By Nancy Hogshead
STATEMENT OF NANCY HOGSHEAD
Before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
United States Senate
August 11, 1994
I am Nancy Hogshead, a 3-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming, a motivational speaker and author. In the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics I won more medals than any other swimmer -- three golds and one silver. I attended Duke University where I held or still hold virtually every school record in swimming. I am currently the President of the Women's Sports Foundation, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit national educational organization.
The Women's Sports Foundation
The Foundation works to end sex discrimination in sports by educating athletes, parents and coaches about their rights, and by working to influence policy in sports organizations. We believe that education is the key to helping girls and women go beyond the myths that have kept them from taking part in sports. Access to sports is often determined by access to money. Without proper funding girls and women don't get the opportunities they need and deserve. Thus, the Foundation administers over 20 national and grassroots based grant programs that enable girls and women to pursue their dreams as coaches, athletes or researchers. Women in sports seldom receive the recognition and attention they deserve for their accomplishments. By offering national and local award programs for coaches, journalists, elite sportswomen and contributors to women's sports, the Foundation highlights advances in women's sports and important female athlete role models.
The Foundation was founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King, Donna de Varona, Wyomia Tyus and other champion female athletes to promote and enhance sports and fitness opportunities for girls and women. These successful women athletes did not want girls following in their footsteps to face the same barriers to participation they did. Many of the Foundation's leaders took part in the drafting and design of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978, most notably Donna de Varona, the Foundation's President at that time and a person who was my role model.
Promise of the Amateur Sport Act Not Being Met
I am here before you because the promises of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act have not been realized and I believe that Congress can do something about that. It is the position of the Women's Sports Foundation that the USOC and its national sport governing bodies have not accomplished either the letter or the spirit of the Act with regard to the representation of women within the USOC or the national sport governing bodies it recognizes. Neither have the USOC or the national sport governing bodies provided non-discriminatory sports opportunities for girls and women at either the grassroots or elite level as athletes, coaches, officials and administrators.
Everyone knows that the Amateur Sports Act created a vertical sports structure that was intended to provide:
o a foundation for cooperation and interaction among all amateur sports groups
o a mechanism for the settlement of organizational disputes over the right to be a national sport governing body
o guaranteed rights for an athlete to compete
o more effective financing of amateur sports
o a central policy making forum to identify U.S. sports problems and effect solutions.
The USOC and its NGBs were given broad powers by Congress, including the right to name single national sport governing bodies (NGBs) that would have total control over the governance of a sport, name Olympic and Pan American teams and represent the United States in the world sports governance arena.
However, it was also the promise of the Act and the clear intent of Congress that the USOC and its NGBs, in return for such power, would have to fulfill higher order responsibilities. These responsibilities included:
o insuring broad grassroots amateur sports programs
o encouraging physical fitness and public participation in sports
o non-discrimination in the conduct of programs
o a specific charge to meet the needs of women and physically challenged athletes through support and inancial assistance and adequate representation on USOC and NGB governance structures
In support of the contention that the Act requires and Congress intended that the USOC and the NGBs meet these obligations, I quote from the April 27, 1978 Report of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation which accompanied Senate Bill 2727, the Amateur Sports Act of 1978:
America's weakness in sports is certainly not for want of talent nor for lack of resources. Our difficulties lie in failing to join together for the purpose of increasing athletic opportunities. We need to encourage physical fitness and provide more and better athletic programs (pp. 3-4).
Emphasis is placed on the necessity of the Olympic Committee and the national governing bodies to be responsive to the needs of women and handicapped athletes. Both groups have suffered from lack of support and financial assistance in the development of their programs (p. 4).
..one of the most important functions (of the USOC) should be to promote and encourage physical fitness and public participation in sports (p.5)
In order to be recognized, the sports organization (NGB) must also show that it provides an equal opportunity for all personnel to participate in amateur athletic competitions and that it has nondiscriminatory membership policies. The Board of Directors of the NGB must equitably represent women..." (p. 7).
The amateur sports organization must also demonstrate that it is capable of meeting certain duties once it is designated as a national governing body. It must develop participation and interest in its sport...and provide support for participation by women where separate national programs for male and female athletes are conducted and encourage participation by handicapped individuals" (p. 7-8).
Report of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on S. 2727, Amateur Sports Act of 1978, April 27, 1978, Calendar No. 705 (51pp.)
The language of the Act itself tracks this intent of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.
These higher order responsibilities have not been met with regard to women in general, but even less so among women of color and physically challenged women. Based on 1991 data (unless otherwise indicated) provided by the USOC (see Appendix A), the following picture of women's participation, fully 13 years following the passage of the Amateur Sports Act, appears:
Representation
o Women hold only 18% of the positions on the USOC's 100 member Board of Directors and 21% of the positions on its powerful executive committee. The status of women on other standing committees of the USOC falls primarily within the 15% to 38% range with characteristically lower percentages on the most powerful USOC committees and higher percentages on committees of lesser importance.
Representation of Women on USOC Standing Committees*
COMMITTEE MALE FEMALE TOTAL % FEMALE
Board of Directors 82 18 100 18%
Executive Committee 19 4 19 21%
Athlete ID & Development 10 3 13 23%
Athlete Support 10 5 15 33%
Audit 6 4 10 40%
Budget 7 3 10 30%
Finance 14 3 17 18%
Coaching 8 4 12 33%
Sports for Disabled 11 2 13 15%
Education 6 9 15 60%
Ethics 5 1 6 17%
Games Prep/Services 14 5 19 26%
Legislation 8 5 13 38%
Membership & Credentials 11 4 15 27%
Member Services 12 5 17 29%
Sports Equipment & Technology 14 2 16 13%
Sports Medicine 16 5 21 24%
Training Centers 8 5 13 38%
US Olympic Festivals 8 5 13 38%
USOC-USCSC 10 6 16 38%
____________________________________________________________
TOTAL 279 98 377 35%
* Provided by Public Information/Media Relations Division of the USOC as of 5/12/94
This situation is replicated on the Boards of Directors and standing committees of the majority of national sports governing bodies that have been recognized by the USOC.
o Only 33% of over 100,000,000 U.S. athletes are women
o Even though the NGBs report that 42% of their registered athletes are women, only 15 of the 41 NGBs reported registration of their athletes
o Only 23% of over 3,000,000 senior athletes are women
o Only 9% of the NGB coaches in the U.S. are women
Grassroots Participation
o National sports governing bodies spent an average of only 10.5% of their total revenues on grassroots sports.
o During a four year period (1989-92), the USOC awarded only $622,850 to the community/education based multisport organizations (i.e., Boys and Girls Clubs, YWCA, PAL, etc.) that provide most of the grassroots open amateur sports and youth opportunities in the U.S. compared to $20 million in one year alone (1991) to the 41 NGBs.
o 16 of the 41 NGBs have no grassroots programs (Atlanta Journal, May 8, 1994).
The USOC/NGB responsibility for the growth of grassroots sports is particularly important to women and previously underrepresented groups whose absence from governance, administration and participation at the national and international levels can be traced to lack of early opportunities to participate or lack of financial resources to take advantage of participation opportunities.
Elite Level Participation
o In 1991-92, women received only 36% of the USOC's athlete subsistence grants
o At the elite level, only 3% of the national junior elite pool* and 22% of the national elite pool are women
*Baseball skews this category with a reported 300,000 male athletes and none for women. However, women have been encouraged to play baseball. Even subtracting out the 300,000, participation is only 29%.
o Only 35% of the Barcelona USA Olympic team and 33% of the Albertville USA Olympic teams were women. However, in Barcelona and Albertville, female athlete medal production per athlete exceeded her male counterpart:
Barcelona
Female 90 medals/219 competitors 41%
Male 102 medals/402 competitors 25%
Albertville
Female 9 medals/47 competitors 19%
Male 2 medals/96 competitors 2%
o With regard to the official U.S. Olympic delegations, in Barcelona, women comprised 31 (19%) of 161 staff members and in Albertville, women comprised 3 (7%) of 42 staff members.
o Women comprise only 20% of NGB national team coaches.
Lack of Oversight and Evaluation
The facts clearly indicate that the USOC and its NGBs are not complying with the requirements of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 and that the USOC is not exercising its responsibility to annually review the performance of the NGBs regarding the act. Rather than 41 NGBs receiving annual reviews, the USOC has undertaken only 13 total reviews in the last 16 years. When NGBs are reviewed, they are reviewed by their peers from other NGBs who do not want to be put under a microscope when it is their turn. Under such a system, it is highly unlikely that the NGBs will ever be held accountable for non-compliance with the Act.
Need To Reexamine the Exclusion of Jurisdiction Over Closed Competition
It is also important to note that the Amateur Sports Act left the responsibility for closed competition (competition within the United States) under the jurisdiction of various school and college athletic governance organizations. The record of these groups regarding the participation of women is equally discouraging:
o Females comprised over 53% of our college undergraduate student population in 1990 (U.S. Department of Education, 1990). Of 282,512 student-athletes participating at NCAA institutions in 1991-92, only 96,467 (34%) were women (Participation Study..., 1993).
United States Department of Education. (1990) Digest of Educational Statistics. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Educational Statistics.Participation study, 1991-92: Men's and women's sports. (1993). Overland Park, Kansas: National Collegiate Athletic Association.
o Contrary to popular thought, men's sport participation has not suffered at the expense of providing participation opportunities for women -- there were 16,242 more male athletes in 1991-92 than there were in 1981-82. For every two female participation slots created in this ten year period, 1.5 male participation slots were also added. National Collegiate Athletic Association. (1993) Data obtained by telephone from the research department.
o The NCAA Gender Equity Study released on March 11, 1992, revealed significant discrepancies in athletic opportunities at the institutional level.
Division: Males/Females
I 250 (69%) 112 (31%)
II 167 (68%) 79 (32%)
III 215 (67%) 116 (35%)
National Collegiate Athletic Association. (1992) Gender Equity Study.
o Female collegiate athletes are receiving less than 24% of the athletics operating dollar and less than 18% of the athletics recruiting dollar. National Collegiate Athletic Association. (1992) Gender Equity Study.
o Female athletes are receiving less than 33% of the college athletic scholarship dollar. Average Division I scholarship expenditures.
Division Average Annual Athletic Average Annual Athletic Scholarship $ to Males Scholarship $ to Females:
I $849,130 $372,800
II $319,543 $148,966
Male college athletes receive approximately $179 million dollars more per year in athletic scholarship grants than their female counterparts. National Collegiate Athletic Association. (1992) Gender Equity Study.
o In Division IA institutions, women's programs received only 18% of the total budget (Raiborn, 1990.) Raiborn, Mitchell H. (1990). Revenues and expenses of intercollegiate athletics programs: Analysis of financial trends and relationships 1985-89. Mission, Kansas: National Collegiate Athletic Association.
o In 1972, 90% of all collegiate women's athletics programs were governed by women administrators; in 1994 that proportion was 21%. Acosta, R. V. and Carpenter, L. J. (1994). Women in intercollegiate sport: A longitudinal study-fifteen year update, 1977-1994. Unpublished manuscript, Brooklyn College.
o In 24.4% of our nation's athletics programs, there are no women athletics administrators (athletic directors, associate directors or assistant directors) even though in over 300 of those schools there are at least three athletics administrator positions (Acosta and Carpenter, 1994). Acosta, R. V. and Carpenter, L. J. (1994). Women in intercollegiate sport: A longitudinal study-fifteen year update, 1977-1994. Unpublished manuscript, Brooklyn College.
o 49.4% of all women's teams are coached by women (Acosta and Carpenter, 1994) but less than 2% of all men's teams are coached by women -- employment opportunities for female coaches of men's teams are almost non-existent. Acosta, R. V. and Carpenter, L. J. (1994). Women in intercollegiate sport: A longitudinal study-fifteen year update, 1977-1994. Unpublished manuscript, Brooklyn College.
o Less than a third of all the committee positions in the NCAA are held by women; and that percentage drops to 20% among the NCAA's most powerful committees. These numbers reflect minimum representation limits established by the NCAA when they opened their doors to women sports in 1981 -- there has not been a significant increase since women were let in (Lovett and Lowry, 1989). Lovett, Dorothy J. and Carla Lowry. (1989, January) Gender representations in the NCAA and NAIA. Journal of Applied Research in Coaching and Athletics, 4, (1), 1-16.
Recommendations
What steps should Congress take to insure that the USOC and the NGBs comply with the requirements of the Act and that the promise of the Amateur Sports Act of 1978 is realized? The Women's Sports Foundation recommends consideration of the following actions:
1. Require the USOC and all national governing bodies to annually provide standardized data that is available to the public on the participation of women and other underrepresented groups as participants, employees and appointed and elected leaders. Full disclosure provides an incentive to comply in order to avoid public embarrassment.
2. Appoint a blue ribbon committee consisting of non-NGB affiliated experts to annually review the performance of each NGB and the USOC and present its report to Congress. This would replace the current system of the USOC annually reporting to Congress.
3. Reconsider the exclusion of USOC/NGB jurisdiction over closed competition from the provisions of the Amateur Sports Act or initiate strong action for such closed competition organizations to come into compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments Act. Closed competition organizations have not met the spirit of the Amateur Sports Act and have discriminated against women in the provision of participation and employment opportunities and benefits to athletes.
4. Insure NGB executive board representation at no cost to grassroots multi-sport community organizations serving youth sports. These organizations currently cannot afford to pay dues to 41 different NGBs and their membership is not encouraged.
5. Specify that a certain percentage of USOC development funds to NGBs be designated for the development of grassroots sports.
6. Specify that lack of equitable representation of women and minorities on NGB executive boards and standing committees is grounds for denial of USOC development funds.
7. Require that the USOC and each NGB develop and begin to implement an affirmative action plan designed to create more equitable representation of women and minorities in all elected and paid positions in these organizations.
Thank you for this opportunity to share the concerns and recommendations of the Women's Sports Foundation.