Women need to stand on their own two feet in sports but how do they do it?
First-define who we are? And QUALIFIER (for the haters) I am basing this on nothing more than my own experiences.
- We are nesters-what do I mean by this? We typically stay in one place for a long time. We don’t move very often even for $MONEY!
- We are community based and stay and develop relationships here.
- We are partnered or married.
- We love kids.
- We relate to people and are (usually) compassionate.
- We typically try to do the right thing for the good of the planet.
- We sacrifice for others typically our families.
- We take jobs that either are based in supporting our families, what we are used to, or that we love!
So the reason that we started United Womens Sports several years ago was to do something different. We wanted to think about women’s sports differently just be WOMEN! For the life of me I can’t figure out why we have to copy and be like men. If we could just accentuate our own tendencies, our own assets, our own levels of SANITY for God’s sake we could own the sports space (and life). It’s simple…in a world where everything is excessive, is somewhat mean spirited, is competitive beyond belief, and is sometimes referred to as SAVAGE…we have an opportunity here to rise above it all and be great. Let’s accentuate our assets as women. We are beautiful creatures–we are strong, we are thoughtful, we are a safe harbor in the sea of madness! Why can’t we be great in the sports world and just flat out do it differently? But how???
Now taking this all into account lets make a model that works for women.
Oh one more thought–the other question that I haven’t heard many people ask but when I bring it up they scratch their heads is: Why do women play sports that were specifically MADE for men?? The ball is bigger (and we did change it for women’s Basketball but the nets are still massively tall), the filed and or the arena is larger, the rules are either for men or are ridiculously meant for women (like the rules in women’s lacrosse –so we changed for the UWLX), I am sure there are more examples. Well I’ll tell you why. The obvious one is that women’s sports were an after thought and there is NO way we can develop a whole new playing field, sets of equipment, lines for the fields. That would cost money and we don’t want to spend it on women’s sports. Just as important–cause we never think outside the box-especially for sports. As women, that’s last on our list. We are figuring out life and relationships, who we are, who we want to be. Sports?? that’s fun-how much fun do most women have!! We make less $$ we have to take care of kids and our husbands, the house, the groceries—ahhh??! Are you picking up what I am putting down? I am not complaining…I am just observing. I have lived on the planet and watched women evolve for a long time-I mean we just got the right to vote 100 years ago–we just got the right to actually work and make money in the 70’s thus we haven’t amassed wealth yet, and we seriously still are just finding our voice?? How can we tackle this big change in a GAME when we can’t even fix life yet??
This mysterious model-I can’t believe we can’t do this BTW….
- Has to be in places where women can build a life they love for a while.
- Has a community that embraces women in sports as their heroes.
- Is relatively progressive and patient with its tolerance for risk in the market.
- Is made for women and its own fans and fan base-not excluding men but highlighting women.
- Reaches into grass roots in a big way.
- Influences children and teaches life skills.
Once we establish our core message and tenants and do sports differently then and only then do we succeed…more to come!