Many stars at Women’s World Cup juggle parenthood while playing on the world stage

Australia’s Katrina Gorry, center, plays the ball next to Nigeria’s Ifeoma Onumonu, right, and Christy Ucheibe, left, during the Women’s World Cup Group B soccer match between Australia and Nigeria In Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, July 27, 2023. Nigeria won 3-2. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)

Jamaica’s Cheyna Matthews shields her eyes as rain intensifies during the Women’s World Cup Group F soccer match between France and Jamaica at Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Australia, Sunday, July 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Sophie Ralph)

BY ANNE M. PETERSON
 August 3, 2023

Alex Morgan was speaking to reporters at the Women’s World Cup when she had to excuse herself to Facetime her young daughter before the toddler’s bedtime back home in the United States.

Just another day for a working mom.

Forget about orange slices, players such as Morgan, Katrina Gorry of Australia and Cheyna Matthews of Jamaica are redefining what it means to be a “soccer mom.”

There have been plenty of elite athletes who have also juggled parenthood, but the level of support the mothers are receiving while on the job at the Women’s World Cup is improving.


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Morgan’s daughter, Charlie, has now joined her mother at the World Cup as the United States prepares for a Round of 16 match against Sweden on Sunday in Melbourne, Australia.
Morgan has been reflective about being both a parent and a player at soccer’s biggest international tournament. In 2019, when the United States won its second straight World Cup trophy and fourth overall, now 3-year-old Charlie hadn’t even been born.

Now that the American star has a daughter, she’s had to balance her job with trying to lead the United States to an unprecedented third consecutive World Cup title.

“I have become a little bit more patient with my daughter and in life in general. But I think the biggest thing about it is that I get to bring my daughter with me. On all of these trips, I get to show her what mom does and surround her by just so many strong and confident women,” Morgan said.

There are three moms on the U.S. team: Morgan, Crystal Dunn and Julie Ertz. Other moms at this World Cup include Konya Plummer of Jamaica, Amel Majri of France, Vanina Correa of Argentina and Melanie Leuopolz of Germany.

Morgan, Ertz and Dunn have all become mothers since winning the World Cup in 2019, and all three are benefitting from the battles that prior players fought to make sure that moms — and their kids — were supported while representing the United States abroad.

The U.S. women have enjoyed subsidized child care at tournaments for 25 years, but now, thanks to collective bargaining agreements that were struck last year with U.S. Soccer, the men have it, too. Those agreements guaranteed that both national teams were paid equally and received similar benefits.

“It was important to us and to the women that everything was equal, and we were very transparent about that,” said goalkeeper Matt Turner, who brought his wife and son to the men’s World Cup in Qatar late last year. “We’re going to take advantage of the different benefits that the other team might have had.”

Majri is the mother of a 1-year old daughter, Maryam, who accompanied her to a training camp in April. Her daughter’s presence was supported by French coach Herve Renard.

“There needs to be organized facilities, with a nanny. It won’t affect the team, and psychologically speaking, it’s very important. In order for her to have peace of mind and to perform well, the two need to be associated,” Renard said. “There is progress to be made in terms of assistance. We’re going to manage what they do in the USA. Maybe one day we’ll end up with four or five kids among us, and if things run smoothly, it won’t be an issue.”

In 2020, FIFA adopted rules to protect women who choose to become parents, including mandatory maternity leave of at least 14 weeks, and continued pay at a minimum of two-thirds of their salary. The rules also require clubs to make sure women are reintegrated after childbirth and that they have necessary medical support.

“No female player should ever suffer a disadvantage as a result of becoming pregnant, thus securing greater employment protection for women in football,” FIFA said in announcing the new rules.

While all of the Americans have their kids with them at the World Cup, others choose to leave them at home.

“Being a mom and leaving them at home is hard, but it is obviously a personal decision to be here. They are enjoying it from home, they didn’t ask to come,” said Correa, Argentina’s goalkeeper, and the mother of twins. “They have told me they are proud that I’m here. I know they are with me and it gives me the energy and drive to be here.”

Moms at the World Cup are helping show that parenting and soccer can mix, but some are slow to catch on. A television commentator came under fire for his comments about Gorry, who had IVF treatments and gave birth to her daughter, Harper, in 2021.

“Certainly motherhood has not blunted her competitive instincts, that’s for sure,” the Australian broadcaster said during the Matlidas’ tournament-opener against Ireland.

Ertz gave birth to son, Madden, last year and worked hard to get back in time for the World Cup. It was tough for Ertz because she had not played for the team since the 2021 Olympics because of injuries and her pregnancy.

“I think the truth is, I had no idea what my timeline was going to be where typically, like, obviously, pregnancy changes for your body changes it for so long versus like an injury, which usually has a timeline,” she said.

Madden has a village caring for him at the World Cup, including his dad, Arizona Cardinals tight end Zach Ertz — and of course all his `aunts’ on the U.S. team.

“Like anything else in life, you figure it out, and we’re doing it together as a family,” Julie Ertz said. “It’s just a really cool opportunity to be able to share with them.”
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AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup

Pioneering mothers are breaking down barriers to breastfeeding in Olympic sports

When Clarisse Agbégnénou won her sixth world judo title, confirming the reigning Olympic champion as one of the athletes to watch at next year’s Paris Games, the French star’s smallest but greatest fan was less wild about her mother’s newest gold medal than she was about her breast milk. 

BY JOHN LEICESTER
 August 4, 2023

PARIS (AP) — When Clarisse Agbégnénou won her sixth world judo title, confirming the reigning Olympic champion as one of the athletes to watch at next year’s Paris Games, the French star’s smallest but greatest fan was less wild about her mother’s newest gold medal than she was about her breast milk.

After a peckish day of few feeds — because mum had been busy putting opponents through the wringer — 10-month-old Athéna made amends that night.

“She didn’t let my boobs out of her mouth,” Agbégnénou says. “I was like, ‘Wow, okay.’ I think it was really something for her.”


French judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou gestures during an interview with The Associated-Press in Paris, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Breast-feeding and high-performance sports were long an almost impossible combination for women athletes, faced for decades with the cornelian choice of career or motherhood, because it was so tough to have both. But that’s becoming less true ahead of the first Summer Games where men and women will compete in equal numbers and with pioneering super-mums showing that it’s possible (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Breastfeeding and high-performance sports were long an almost impossible combination for top female athletes, torn for decades between careers or motherhood, because having both was so tough.

But that’s becoming less true ahead of the 2024 Olympics, where women will take another step forward in their long march for equality, competing in equal numbers with men for the first time, and with pioneering mothers like Agbégnénou showing that it is possible to breastfeed and be competitive.

They don’t pretend that late-night feeds, broken sleep, pumping milk and having to eat for two people are easy. But some female athletes are also discovering that juggling their careers with the rigors of motherhood can pay off with powerful emotional well-being.

Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Agbégnénou said she stunned even herself by coming back so quickly from childbirth to win at the worlds in May, with Athéna in tow and expecting to be fed every few hours.


French judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou breast-feeds her baby Athena at an unknown location in France, Oct. 17, 2022. Breast-feeding and high-performance sports were long an almost impossible combination for women athletes, faced for decades with the cornelian choice of career or motherhood, because it was so tough to have both. But that’s becoming less true ahead of the first Summer Games where men and women will compete in equal numbers and with pioneering super-mums showing that it’s possible (Nadia Benabdelouamed via AP)

In training, Agbégnénou would stop for quick feeds when Athéna needed milk, nestling her hungry baby in the folds of her kimono, while other athletes in the judo hall paid them no mind, carrying on with their bouts.

“I was sweating on her, poor baby,” she says. “But she didn’t pay attention. She just wanted to eat.”

Women who have breastfed and carried on competing say that support from coaches and sports administrators is essential. Agbégnénou credits the International Judo Federation for allowing her to take Athéna to competitions. IJF officials sounded out other competitors and coaches about whether the baby was a nuisance for them and were told, “‘No, she was really perfect, we didn’t hear the baby,’” she says.

“It’s amazing,” she says of her peers’ acceptance and support. “They are part of my fight and I am really proud of them.”

As well as Agbégnénou, three other women also asked and were allowed to nurse their babies at IJF World Tour competitions in the past six years, with arrangements made each time that enabled the moms “to care for the child and to not disturb other athletes’ preparation,” says the governing body’s secretary general, Lisa Allan. She says the IJF is now drawing up specific policies for judokas who are pregnant or postpartum because ”more and more athletes are continuing their careers whilst balancing having a family.”

The Paris Olympics’ chief organizer, Tony Estanguet, says they’re also exploring the possibility of providing facilities for nursing athletes at the Games.

“They should have access to their children — for the well-being of the mothers and the children,” he said in an AP interview. “The status of athletes who are young mothers needs to evolve a bit. We need to find solutions to perhaps make it easier for these athletes to bring babies” into the Olympic village where athletes are housed.

For some breastfeeding athletes, being a pioneer is part of the kick.

French judoka Clarisse Agbegnenou gestures during an interview with The Associated-Press in Paris, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Breast-feeding and high-performance sports were long an almost impossible combination for women athletes, faced for decades with the cornelian choice of career or motherhood, because it was so tough to have both. But that’s becoming less true ahead of the first Summer Games where men and women will compete in equal numbers and with pioneering super-mums showing that it’s possible (AP Photo/Michel Euler

Two-time Olympic rowing champion Helen Glover, now aiming for her fourth Summer Games, gave birth to twins at the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, breastfed them and then came out of what she’d intended to be retirement to compete at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021. Glover was the first rower to compete for Britain at the Olympics as a mother.

Glover’s eldest, Logan, lost interest in her milk about the time of his first birthday, but twins Kit and Willow kept feeding to 14 months old. She says that mixing her punishing rowing training with long feeds for two babies was “very draining. It was taking every calorie I had.”

“But I could do it because it was my own time and my own choice,” she says.

“Everyone should have the choice,” Glover adds. “Our bodies ... are sometimes very changed through childbirth and pregnancy and breastfeeding. So the answers are never going to be one-size-fits-all. But I think it’s really exciting that these conversations are even being had.”

For some athletes, Milk Stork has also been a help. The U.S.-based transporter ships working moms’ milk when they’re separated from their babies. It says it shipped milk pumped by athletes who competed at the 2021 Paralympic Games in Tokyo and also transported 21 gallons (80 liters) of milk from coaches, trainers and other support staff at the Olympics that year.

The daughter of British archery athlete Naomi Folkard was just 5 1/2-months old and breastfeeding exclusively when her mother traveled to Tokyo for her fifth and final Olympic Games.

Nursing mothers successfully pushed to be able to take babies to those Olympics, held with social distancing and without full crowds because of the coronavirus pandemic. Rather than put her daughter, Emily, through the ordeal of having to live apart from her, in a Tokyo hotel outside of the athletes’ village, Folkard reluctantly left her behind with a large stock of frozen milk. She built that up over months, pumping into the night so Emily wouldn’t go hungry while she was in Japan.

But that created another problem: Because Folkard’s breasts had become so good at making milk, she had to pump regularly at the Games to stop them from becoming painfully swollen. She threw that milk away.

“I was having to get up in the night and pump just because my supply was so much,” she says. “It wasn’t great for performance preparation really. But I did what I had to do to be there.”

And with each drop, progress.

“There’s still a long way to go, but people are talking about it now. Women aren’t retiring to have children. They’re still competing,” Folkard says.

“I feel like things are changing.”
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More AP coverage of the Paris Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Brazilian players at the Women's World Cup urge fans back home to skip work to watch their matches

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Brazil’s players urged their fans back in South America to stay home from work and watch them begin their Women's World Cup campaign against Panama.

The fact that their fans even have that option marks a step forward in the players’ ongoing fight for equality with their male counterparts.

Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently announced that civil servants could arrive at work up to two hours after the final whistle of Brazil’s games in the the tournament. He encouraged private businesses to do the same.

The Brazil-Panama match starts at 8:30 p.m. Monday in Adelaide, Australia. There is a roughly 12-hour time difference between the countries.

“I hope people really follow (the games) and don’t use it just to skip work,” Brazilian defender Antonia said from the team's camp in Brisbane. “I hope people really follow us.”

Taking time off work to watch important soccer matches is nothing new for fans of Brazil’s men’s team, but this is a first for the women’s national team

“It’s an important step for women’s football,” Antonia said. “I believe that it is a little behind, but it happened and we have to value that.”

While it’s a step toward equality, it brings added pressure. The team is aiming for its first World Cup title to prove themselves to their country and the world as a top team in women’s soccer.

Related video: Soccer fans hope USA women's team can make history with World Cup threepeat (Tribune Content Agency)  Duration 1:49   View on Watch

“It’s already a very big movement,” midfielder Angelina said of the team’s support in Brazil, “and the expectation is only increasing.”

Brazil has competed in every Women’s World Cup with their best result in 2007 finishing runners-up to Germany. They have won two silver medals at the Olympics, in 2004 and in 2008. Marta, one of the world’s most well-known and accomplished players, will be playing in her last World Cup. Marta holds the record for most World Cup goals scored by men or women with 17 and the most international goals scored for Brazil with 115.

In March, Lula endorsed Brazil’s bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup alongside Brazil’s sports minister, Ana Moser, and the president of the Brazil's soccer confederation, Ednaldo Rodrigues.

“It will motivate the construction of a political conscience of the Brazilian people so they understand women’s effective participation in every field they can and want to take a part of,” Lula said at the time.

Moser will be visiting Australia and New Zealand during the World Cup, cheering on the team but also strengthening Brazil’s 2027 bid. Brazil is competing against South Africa, as well as two combined bids — from Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, and from the United States and Mexico.

Brazil’s players recognize that they're playing for a brighter future for women’s soccer in their country at this World Cup.

“Taking this first step," Antonia said. “I believe it is very important and that it continues to evolve, that it continues like this and that people really wake up and start to follow women’s football from now on.”

____

Molly Lee is a student at the University of Georgia’s Carmical Sports Media Institute.

___

AP Women’s World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-womens-world-cup and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Molly Lee, The Associated Press

A mother refused to do housework after husband said she does ‘nothing’ around the home. The results say it all

Amber Raiken
Sat, 24 June 2023


A mother refused to do housework after husband said she does ‘nothing’ around the home. The results say it all

A mother has shared how she refused to do housework for a few days, after her husband made a comment about her doing “nothing” at home.

The woman, Lindsay, posted a video to TikTok earlier this month about the remark her husband, Brian, made. “My husband made a comment that I do nothing around the house,” she wrote in the text over the footage, while looking at the camera.

She then revealed how she responded to this comment, writing: “So for two days, I really did nothing around the house.”

The short clip continued with Lindsay documenting what happened when she didn’t clean the home, as there were toys on the floor of her kitchen, as well as dirty dishes in the sink and on the counter.

Lindsay then showed the papers all over her dining room table and a basket of dirty laundry next to her couch, which had a bunch of clothes on it. She ended her video with a picture of her bathroom, as it had clothes and towels on the floor. There was also a hair brush, straightener, bottle of mouthwash, and more skin products on the sink.

In the caption, she added: “Then I left town for a girls trip…,” before poking fun at her relationship with a marriage humour hashtag.

The video quickly went viral, as it has amassed more than 18.6m views. In the comments, many people criticised Brian for his remark and praised Lindsay for her reaction to it.

“The way I would never do anything again,” one quipped, regarding how they’d respond to Lindsay’s partner.

“I hope you had him clean it after the two days,” another added

“Where the hell do they get all the audacity,” a third wrote, referring to the woman’s husband.

Meanwhile, other people expressed their anger over the situation, with claims that Lindsay should have divorced her husband after what he’d said.

@lindsaydonnelly2

Then I left town for a girls trip… #marriagehumor♬ Karma (feat. Ice Spice) - Taylor Swift

The next day, Lindsay shared a follow-up video, in which she had a chat with her husband. After recalling how she didn’t clean the house for a few days, Lindsay also noted that her husband has “since apologised”, She then revealed to Brian that she made that TikTok video about the situation and that it quickly went viral.

She also told him about some of the comments on her initial clip, in viewers claimed that she should leave him. However, she then acknowledged that her Brian is “actually a really good husband”.

“That was just a real a**hole move to say that,” she added, referring to Brain’s remark about her doing nothing around the house. In the caption, she also added that her partner realised that this was a “real s****y thing to say”.

Speaking to People, Lindsay revealed that when she went on her “strike”, as she took a break from doing housework, she got some amusement out of the decision.

“I went out with my girlfriends the night before I made the TikTok and I was telling them how I was literally doing nothing around the house and we were all kind of laughing about it,” she said.

The mother added: “And then the next day, I’m getting ready to head out to a girl’s trip and the thought crossed my mind like, ‘I’m really just gonna leave the house like this.’ I felt so bad and it hit me that, wait, this is funny. This is a moment.”

@lindsaydonnelly2

Replying to @kris he agreed that was a real 💩 thing to say♬ original sound - Lindsay D

As she recalled that “she was kind of pissed at my husband”, she noted that she had to make a shift to her daily routine. More specifically, in order to make sure that she wasn’t doing housework, she had to unmake her daughter’s bed.

“[My daughter] was in there with me while I was making the bed,” she explained. “And then I stopped myself and said, ‘You know what?’ and unmade the bed. And she asked, ‘What are you doing?’ and I said, ‘Mommy’s not doing any housework.’”

She emphasised that she has a “good relationship” with her partner, “even in [their] weak moments”. She also encouraged viewers to stop making comments on her content about getting a divorce.

“It’s reality and comedy at the same time,” she added about her videos. “I really hope to make more content that resonates with people in a way that doesn’t make people think we should get a divorce.”

The Independent has contacted Linsday for comment.

Selma James - Global Women's Strike/ Wages for Housework/ Selma James (globalwomenstrike.net)

Selma James is an antisexist, antiracist campaigner and has fought for justice for over 50 years. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1930 she became the wife of the internationally renowned West Indian Historian and political philsopher C.L.R James. In Britain during the 1960s, she became a leading activist in the movements for the rights of immigrants and people of colour. 

Selma is the author or several seminal books among them A Women's Place; Sex Race and Class; The Perspective of Winning; Wageless of the world and Women, the Unions and Work. She has lectured and led workshops all over the World and is the founder of the Wages for Housework and Care Income Now campaign.

Selma's most recent book Our Time Is Now: Sex, Race and Class and Caring for People and Planet is steeped in the tradition of Marx. She draws on half a century of organizing across sectors, struggles and national boundaries with others in the Wages for Housework Campaign and the Global Women’s Strike, an autonomous network of women, men, and other genders that agree with their perspective. There is one continuum between the care and protection of people and of the planet: both must be a priority, beginning with a care income for everyone doing this vital work. This book makes the powerful argument that the climate justice movement can draw on all the movements’ people have formed to refuse their particular exploitation, to destroy the capitalist hierarchy that is destroying the world. Our time is now.

Antiracism, anti-discrimination and the justice work we do for ourselves and with others are at the heart of Selma James' campaigning.

https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/collections/wages-for-housework-archive

Wages for Housework Archive - Bishopsgate Institute 

In March 1972, at the Women's Liberation conference in Manchester, England, Selma James put forward Wages for Housework for the first time.

https://files.libcom.org/files/sex-race-class-2012imp.pdf

Sex, Race and Class - Libcom.or 

Brooklyn's Selma James is the founder of the International. Wages for Housework Campaign and coordinator of the. Global Women's Strike.

https://www.reimaginerpe.org/files/19-2.james_.pdf

Women's Work - Reimagine! 

By Selma James. Women's Work he Wages for Housework Campaign has always spelled out the connection between the unwaged and invisible.

https://thecommoner.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/the-commoner-15.pdf

the-commoner-15.pdf 

Book and Cover Design: James Lindenschmidt ... and Selma James, The Power of Women and the Subversion ... Also the demand for Wages For Housework con-.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Power_of_Women_Vol_1_No._1.pdf

File:Power of Women Vol 1 No. 1.pdf - Wikimedia Commons 

Mar 1, 2022 ... Power of Women Collective, Wages for Housework, Falling Wall Press, Selma James et.al. LicensingEdit. w:en:Creative Commons attribution share ...

https://spheres-journal.org/contribution/every-moment-of-our-reproduction-as-a-moment-of-struggle-the-new-york-wages-for-housework-archive

The New York Wages for Housework Archive – spheres 

Mar 12, 2020 ... ... Silvia Federici, Brigitte Galtier, and Selma James. In effect, what the Wages for Housework (WfH) campaign intended to do was become a ...

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/international-womens-day-wages-housework-care-selma-james-a9385351.html

I founded the Wages for Housework campaign in 1972 

Mar 8, 2020 ... Forget basic income, those who care for people and the planet deserve to be recognised for the unpaid work they already do. Selma James.

Staley wary equity strides for women’s tourney will continue

By PETE IACOBELLI

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South Carolina coach Dawn Staley poses with a trophy after being named Naismith Women's College Coach of the Year, Wednesday, March 30, 2022, in Minneapolis. 

(Carlos Gonzalez/Star Tribune via AP)


MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Putting women on the same level with men when it comes to swag bags and logos is a starting point, and for Dawn Staley that’s all it is.

South Carolina women’s coach is not certain there will ever be true equity among the men’s and women’s NCAA Tournaments.

“I just don’t know,” Staley told The Associated Press. “I mean, the hotel is nice,” she added sitting at her downtown hotel two blocks from the Target Center, where the Gamecocks will play Louisville on Friday night in the women’s Final Four.

Staley has enjoyed the tournament experience this year — the Gamecocks played two games at home and two games in Greensboro, North Carolina — better than a year ago in the pandemic-caused bubble set up in San Antonio.

After a scathing report issued last summer about numerous inequities between how men’s teams are treated compared with the women, Staley is torn about whether the NCAA can make lasting strides.

“It’s good what we’re hearing,” she said. “But is it something that’s going to last four, five years down the road?”

She is not alone.

Two weeks ago, it was three members of Congress who said the NCAA had taken little more than “short-term steps” toward bridging the gap.

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform; Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Democratic Women’s Caucus; and Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) sent a letter to the NCAA the week of the tournament’s start.

On Thursday, the trio introduced the Gender Equity in College Sports Commission act designed to create a 16-person bipartisan panel to study the issue across all NCAA sports.

Speier said in a release the NCAA had made “pathetic progress towards correcting the deeply misogynistic attitudes and treatment of the women’s teams compared to the men’s teams.”

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer has dealt with inequality issues for all of her 36 years with the program.

“I call it hot dogs for the girls and steak for the boys,” she said. “It will be a great time when you don’t need Title IX, but unfortunately in our world, there’s discrimination still against people, women and we need to keep battling.”

The longtime discussion garnered national attention the past year with critics taking NCAA leadership to task in 2021 after Oregon’s Sedona Prince posted a social media video about the inequities, particularly the weight rooms.

Louisville coach Jeff Walz believes that tournament organizers made mistakes, but too much was made of the differences in weight rooms.

Waltz said the disparity was “blown way out of proportion” and that he has “never been a big proponent of everything has to be the same” for men and women to have equally enjoyable experiences in their respective NCAA Tournaments.

UConn guard Paige Bueckers, whose team plays Stanford in the other national women’s semifinal here Friday night, believes more needs to be done before the tournaments are on equal footing.

“It’s definitely not where it needs to be,” the Huskies sophomore sensation said. “But change isn’t going to happen overnight and you can see the growth.”

NCAA President Mark Emmert, speaking the women’s Final Four on Wednesday and again in New Orleans Thursday at the men’s event, is happy with the progress that’s been made, although bigger issues like distributing tournament revenues to women’s programs are only in the early stages of discussion.

In Staley’s view, revenue — “The units,” as she calls them — is the largest divide between the men and women.

The men’s tournament has a deal that’s averaging $770 million a year that will jump to an average of $1.1 billion in 2025.

The women’s tournament is tied into other women’s NCAA championships for TV rights. ESPN’s current contract ends in 2024 and Staley believes those rights can go for much more than the NCAA is getting now.

“It’s the right time,” Staley said. “This is a good game that people like to watch.”

ESPN analyst and former UConn All-American Rebecca Lobo sees the rising interest in the game and believes that can lead to more exposure and ultimately better broadcast contracts.

One example she said was this year’s women’s selection show. The show is generally broadcast on the Monday, the day after the men’s highly anticipated Sunday night bracket reveal. But this year it aired after the men’s show and, “wow, we have the best ratings since 2006,” Lobo said.

“Let’s use this year and figure out, all right, did this keep us along the path that we’re trying to go toward,” Lobo said.

Two of the more tangible steps taken by the NCAA to elevate the women’s event has been to make the logo, “March Madness,” a part of the on-court branding and expand the field to 68. There was also an inaugural women’s “First Four,” an element of the men’s tournament since 2011.

Bueckers has seen increased attention in the women’s tournament this year.

“Change is going to come,” Bueckers said. “And it has to come now rather than later.”

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More AP coverage of March Madness: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

WHAT ABOUT BOYS SPORTS

Utah bans transgender athletes in girls sports despite veto

THEY NEVER TALK ABOUT TRANSBOYS

OMG GIRLS IN BOYS BATHROOMS

SOUNDS ABSURD RIGHT

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State Rep. Kera Birkeland, a Republican high school basketball coach who led Utah's efforts to ban transgender girls from youth sports, addresses a crowd of supporters on the steps of the Utah State Capitol on Friday, March 25, 2022, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Lawmakers convened to override Gov. Spencer Cox, who vetoed their proposed ban. (AP Photo/Samuel Metz)


SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — GOP lawmakers in Utah pushed through a ban on transgender youth athletes playing on girls teams Friday, overriding a veto and joining 11 other states with similar laws amid a nationwide culture war.

A veto letter from Gov. Spencer Cox drew national attention with a poignant argument that such laws target vulnerable transgender kids already at high suicide risk.

Business leaders also sounded the alarm that the ban could have a multimillion-dollar economic impact on Utah, including the possible loss of the NBA All-Star Game next year. The Utah Jazz called the ban “discriminatory legislation” and opposed it.

Before the veto, the ban received support from a majority of Utah lawmakers, but fell short of the two-thirds needed to override it. Its sponsors on Friday flipped 10 Republicans in the House and five in the Senate who had previously voted against the proposal.

Cox was the second GOP governor this week to overrule lawmakers on a sports-participation ban, but the proposal won support from a vocal conservative base that has particular sway in Utah’s state primary season. Even with those contests looming, however, some Republicans stood with Cox to reject the ban.

“I cannot support this bill. I cannot support the veto override and if it costs me my seat so be it. I will do the right thing, as I always do,” said Republican Sen. Daniel Thatcher.

With the override of Cox’s veto, a dozen states have some sort of ban on transgender kids in school sports. Utah’s law takes effect July 1.

Not long ago efforts to regulate transgender kids’ participation in sports failed to gain traction in statehouses, but in the past two years groups like the American Principles Project began a well-coordinated effort to promote the legislation throughout the country. Since last year, bans have been introduced in at least 25 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This week, lawmakers in Arizona and Oklahoma passed bans.

“You start these fights and inject them into politics,” said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project. “You pass them in a few states and it starts to take on a life of its own and becomes organic. We helped start this fight and we’re helping carry it through, but a lot of this is coming from the local level.”

Leaders in the deeply conservative Utah say they need the law to protect women’s sports. The lawmakers argue that more transgender athletes with possible physical advantages could eventually dominate the field and change the nature of women’s sports without legal intervention.

Utah has only one transgender girl playing in K-12 sports who would be affected by the ban. There have been no allegations of any of the four transgender youth athletes in Utah having competitive advantages.

The group Visit Salt Lake, which hosts conferences, shows and events, said the override could cost the state $50 million in revenue. The Utah-based DNA-testing genealogy giant Ancestry.com also opposed it.

Salt Lake City is set to host the NBA All-Star game in February 2023. League spokesman Mike Bass said the league is “working closely” with the Jazz on the matter. The team is partially owned by NBA all-star Dwyane Wade, who has a transgender daughter.

Ban supporters, though, say they planned ahead to blunt the impact of boycotts like those that forced North Carolina to repeal a law limiting which public restrooms transgender people could use, Schilling said. The American Principles Project strategically focused on early legislation in populous, economic juggernaut states where companies and organizations would lose sizable investments if they left. With a precedent of muted economic backlash set, the group expects smaller states to get similar treatment.

Legislative leaders in Utah said concerns about economic blowback and the NBA’s withdrawal from Salt Lake City were premature and noted Texas and Florida hadn’t faced boycotts.

“I hope the NBA and other groups understand that our intent here is to protect women sports and keep women’s sports safe and competitive. And if they have thoughts on how best to do that, we’d be happy to chat with them,” said Utah Republican House Speaker Brad Wilson.

Utah has historically been among the nation’s most conservative states. But an influx of new residents and technology companies coupled with the growing influence of the tourism industry often sets the stage for heated debate over social issues in the state home to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

On Thursday and Friday, demonstrators both for and against a ban rallied at Utah’s Capitol.

Friday’s deliberations came after more than a year of negotiation between social conservatives and LGBTQ advocates. Republican sponsor Rep. Kera Birkeland worked with Cox and activists at Equality Utah before introducing legislation that would require transgender student athletes to go before a government-appointed commission.

The proposal, although framed as a compromise, failed to gain traction on either side. LGBTQ advocates took issue with Republican politicians appointing commission members and evaluation criteria that included body measurements such as hip-to-knee ratio.

In the final hours before the Legislature was set to adjourn earlier this month, GOP lawmakers supplanted the legislation with an all-out ban.

Birkeland, who is also a basketball coach, acknowledged the proposal provoked intense emotion, but said conversations with female student athletes compelled her to continue her effort.

“When we say, ‘This isn’t a problem in our state,’ what we say to those girls is, ‘Sit down, be quiet and make nice,’” she said.

Lawmakers anticipate court challenges similar to blocked bans in Idaho and West Virginia, where athletes have said the policies violate their civil rights. They’ve argued the bans violate their privacy rights, due to tests required if an athlete’s gender is challenged. The ACLU of Utah said on Friday that a lawsuit was inevitable.

Utah’s policy would revert to the commission if courts halt the ban.

The threat of lawsuits worried school districts and the Utah High School Athletic Association, which has said it lacks funds to defend the policy in court. Lawmakers also amended the ban on Friday to provide taxpayer dollars to underwrite fees from potential lawsuits and insulate districts and the association from liability.

Arizona Republicans fight culture war in battleground state

By JONATHAN J. COOPER

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FILE - A number of Arizona reproductive health, rights, and justice advocates protest an abortion bill at the Arizona Capitol Monday, April 26, 2021, in Phoenix. GOP lawmakers thrust Arizona into the national culture wars Thursday, March 24, 2022, when they passed three bills in party-line votes banning abortion after 15 weeks, prohibiting transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams and restricting gender-affirming health care for minors. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)


PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona has long been fertile ground for a social conservative agenda, with some of the nation’s toughest laws against abortion and a history of restricting LGBTQ rights.

That hasn’t changed even as Republican dominance has waned over the past five years, a fact made plain this week when GOP lawmakers passed strict measures targeting abortion and the rights of transgender young people.

“It’s just become this political wedge issue that our legislators use to get more votes, and it’s not fair,” said Andi Young, the parent of a transgender teenager and co-chair of the board of directors for GLSEN Phoenix, an advocacy group promoting inclusive education.

GOP lawmakers thrust Arizona into the national culture wars Thursday when they passed three bills in party-line votes banning abortion after 15 weeks, prohibiting transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams and restricting gender-affirming health care for minors.

The measures have been popular with the conservative base in states where Republicans dominate but could be politically risky in a battleground state where Democrats have made significant inroads.

Arizona Republicans have not aggressively promoted the bills as they’ve moved through the Legislature. Few GOP lawmakers explained their support during sometimes emotional debates in the House.

That doesn’t surprise Mike Noble, a former Republican political consultant who now does nonpartisan polling in the Southwest from his base in Phoenix.

“Those are clearly issues to really get the base fired up. However, the base is already fired up,” Noble said. “I think what you’re doing is giving the other side, who doesn’t have much of a reason to turn out, a reason to now come out and vote in these midterm elections.”

Democrats have grown increasingly successful in Arizona since Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016. Democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly were elected to the Senate in 2018 and 2020, respectively, and President Joe Biden became only the second Democrat since Harry Truman to win the state’s electoral votes. Democrats control a majority of the state’s U.S. House seats and two of the top five state offices. Republican legislative majorities have dwindled to the bare minimum.

With that backdrop, Kelly’s reelection race this year could be pivotal to the GOP’s hopes of winning a majority in the U.S. Senate.

The decision on whether to sign the bills lies with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, who has been mum. Advocates on both sides of the issues moved swiftly to pressure him to sign or veto the bills.

Ducey opposes abortion rights and is widely expected to sign that bill. He has less of a track record on transgender issues, but has occasionally bucked the social conservatives in his party on issues affecting the LGBTQ community.

Last year, he vetoed a bill barring all classroom discussions about gender identity, sexual orientation or HIV/AIDS without parental permission. He later signed a scaled back version.

“Governor Ducey needs to veto these hateful bills; lives are in the balance,” Kell Olson, a staff attorney in Tucson for the LGBTQ rights group Lambda Legal, said in a statement.

Likewise, Cathi Herrod, the influential head of the social conservative group Center for Arizona Policy, blasted an email alert to the group’s supporters urging them to contact Ducey and press him to sign the sports participation bill.

“LET’S STAND UP FOR WOMENS SPORTS IN ARIZONA!” Herrod wrote.

Arizona and Florida could join Mississippi and Louisiana in adopting a 15-week abortion ban, and nearly a dozen have limited participation in girls sports. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered state officials to investigate gender-affirming care as child abuse, and Arkansas banned it in a bill similar to Arizona’s. Both directives were put on hold by courts. A Florida bill awaiting the governor’s action would bar classroom instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation before fourth grade, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The Republican governors of Utah and Indiana this week vetoed bills banning transgender girls from girls sports, calling the issue virtually nonexistent in their states. Utah’s Republican lawmakers overrode the governor’s veto Friday, and Indiana lawmakers were considering doing the same.

In Arizona, about 16 high school athletes have receive waivers to play on the team that aligns with their gender identity, according to the Arizona Interscholastic Association.

“I will not stop fighting for women. I will not stop standing for women. I will not stop speaking for women. Especially my daughters, who wanted to win,” House Speaker Rusty Bowers said in explaining his support for the bill.

It’s adults who are hung up on the gender of kids playing sports, said Democratic Rep. Cesar Chavez.

“This is not a problem for these kids,” Chavez said. “Yet it’s a problem for these individuals who feel like they’re losing their antiquated political system.”

Arizona Republicans pass two bills targeting transgender youth rights

The Arizona House passed the bill not long after it also approved a strict ban on abortions in the state.


Demonstrators protest near the Supreme Court as the Court hears oral arguments in three cases on LGBTQ discrimination protections in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019. Arizona Republicans Thursday passed two bills targeting transgender youth rights. 

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo


March 25 (UPI) -- Republican Arizona lawmakers have passed two bills targeting the rights of transgender youth. The bills are headed to Gov. Doug Ducey's desk.

Without a single Democratic vote, the Arizona House Thursday passed two state Senate bills.

SB 1165 bars anyone born a male from participating in female sports, whether or not she is fully transitioned.

Republican supporters of that bill said it recognizes that males are inherently stronger than females.

RELATED Indiana Gov. Holcomb vetos bill to ban transgender student athletes from girls' sports


SB 1138 bans "irreversible gender reassignment surgery" for anyone under 18, even with consent of parents.

That bill also targets medical professionals involved in gender reassignment surgery for people under 18.

"Any referral of gender transition procedures to an individual who is under eighteen years of age is unprofessional conduct and is subject to discipline by the appropriate licensing entity or health professional regulatory board," the legislation said.

RELATED ACLU sues to block Texas from investigating parents of transgender children

The SB 1138 bill said, "It is of grave concern to the legislature that the medical community, despite the lack of studies showing that the benefits of such extreme interventions outweigh the risks, is allowing individuals who experience distress at identifying with their biological sex to be subjects of irreversible and drastic non-genital gender reassignment surgery and irreversible, permanently sterilizing genital gender reassignment surgery, which may actually increase the risk of suicide."

The Arizona ACLU urged Arizona Gov. Ducey to veto the bills targeting transgendered youth.

"Arizona has unfortunately joined the long list of states that have made bullying and discriminating against trans students a priority this legislative session," ACLU of Arizona policy director Darrell Hill said in a statement. "Gov. Ducey should follow in the footsteps of the Republican governors in Utah and Indiana and veto legislation that harms the health and well-being of transgender youth."

RELATED Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to veto last-minute bill banning transgender school athletes

Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed a bill that would have prohibited transgendered student athletes from participating in girl's sports.

Gov. Cox cited figures indicating 86% of all transgendered youth have considered suicide. He said he said he wants them to live.

In Indiana, GOP Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed a similar bill.

Earlier on Thursday, the Arizona House also passed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks and sent it to Ducey's desk, where he's expected to sign it. The state's House and Senate both narrowly passed the bill strictly along party lines.

Last April, Ducey signed into law a sweeping anti-abortion bill that criminalized abortions performed due to genetic issues of the fetus.

 Aurat March: Women rally in Pakistan despite attempts to shut down protest

Aurat March protesters hold placards and shout slogans as they gather to mark International Women's Day in Islamabad — Farooq Naeem/ AFP

• Rallies on International Women's Day have received fierce backlash since they were embraced four years ago.
• Women march through streets in a jovial atmosphere, chanting slogans such as "Give respect to women" and "End the patriarchy".
• March was guarded by riot police — and greeted by a small band of men chanting "end this obscenity".

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LAHORE: Around 2,000 women rallied Tuesday in the Pakistan city of Lahore despite efforts by authorities to bar the protest and withdraw security for an event frequently the target of violence.

Rallies on International Women's Day have received fierce backlash since they were embraced four years ago.

In a society where women have been shot, stabbed, stoned, set alight and strangled for damaging family "honour", critics accuse rights activists of promoting liberal Western values and disrespecting religious and cultural mores.

On Tuesday dozens of events marking International Women's Day — known as the Aurat March in Pakistan — were held across the country.

Non-violent counter-protests, dubbed "hijab marches", were also staged by women from conservative religious groups in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad where participants called for the preservation of Islamic values.

In the eastern city of Lahore, city authorities urged organisers to cancel the rally over safety concerns and threatened to not provide security.

Following a legal challenge, the Lahore High Court ruled the event could go ahead and authorities agreed to provide protection.

The women marched through the streets in a jovial atmosphere, chanting slogans such as "Give respect to women" and "End the patriarchy".

They were guarded by riot police — and greeted by a small band of men chanting "end this obscenity".

Student Sairah Khan, 23, cited recent high-profile cases of brutal violence against women "without consequences" for her attendance.

In Karachi — Pakistan's largest city — around 1,000 women gathered in a festival atmosphere with organisers conducting security checks as police stood by idly.

"We have only one slogan: equal wages, protection and peace," one woman chanted from a stage.

In the capital of Islamabad, around 200 women rallied outside the city's press club.

"We have come to raise our voices and highlight our issues," said student Fatima Shahzad.

They were outmatched by more than 400 counter-protesters from religious parties.

But organiser Farzana Bari pledged "we will continue to assert ourselves".

"These are the women who refused to bow down," she told AFP.

In 2020, groups of men from a religious party turned up in vans and hurled stones at women as they marched through Islamabad.

Doctored videos and photos of last year's events were spread online and even appeared on popular television shows falsely accusing women of chanting or carrying blasphemous slogans — an act that carries the death penalty in Pakistan.

EXPLAINER: Why WNBA players go overseas to play in offseason

Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner (42) looks to pass as Chicago Sky center Candace Parker defends during the first half of game 1 of the WNBA basketball Finals , Sunday, Oct. 10, 2021, in Phoenix. Griner was arrested in Russia last month at a Moscow airport after a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges. The Russian Customs Service said Saturday, March 5, 2022, that the cartridges were identified as containing oil derived from cannabis, which could carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The customs service identified the person arrested as a female player for the U.S. national team and did not specify the date of her arrest. 

(AP Photo/Ralph Freso, File) | Photo: AP

By DOUG FEINBERG
Updated: March 06, 2022

Russia has been a popular destination for WNBA players like Brittney Griner over the past two decades because of the money they can make playing there in the winter.

With top players earning more than $1 million - nearly quadruple what they can make as a base salary in the WNBA - Griner, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird and Jonquel Jones have been willing to spend their offseason playing far from home. It's tough for WNBA players to turn down that kind of money despite safety concerns and politics in some of the countries where they play.

The 31-year-old Griner, a seven-time All-Star for the Phoenix Mercury, has played in Russia since 2014. She was returning from a break for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup qualifying tournaments when she was arrested at an airport near Moscow last month after Russian authorities said a search of her luggage revealed vape cartridges.

On Saturday, the State Department issued a "do not travel" advisory for Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine and urged all U.S. citizens to depart immediately, citing factors including "the potential for harassment against U.S. citizens by Russian government security officials" and "the Embassy's limited ability to assist" Americans in Russia.

Turkey, Australia, China and France also have strong women's basketball domestic leagues where some of the WNBA's best play in their offseason.

WHY RUSSIAN SALARIES ARE SO HIGH

Russian sports leagues have been able to pay top players these high salaries because some of the teams are funded by government municipalities while others are owned by oligarchs who care more about winning championships and trophies than being profitable. There are stories of Russian owners putting up players in luxury accommodations and taking them on shopping sprees and buying them expensive gifts in addition to paying their salaries.

In 2015, Taurasi's team, UMMC Ekaterinburg - the same one Griner plays for - paid her to skip the WNBA season and rest.

"We had to go to a communist country to get paid like capitalists, which is so backward to everything that was in the history books in sixth grade," Taurasi said a few years ago.

The Russian league has a completely different financial structure from the WNBA, where there is a salary cap, players' union and collective bargaining agreement.

The WNBA has made strides to increase player salaries and find other ways to compensate players in the last CBA, which was ratified in 2020. The contract, which runs through 2027, pays players an average of $130,000, with the top stars able to earn more than $500,000 through salary, marketing agreements, an in-season tournament and bonuses.

The CBA also provides full salaries while players are on maternity leave, enhanced family benefits, travel standards and other health and wellness improvements.

WHO PLAYS THERE?

More than a dozen WNBA players were playing in Russia and Ukraine this winter, including league MVP Jones and Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley of the champion Chicago Sky. The WNBA confirmed Saturday that all players besides Griner had left both countries.

Almost half of the WNBA's 144 players were overseas this offseason, although stars Candace Parker, Bird, Chiney Ogwumike and Chelsea Gray opted to stay stateside.

WILL THIS LAST?

From purely a basketball stand point, the CBA will make it more difficult for WNBA players to compete overseas in the future. Beginning in 2023, there will be new WNBA prioritization rules that will be enforced by the league. Any player with more than three years of service who arrives late to training camp will be fined at a rate of 1% of base salary per day late. In addition, any player who does not arrive before the first day of the regular season will be ineligible to play at all that season. In 2024 and thereafter, any player who does not arrive before the first day of training camp (or, with respect to unsigned players, finish playing overseas) will be ineligible to play for the entire season.

The WNBA typically begins training camp in late April and the regular season starts in early May. Some foreign leagues don't end before those dates.

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