Sunday the U.S. women’s soccer team won the FIFA World Cup. To discuss this historic win Margie McDonald, former UW women’s basketball coach, UW athletics hall of fame member and the writer’s grandmother, discussed the game, athletes as role models and how far the world needs to go for total gender equality both on and off the field.
“Anytime a women’s team can win it’s a big boost to all women’s sports because our culture is still trying to catch up,” McDonald said. “To fill up that stadium, to win that cup, to have all this publicity, even after it’s over… I think it was a huge impact on women’s sports.”
McDonald played at a unique time in women’s athletics history. She played basketball growing up when many women of her generation did not have the same opportunity.
“I got to play sports in high school that a lot of young women I got to coach right after Title IX didn’t get to play. It was one of those things that they didn’t get to play but they had that attitude,” she said. “They got it when they were seeing what kinds of things were available. I think that young people develop a passion and the drive and the ‘look everybody in the eye, I don’t care what you say’ kind of feeling.”
After high school McDonald won a scholarship to play for the legendary Wayland Baptist Flying Queens. After Title IX, a federal law that banned gender discrimination in all federally funded universities, she became the head coach at Wyoming, leading her team to an Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) tournament appearance in 1978-79 season.
Women’s athletics have come a long way since the pre-Title IX days, but some of the same challenges still persist from McDonald’s childhood.
Abby Wambach, all time highest men’s and women’s scorer and U.S. women’s team captain, earns $190,000. In contrast the U.S. men’s captain Clint Dempesy earns $6.7 million. The prize money for winning the women’s World Cup is $2 million compared to $576 million for the men, according to the Association of American University Women (AAUW).
“Women are paid less in almost every profession. I don’t know how we’re going to get there but we’re making progress. The sports arena has a long way to go but as long as we win women’s world cup we can get publicity for people like the Williams sisters, the Olympics, all those fans have impact on the next step,” McDonald said. “Make a social impact.”
Some bloggers feel a social impact is already emerging after the World Cup. Wambach kissed her wife in the stands during the post-game celebration in a photo that Alex Goldschmidt, and many others, re-tweeted with “look how far we’ve come” and #LoveWins after the June 27 Supreme Court ruling permitting same sex marriages nationwide. Carli Lloyd became the only player in history to score a hat trick in a women’s World Cup final. The US team was lead on to the podium by Lloyd but veteran players Wambach and Christie Rampone first held the cup.
“They’re in a position to make a difference for not just themselves but for the future. They have a major responsibility to get the word out,” McDonald said about athletes as role models for younger players and promoting social causes.
The amount of attention the women’s World Cup win has received has helped spread awareness for women’s athletics and helping close the gap between men and women athletes in McDonald’s point of view.
“Just keep on keeping on. We’ve come a long way. Would I say we’re half way through the race? Probably not. A lot of progress has to do with how the administrators and coaches for women’s sports have stood up,” McDonald said. “I look forward to seeing that progress because we’ve made so many steps forward in the last 70 years.”
