Szto says NCAA hoops fiasco shows how sports still needs to put 'out fires here and there' regarding gender equity
The kind of conversations that Dr. Courtney Szto can have this week shows both where we are and where we are still not yet when it comes to gender and race in sport.
Szto, a North Delta native who’s an assistant professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., has studied it ferociously. Her doctoral research at Simon Fraser University focused on South Asian experiences in hockey, her Queen’s web page explains her research in part as looking into “how, when and where sport and/or physical cultures can be used to address issues of injustice.”
It was just over a year ago that a
policy paper for anti-racism in hockey
written by Szto, Dr. Sam McKegney, Michael Mahkwa Auksi and Bob Dawson was published. In conjunction with the milestone, the writing team hosted an
Anti-Racism Incubator for Hockey
online on Saturday and Szto was pleased with how it went, pegging it as “hopeful” and “moving in the right direction.”
The mood of this story changes here.
Last week it also came to light just how much better the
NCAA was treating men’s basketball teams compared with women’s hoop clubs
during their respective national tournaments. There was the video last Thursday from Oregon forward Sedona Prince that showed a generously stocked men’s weight room compared with one stack of dumbbells for the women. It has drawn over 17 million views on social media.
The NCAA quickly walked that all back. They promised to rectify the problem. By Saturday, Prince had a video up of a workout area for the women that was loaded with gear.
Let me put it on Twitter too cause this needs the attention pic.twitter.com/t0DWKL2YHR— Sedona Prince (@sedonaprince_) March 19, 2021
Social media is powerful. Thank you for all of y’all’s support pic.twitter.com/YR5ZNwywv6— Sedona Prince (@sedonaprince_) March 20, 2021
The weight room fiasco received most of the attention, but that was far from the only difference between how the players were treated. Both men’s and women’s players were given gift or “swag” bags. The men’s bags were more elaborate, with better branding. The also had more merchandise.
They had 500-piece puzzles. The women’s players had puzzles with 150 pieces.
There were also discrepancies with COVID-19 tests. Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma broke the news to reporters that his team was taking antigen tests while the men’s squads were getting the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, which has routinely been dubbed the “gold standard test.”
When NCAA president Mark Emmert
was asked by reporters about why the NCAA opted for different kinds of tests for the men and the women
, he explained the tests are “no different at all in terms of our ability to mitigate risk.” He didn’t elaborate past that. He likely couldn’t.
The NCAA has certainly had better moments.
“It’s all kind of embarrassing,” Szto interjected. “There’s no good excuse that you can come up with. Either they thought what they were putting out for the women was sufficient, which is obviously a problem. Or they thought the women aren’t going to complain or they would have no momentum behind the complaints. Whatever the reason, it’s all very poor form.
“I think the reality is that we have not genuinely embraced the need for gender equity in sports.”
We are taking steps. We’re having these conversations. It’s getting some traction. The connection that Prince’s social media posts had tell us that. The Washington Post was
reporting that Emmert on Tuesday had agreed to “an independent review” of what led to all this.
There’s still obviously much more to do. We’ve opened a door. As Szto explains it, “there’s not a lot on the other side of the door just yet.”
“There’s putting out fires here and there. It’s all patchwork still,” she continued.
It wouldn’t be surprising to see Szto help put together another incubator tied to this. It’s a term her group borrowed from business for events designed to promote growth by bringing together possible mentors, investors and other supporters.
Hockey Canada made a presentation over the weekend, Szto said. That’s a good step,
considering the policy paper was critical of the governing body
.
“It was a nice starting point of what needs to be a bigger movement,” she said of the incubator. “We’ve pulled some people to the table. We’ve gotten some attention. We’ve stopped the discussion about whether racism is a thing in hockey. We’re moved the needle past that.”
SEwen@postmedia.com
twitter:@SteveEwen ...
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