, ties between sport participation and success in life are strong:
Anything that gets in the way of young women looking up to accomplished female athletes, as Mr. Moore’s comments did, is unacceptable. We need to be strategic in getting these amazing athletes out in front of young girls.
The UK has serious issues with role modeling for young women (great article here – ROLE MODEL – and it is cool to see a group called Girlguiding UK is taking action). The most common role models for young women in the UK are reality TV stars!! Or actresses. A handful of individual sport athletes come to mind when thinking about female role models in the UK, but certainly no team sport athletes.
The USA, thanks in part to amazing sport leaders, Title IX and a dynamic youth sport system, promotes their female role models in a highly effectively way. Today, in the states, if you love a sport you can find a female to model yourself after without much trouble – so we don’t need Mr. Moore taking us back in time and degrading the progress that has been made over the past few decades.
And business is playing a role as well…
In June 2014, Always launched the #LikeAGirl campaign with the purpose of overturning preconceptions around the phrase. Some of the statistics were remarkable. 90% of young girls feel pressure to conform to how girls “are supposed to feel and act.” They are twice as likely as boys to say they do not want to participate in certain physical activities at school. 84% felt there were negative consequences to the “boxes” that society put them in.
No science here, but I see some of this on the front lines. Over the past few years I have been fortunate to coach age-group girls basketball. These young ladies don’t feel they are allowed to “go for it” the way boys do. Whether it is related to physical contact or a fear of failing I don’t know for sure, but I do see the difference when compared to coaching young boys. Part of my mission with these young female athletes is to give them permission to be awesome. So, when the knucklehead spouts off about females having to be grateful for men, it doesn’t help.
I don’t want my daughter to feel she has roadblocks ahead of her because she is a girl. I do want her to be clear on what it will take to be good, if not great, but “I can’t, because…” is not a place I want to start.
The 13 year-old boy walking onto a tennis court dreams of Roger Federer. The 13 year-old girl should have the same feeling about emulating Serena. And we don’t need well-paid sports leaders getting in the way of this – ever!! Part of their mission is to prop up athletes who excel at their sport and life.
Mr. Moore, I am glad you have offered yourself up, but I would have paid $25 on-line to see you play Serena. She’d bring you to your knees…..
