After defeating the Minnesota Lynx, the 2021 Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) winning team, the Chicago Sky celebrated 50 years of educational equality for women and girls and 50 years of giving them opportunities to participate more fully in the U.S -Enable society to develop their talents and skills so that they can use their talents for the benefit of the nation as a whole.
They did so by celebrating the passage of landmark Title IX legislation in 1972 with a post-game panel discussion attended by two-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Candace Parker, Chairwoman and Heaven’s minority owner, Margaret Stender, Mayor of Chicago, Lori, Lightfoot and Doug Bruno, longtime women’s basketball coach at DePaul University. They all discussed in a concrete and material way the impact of Title IX on women, in particular by opening up opportunities for them to play sport at school and the benefits this has for a democratic society at large.
But in case you don’t know, let’s start with what Title IX is.
About fifty years ago, on June 23, 1972, Title IX of the Federal Education Amendments of 1972, part of the Civil Rights Act, was enacted. It states: “No one in the United States shall be disqualified, denied, or discriminated against on the basis of gender from participation in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding.”
Title IX, one might argue, and the institution of equality and non-discrimination as a whole form important cultural and political traditions, even definitive ones, in American history.
Equality and the right not to be discriminated against is not a core value that Americans value or profess to value, even if it is not historically embodied in the nation’s cultural and social practices or always expressed and enforced in its laws became? ?
Yes, it wasn’t until 1972 that women and girls in this land of the free and home of the brave were given equal education. But that span of time basically represents two generations of women in America affected by this legislation.
The United States Supreme Court agrees, of course, as illustrated in Judge Samuel Alito’s recent majority opinion on the overthrow of Roe v. Wade clearly failed to see that five decades of legal clout and influence in the lives of Americans accompanying these laws and their value were fundamentally rooted in the history and traditions of the nation.
The original Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade arrived in January 1973, just six months after Title IX was passed, and did much to advance women’s rights and equality before the law by giving women the right and opportunity to take control of their own bodies and make decisions about their own health, particularly their reproductive health.
Roe v Wade didn’t quite make it to fifty like Title IX did, which is why this panel was so important in educating and highlighting the audience on the history and benefits of this legislation for women and American society at large.
While the Title IX celebration was certainly planned before the release of the Supreme Court’s decision overthrowing Roe v Wade, the Supreme Court’s decision nonetheless influenced discussion of the important legislation that advanced women on the basketball court, among other things.
Margaret Stender, the founding President and CEO of Chicago Sky, particularly highlighted the contrasting context of Alitos and the Supreme Court’s attack on the very rights and opportunities for women Sky was celebrating that night.
And all panelists, but especially Parker and Stender, emphasized the importance of the WNBA as an important and powerful social force for civil, human and democratic rights in American culture and society.
As I recently wrote after attending a Sky game where the organization was celebrating June 16, the WNBA, by its very existence, advances women’s and LGBTQ rights and acts as a powerful cultural and social counter-strike to white male supremacy and anti-democratic politics and values that are becoming dangerous and increasingly mainstream.
Stender emphasized how Sky and the League as a whole operate by and share their values, which are clearly the egalitarian values of democracy, which avoid attributing second-class citizenship status to any people or identity, whether it be is people of color, women or members of the LGBTQ community.
Walking through the Wintrust Arena, Sky’s home stadium, on match day, the presence of images and symbols abound in the arena itself and from the fans, which promote the dignity and worth of women, LGBTQ people and people of… Color affirm. It’s not about protest or controversy; it goes without saying; it models the everyday culture of the WNBA and the Chicago Sky, a culture that exemplifies democracy.
As I said in my previous article, at this moment when democracy seems so under attack and the forces of oppression and hatred are so powerful and surging, it is absolutely crucial to have models of democracy and humanity that actually exist , in which we see how civil and human rights come into effect.
As Candace Parker said, without Title IX, someone like her and her achievement would not have been possible because schools, including colleges and universities, must provide equal opportunities for women to participate in sports. Many schools didn’t even have girls’ and women’s sports teams before Title IX, and games certainly weren’t shown on ESPN.
And we should be able to see in the WNBA how giving equality before the law to all people helps us all.
We can see what a tremendous talent Parker is. So imagine what women, because of laws like Title IX, have been able to get the same support as men in developing their talent, and what support can and has contributed to our society.
While the Supreme Court progressed 50 years, represented by Roe v. Wade, we want to recognize, celebrate, and support the efforts that keep us moving forward—and the organizations like the WNBA and Chicago Sky that do it—and show us, in concrete and lived ways, the value of real democracy, and more democratic Culture as experienced in the WNBA.
Tim Libretti is Professor of American Literature and Culture at Chicago State University. A longtime progressive voice, he has published many scholarly and journalistic articles on culture, class, race, gender and politics, for which he has received awards from the Working Class Studies Association, the International Labor Communications Association, the National Federation of Press Women and the Illinois Woman’s Press association.
