Sports and politics are two topics where gender inequality can be represented at its finest.
A recurring theme in the news recently has been one of powerful men denying women the respect that they deserve. Especially young and ambitious women, such as Emily Nash.
Emily Nash is a Division 3 golfer, and the best one in central Massachusetts regardless of gender.
She is probably even the best high school golf player in the entire state. Unfortunately, the Lunenburg High School junior won’t be able to prove it, because she isn’t a boy. Nash won a sectional tournament last week playing against boys, but she is ineligible to move on to the statewide contest because the rules of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association state that the tournament is only for boys.
Unfortunately for the MIAA, today we have Title IX, a federal law that can halt educational programs that receive federal funding if discrimination is involved based on sex.
The only problem with this is that it still allows schools that have different sports teams based on sex. Therefore, schools are required to treat teams equally when it separates them by gender. Title IX has undergone a lot of litigation, especially regarding equal athletic opportunities for women in college.
In the case of Nash, the MIAA allowed her to participate, when it could have directly told her it was a boys’ tournament only. By allowing her to participate, it triggered Title IX, which required it to treat her equally. Therefore, by denying her the trophy, it most likely violated Title IX. The MIAA responded by claiming that female golfers could participate but not win individual trophies. Their scores could count as part of their team scores, but they could not qualify for individual awards.
To make things worse, the MIAA didn’t even let her keep the trophy.
Her opponent, a boy who she defeated by four strokes, got to take home her trophy. But this is not the end of it. The associate director of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, Richard Pearson, completely hit rock bottom after he issued the following statement:
“The MIAA and its member schools congratulate all golfers on their performance at the recent fall sectional team golf tournament. In particular, the skill of the female golfer from Lunenburg was on display as she represented her personal ability and effort on behalf of the Lunenburg High School Boys Golf Team.”
The female golfer from Lunenburg?
The MIAA couldn’t even use her name. But this is not the only incident that has happened this year. It seems that we’ve been hearing more stories about gender discrimination and marginalization since July 2016 in the news. From the ouster of Roger Ailes from Fox News to the allegations of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein, President Trump, and Bill O’Reilly, it seems like a new story comes up every day.
Nash’s story is a very familiar one, and it, therefore, comes to no surprise that her story was told by major news outlets, such as the Washington Post, New York Daily News, NPR, ESPN, Fox News, USA Today, and Rolling Stones.
Not being able to change the rules on the spot could maybe be understandable, but taking away a well-deserved trophy and denying Nash’s achievements is not. By dismissing her as a nameless “female golfer from Lunenburg,” the MIAA was able to completely destroy its public relations image.
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