Women in the Military

Two female Infantry officers recently completed U.S. Army Ranger School, the Army's premier combat leadership course,  and have been awarded the coveted "tabs."  The Army did not release the names of the women, who will be among 119 soldiers to receive their tabs in this course.  The Army did confirm that they were both graduates of the Infantry Basic Officer Leaders Course.

They are the first women to complete the Army’s most demanding combat training school in almost 17 months following Capt. Kristen Griest,  1st Lt. Shaye Haver and Army Reserve Maj. Lisa Jaster.  Griest and Haver earned their tabs on Aug. 21, 2015.  Griest and Haver were the first women to graduate from the school, which is conducted in four phases, the first two at Fort Benning, then in the north Georgia mountains and the Florida panhandle swamps. Jaster graduated in October of that year.  Griest, of Connecticut, is an Airborne-qualified military police officer. Haver, a Texas resident, is an Apache helicopter pilot.  

The current class started in April at Fort Benning, with 381 men and 19 women. The students were forced to train with minimal food and little sleep and had to learn how to operate in the woods, mountains and swamplands. 

Students also had to undergo a physical fitness test that included 49 pushups, 59 situps, a 5-mile run in 40 minutes, six chin-ups, a swim test, a land navigation test, a 12-mile foot march in three hours, several obstacle courses, four days of military mountaineering, three parachute jumps, four air assaults on helicopters and 27 days of mock combat patrols.

Prior to Griest, Haver and Jaster, Ranger School had been open only to men. After Haver and Griest graduated, the school was opened to all soldiers — male or female — who qualified to attend.  Much of the training for those jobs in the Army is done at Fort Benning. In October of last year, 10 women graduated from the Infantry Basic Officer Leaders Course at Fort Benning. They graduated with 156 men. The expectation for those who graduate from IBOLC is to attend Ranger School.

The opening of Ranger School to all soldiers came about the same time then Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter under President Obama officially opened all military jobs, including combat positions, to qualified men and women. Carter lifted all gender-based restrictions on military service. The move paved the way for women to serve in the previously all-male infantry, armor and Special Forces fields and opened nearly 220,000 jobs across the military.

Capt. Griest has since gone on to once again make history by becoming the Army's first female infantry officer.  Griest graduated from the Maneuver Captain's Career Course. More women are expected to follow in her footsteps; the Army has since announced that it had approved requests from 22 female cadets to enter as second lieutenants in the infantry and armor branches. Thirteen of the new officers will enter into the armor branch, the other nine will go infantry.

There are also 135 women who successfully graduated from the Marine Corps enlisted infantry training course in 2015.  Marine Corps 2nd Lts. Virginia Brodie and Katherine Boy, who recently graduated from the Basic Officer Leader Artillery Course. Both officers graduated at the top of their class of 137 students, and both cited having leaders who supported their early aspirations to become artillery officers as the key to their success.

Women are also making strides in leadership capacities.  Women are now in charge of the academics and the leadership of the Army cadets at West Point. Brig. Gens. Diana Holland and Cindy Jebb assumed these posts in 2016.  In May of that year, Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson took charge as the leader of U.S. Northern Command. Robinson’s leadership and strategic vision will be essential to the country’s ability to defend itself against the very real threat of terrorism. According to the secretary of defense, Robinson was selected for the position because she was the most competitive for the job out of all of the general officers considered, regardless of gender.

These women are warriors in every sense of the word, and their physical and mental toughness clearly demonstrate that military women are capable of competing with and leading men when they sieze the baton and are given a shot.  There should be no question going forward that women have the leadership and intellectual prowess required for the most challenging positions in the military.

US Women's Tennis

Until this year's US Open, it had been 36 years since every player in the semifinals of the women’s draw at the U.S. Open was an American.  The last time that happened was 1981, when the lineup was Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Barbara Potter and Tracy Austin.  This year it was Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Venus Williams and CoCo Vandeweghe.  

During the last two decades, American women as an overall draw have had a rough go of it at the U.S. Open — and have seen less US overall success at every other tennis major as well. But all that changed at this year’s Open as a new generation appeared to step up and seize the mantel.

During the first 20 years of the “Open era,” the women’s draw at the U.S. Open saw 15 champions from the U.S.  After a slow start following wins by Virginia Wade in Great Britain in 1968 and Margaret Court of Australia in 1969, American women won 15 of the next 17 titles. King won in 1971, 1972 and 1974 (her last time) before passing the torch to Chris Evert. Evert dominated the tournament from 1975 to 1982 — her six titles in that span are tied with Serena Williams’s for the most in the Open era.  Tracy Austin picked up two titles, in 1979 and 1981, and Martina Navratilova, who became an American citizen in 1981, won four of her own from 1983 to 1987.  

However, the work of the Williams sisters alone in this period — particularly Serena Williams, who has 23 titles — means it is still likely that this period will go down as one of the most dominant eras of American women’s tennis. The pair have won 30 of the last 75 finals and have combined for eight U.S. Open trophies.

In the championship match, both Sloane Stephens and Madison Key were making their maiden appearances in any Grand Slam final.  It marked the first time since 1998 that the women’s draw at the U.S. Open was won by an American not named Serena or Venus (Lindsay Davenport won the tournament in 1998). Sloane Stephens, who was ranked 957th in the world in July and entered the tournament unseeded, beat fellow American and friend Madison Keys by 6-3, 6-0 sets. 

But perhaps in the best sign of the long-term health of US Women’s tennis, ESPN scored a ratings coup during the final.  Thanks to the first US Open Women’s Championship tennis battle in years between young American women; it was the highest overnight rating for the championship match in the three years ESPN has had the rights.

Peggy Whitson Touches Down

I wrote about Peggy Whitson back in April.  That was when the 57-year-old had just broken the record for the longest spent in space by a US astronaut.  On April 24th, while on an extended stay of 288 days aboard the International Space Station, Whitson passed the prior record of 534 days, 2 hours and 48 minutes of cumulative time in space.  It wasn't her first record.  She has has logged the most spacewalks by a female and is the oldest woman to have traveled to space.  She has also spent more than 60 hours and 21 minutes outside an airlock, engaged in spacewalks to complete projects such as adding modules to the space station.  

After extending her trip by another 3 months, Peggy has touched back down to Earth.  She returned with two of her colleagues on September 2nd after a 3.5 hour flight as their spacecraft touched down on the steppes of Kazakhstan.  By the time she touched down, she had extended her record for cumulative time in space to 665 days.  Peggy has commanded the International Space Station twice, the only female to do so.  

Welcome back, Peggy.  Congratulations on a successful journey and an incredible career.

Read the whole profile here.

womenarewinning.blogspot.com/2017/04/peggy-whitson-records-from-outer-space.html

Doctor Who

Premiering in 1963, Doctor Who has been a sci-fi institution of British television for more than 50 years.  It is still one of BBC Worldwide's best selling shows worldwide.  But when Jodie Whittaker debuts as the 13th iconic Time Lord in this year's Christmas Special, it will be as the first ever female Doctor.  Taking over for retiring Peter Capaldi, Whittaker is best known for her role on the hit TV show, Broadchurch.  The shape-shifting, time traveling Doctor has taken female form before, but Whittaker’s Doctor - the 13th in the series - will be the first to be played by a woman for a whole series.

The show has been building up to this point after years of portraying strong female characters-- from Michelle Gomez's The Master and Alex Kingston's River Song to companions like Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rose (Billie Piper).  But still - a woman has never portrayed the title character until now.  The departing show runner, Steven Moffat,  has been setting the stage and dropping hints for the better part of a year - ever since Capaldi announced he wouldn't be returning after this season.  But even with efforts to "soften the blow," a quick read of the comments on social media shows that not all fans are warm to the idea.  From the message boards..."Changing the nature of an iconic character (changing the gender couldn't be a greater example of this) never ends well. No disrespect to Ms. Whittaker; she may be a fine actor but she will never be the Doctor for me."

The ambivalence among the passionate Doctor Who tribe may be best summed up by responses from two former Doctors.

Peter Davison, who played Doctor Who in the 1980s, told the Press Association, "If I feel any doubts, it's the loss of a role model for boys, who I think Doctor Who is vitally important for. So I feel a bit sad about that, but I understand the argument that you need to open it up ... As a viewer, I kind of like the idea of the Doctor as a boy but then maybe I'm an old fashioned dinosaur – who knows?"

But another Doctor Who, Colin Baker, hit back and said, "They've had 50 years of having a role model. So, sorry Peter, you're talking rubbish there – absolute rubbish. You don't have to be of a gender of someone to be a role model. Can't you be a role model as people?"

But Whittaker has consistently sent a message of calm reassurance and optimism to help the few diehard fans who may be feeling some sense of disorientation at having a female Doctor.  "I want to tell the fans not to be scared by my gender. Because this is a really exciting time, and Doctor Who represents everything that's exciting about change," Whittaker added. "The fans have lived through so many changes, and this is only a new, different one, not a fearful one."

So another milestone achieved, another bastion breached, another barrier broken - this time in the form of a female Doctor traveling through time in a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space).  My guess is that many of us have felt recently that we have traveled back in time...

Wonder Woman

 

Wonder Woman is the most popular female comic-book superhero of all time. Aside from Superman and Batman, no other comic-book character has lasted as long. Generations of girls have carried their sandwiches to school in Wonder Woman lunchboxes - me included. Like every other superhero, Wonder Woman has a secret identity. Unlike most other superheroes, she has carried the extra burden of holding a mirror along with her lasso.  A mirror that reflects society's ever-shifting view of the role and soul of women.

In February 1941, Dr. William Moulton Marston, a famous psychologist and the inventor of the lie detector test, submitted a draft of his first script for a Wonder Woman comic, explaining the “under-meaning” of Wonder Woman’s Amazonian origins in ancient Greece, where men had kept women in chains, until they broke free and escaped. “The NEW WOMEN thus freed and strengthened by supporting themselves (on Paradise Island) developed enormous physical and mental power.” His comic, he said, was meant to chronicle “a great movement now under way—the growth in the power of women.” 

Wonder Woman officially debuted in 1942 in  All-Star Comics when she appeared on the cover of a new comic book, Sensation Comics.    She wore a golden tiara, a red bustier, blue underpants and knee-high, red leather boots. She’d left Paradise to fight fascism with feminism, in “America, the last citadel of democracy, and of equal rights for women!”  Marston's Wonder Woman had been born Princess Diana on the fictitious all-female island of Themyscira and trained as an Amazon warrior. 

Marston had wanted to create an icon for little girls. "Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, power," he wrote in a 1943 magazine article. "Women's strong qualities have become despised because of their weak ones. The obvious remedy is to create a feminine character with all the strength of Superman plus all the allure of a good and beautiful woman." The result was a woman who fought alongside male soldiers and, in 1943, ran for President of the United States—against the Man's World Party—and won.

Her debut was not without controversary.  In March 1942, the National Organization for Decent Literature put the comic on its blacklist of “Publications Disapproved for Youth” for one reason: “Wonder Woman is not sufficiently dressed.”  There was also a great deal of angst and pubic complaint about how often Wonder Woman was tied up or otherwise bound and gagged.  Of course I wouldn’t expect (everyone)  to understand all this,” Marston wrote his publisher at All-American Comics. “After all I have devoted my entire life to working out psychological principles. "The secret of woman’s allure,” he said is that “women enjoy submission—being bound.”

Controversary and interpretation has followed Wonder Woman all along the way.  She has been a suffragist, a sex symbol, a soldier—and President of the United States. Along the way, Wonder Woman changed costumes dozens of times with her hemline higher, lower and then back up again as mores shifted and new writers took up the mantle. It follows her even today when, 75 years after her debut in the comics, Wonder Woman is headlining her first major feature film (Batman and Superman have had 9 and 7 live action films respectively).  

When the United Nations decided to name Wonder Woman an honorary ambassador last year ahead of the film's release. The U.N. named the superhero Honorary Ambassador for the Empowerment of Women and Girls. The U.N.'s press officers set up a ceremony last October at the organization's New York City headquarters As the actress in the lead role, Gal Gadot, greeted dozens of cheering elementary-school-age girls, the adults sitting behind them raised their fists and turned their backs. Outside, some 100 U.N. staffers gathered in protest. More than 600 of them had signed a petition objecting to "a large-breasted white woman of impossible proportions" and "the epitome of a 'pinup' girl" becoming an official symbol of female power. Two months later, Wonder Woman's ambassadorial privileges were unceremoniously withdrawn—setting off another round of complaints.

After many failed efforts over the years, the first film staring Wonder Woman was released this month.  The film is directed Patty Jenkins—one of the first female directors to command a budget of over $100 million.   Gadot's background is a perfect illustration of the needle Woman Woman has always had to thread.  Gadot competed in a Miss Universe pageant (owned and produced by Donald Trump) and—like her Holocaust-survivor grandfather and parents before her—served in the Israeli military as part of the country's mandatory conscription. 

Jenkins describes the filming this way, "it wasn't just a gathering of beautiful women.  It was exclusively badass, interesting women."  The early returns at the box office are very positive.  The film exceeded expectations on opening weekend, bringing in $103.1 million. That makes Wonder Woman the biggest opening ever for a female director. The previous record holder, "Fifty Shades of Grey," brought in $85.2 million in 2015.  And it was women who helped the film to the top of the box office this weekend.  More than half, 52%, of the film's audience this weekend were female -- a significant number for a genre that has been dominated by men. 

Somehow it seems oddly appropriate that we are asking the original female superhero, flawed an icon as she may be, to break the superhero equivalent of a glass ceiling.  Maybe it is all the more meaningful this year of all years.  

Sources: 

Smithsonian Magazine, 2014

Motto by Time

NYT

NYT

Time Magazine

CNN Media

"B" is for Billionaire

The third annual tally by Forbes Magazine  of America’s 60 most successful self-made women shows how women are continuing to create and chart their own paths to success and wealth.  It also shows the progress being made by female entrepreneurs and business leaders. The accumulated wealth of these 60 women reaches $61.5 B.  That is up 17% from $52.5 B last year.  Finally, it shows that the paths to wealth are as diverse as the women themselves.  It includes fortunes made in everything from makeup to music, to fashion and media, to biotechnology and aerospace, to food and finance.  

Forbes Magazine

The 2017 list has a new number one, two new billionaires (including Carolyn Rafaelian, founder of Alex and Ani) and five newcomers.  Last year’s list included 13 newcomers.  Many of these women were inspired to start companies when they saw a need for a product they wanted – including Spanx, Vera Bradley and IT Cosmetics.  

At the top of the list is Marian Ilitch, whose net worth of $5.1 billion makes her the richest self-made women. Ilitch co-founded Little Caesar's pizza with her husband in 1959.  Following her husband's death, she now owns the pizza chain with more than $4 billion in sales.  She also owns the Detroit Red Wings.

Who are the Newcomers?

Jessica Iclisoy grabbed the last spot on the 2017 list with a net worth of $260 million.  She is tied with real estate mogul Dottie Herman at No. 59, the minimum needed to make the 2017 list. (That is $10 million more than the $250 million minimum in 2016). Iclisoy launched California Baby in 1995. Today it sells $80 million worth of 90 nontoxic, organic baby care products at stores like Whole Foods and Target. Iclisoy never brought in outside investors and still owns 100% of the compan.  California Baby has its own manufacturing facility and Iclisoy grows some ingredients on her own farm.

Kendra Scott, CEO and founder of jewelry firm Kendra Scott Design, launched her jewelry collection in 2002.  She had just shut down her unprofitable hat shop in Austin, Texas, which she had started eight years earlier at 19. The hats didn't sell, but her bold handmade earrings and necklaces did.

In 15 years, Kendra Scott has grown her eponymous firm from a wholesale business run out of her spare bedroom to a chain of 60 stores, mostly in Texas, California and Florida.  With more than 2,000 employees, it had estimated 2016 revenues of $160 million.  In December 2016, Boston private equity firm Berkshire Partners acquired a minority stake in a deal that reportedly valued the company at $1 billion.  

Anne Dinning has helped run D.E. Shaw, one of the most successful quantitative hedge fund firms on Wall Street, for nearly two decades. She joined billionaire David Shaw's firm in 1990, after receiving her Ph.D. in computer science. She quickly rose through the ranks, overseeing much of the firm's hedge fund activities by 1995. She returned in 2002 following a brief retirement in 1999 and joined the executive committee.  After 15 years on the committee, Dinning moved into a senior leadership role as a managing director in 2017. During Dinning’s tenure, its assets under management have risen from under $5 billion to over $40 billion. 

There was one returnee to the 2017 list.  Martine Rothblatt, founder of Sirius Satellite Radio and biotech firm United Therapeutics, rejoined the list after a one-year absence.  Rothblatt, who underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1994, started United after her daughter Jenesis developed pulmonary arterial hypertension.  Rothblatt is the only transgender woman in the ranks.  

Worldwide Phenomenon

And the progress isn’t just a US phenomenon.  Forbes’ released its annual list of female billionaires worldwide in March.  The 2017 list includes more self-made women billionaires than any year before in the list's 30-year history. There's now a record 56 women who made their own 10-digit fortunes, and 15 of these entrepreneurs did so in the past year.  And unlike the combined (men and women) list of billionaires, the US doesn’t dominate this list.  While the U.S. the most billionaires overall, the most women entrepreneurs with a 10-digit fortune come from Asia, where there's 29 in all. The U.S. comes in second with 17 self-made women billionaires. About 67% of all self-made women billionaires in the world come from Asia or America.

Work Left to Do

Of the 374 Self-made billionaires in the US on Forbes’ 2017 list, 20% or 18 are women.  Interestingly that level seems to be a common plateau across areas of pursuit - it is also the percentage of women in Congress in 2017 (19.4%).  Seems it will take some work to breaking through that threshold.  It appears clear that entrepreneurship is the fastest way to wealth for American women.  Unlike their male counterparts, the vast majority of women on the list were founders of their businesses.  Only six made their fortunes within the structures of established companies and all of those were in disruptive financial services or technology companies, not in traditional industries (D.E. Shaw, Facebook, Oracle, eBay, Google and Yahoo).

Source: Forbes Magazine

Peggy Whitson: Records from Outer Space

 

Peggy Whitson has just broken record for the longest amount of time in space by a US astronaut. Currently serving an extended stay aboard the International Space Station, Whitson passed the prior record of 534 days, 2 hours and 48 minutes of cumulative time in space at 1.27am (ET) on April 24th.  When she finally returns to Earth, she will have spent over 650 days in space.

Whitson is already the first female astronaut to command the space station and also holds the record for the most spacewalks by a female (7).  She is also the oldest woman to have traveled to space.  In addition to her new time-in-orbit mark, Whitson has spent more than 53 hours outside an airlock, engaged in spacewalks that added modules to the space station, among other duties.

Whitson is an American biochemist and astronaut.  Raised on a small working farm in the outskirts of a 20-person town in Iowa, she decided to become an astronaut at age 9 when she watched Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong walking on the moon on TV.  When Sally Ride was named as the first female American astronaut the same year Whitson graduated from high school (1978), that sealed the deal. She sold chickens along the way to get her pilot’s license.  

She joined Johnson Space Center at NASA as National Research Council Resident Research Associate after completing a PhD and postdoctoral fellowship in biochemistry at Rice University.  She was 26.  Ten years later and now thirty-six, she was selected as an Astronaut Candidate.  Following more years of rigorous training, she took her first trip to space in June 2002 as a flight engineer.  She went aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on Expedition 5. It launched from Kennedy Space Center on June 5 and docked at the International Space Station on June 7. After spending 184 days in space they returned to Earth in December.  During these six months on the board of International Space Station, Whitson conducted twenty-one experiments in microgravity and human life sciences. In addition, she installed commercial payloads and hardware systems. To install shielding on a service module and to deploy a science payload, she had to perform a four-hour and 25-minute Orlan spacewalk.

In 2007, she made her second trip serving as commander of the Expedition 16 mission aboard spacecraft Soyuz-TMA, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. After spending nearly 192 days in space, the team returned to Earth aboard Soyuz TMA-11.  She is the first female commander to lead the space station.  Two others commanded the space shuttle during the life of that program, Eileen Collins and Pamela Melroy. 

Over her career she has served as project scientist of the Shuttle-Mir Program, Co-Chair of the U.S.-Russian Mission Science Working Group, chief of the Astronaut Office where she was entrusted with the responsibility of supervising all the activities of NASA astronauts.  Whitson was the first non-military personnel to hold that position. She has also served as Deputy Chief of NASA Astronaut Office and Chief of the Station Operations Branch, Astronaut Office.

Whitson’s most recent trip began in November 2016 as part of Expedition 50/51. She ws selected as the commander of Expedition 51 for her second tour as commander.  Following a three-month extension of the mission, she is now expected back to Earth in September.

In one interview following the most recent milestone, Whitson said “Breaking records has never been my goal. I think it’s important that we’re continually pushing our limits and showing that we can extend beyond what we have done before.  One of the most fun things to do while living here is to just be here,”

The Women of Fox News

 

Seems incontrovertible at this point that Fox News network has a big problem with sexual harassment. Also, it is clear that it has been going on since the beginning.  Roger Ailes, the network’s powerful Chief Executive and founder resigned last year following a maelstrom of sexual harassment suits and allegations, some of which have been settled while new ones have been filed.  As of now, more than 2 dozen women have accused the former media don of sexual harassment taking place over the last three decades.

Allegations and rumors had been going on for so long that Ailes’ behavior was considered common knowledge. But it wasn’t until Gretchen Carlson, former anchor of Fox & Friends filed a lawsuit, that the owners of the network, the Murdoch family, stepped in and initiated an investigation.  Carlson had recorded conversations with Ailes for over a year providing clear evidence of the ongoing harassment. That investigation resulted in the Ailes resignation.  But by that time countless women had suffered as a result of a culture steeped in intimidation, entitlement, indecency, misogyny and grotesque abuses of power.  Carlson and her lawyer sued Ailes personally to circumvent a clause in employment agreements at Fox that stipulated that employment disputes be resolved in private arbitration. 

Of course, that culture led to the exodus of many talented women. The network’s top-rated female anchor, Megyn Kelly, left Fox News for NBC earlier this year after she alleged in her memoir that Ailes made unwanted sexual advances toward her.  Greta Van Susteren also left the network after Ailes’ departure; her refreshingly unremarkable hairstyle and pantsuits stood out from the tight dresses and long locks of most of the women of Fox News.  This was allowed to go on so long, taking a toll on so many women because Fox News was by now the number one cable news network and Ailes was viewed as the primary architect - untouchable and unassailable in his role.  Single-handedly able to make or destroy careers.  The fact that these incidents of harassment were so common may have contributed to why no one at Fox came forward or filed a lawsuit until now.  It was hard to complain about something that was so normalized.

It took the unbelievable courage and cunning of a few women willing to stand up to the bullying to break through and shine the antiseptic light of publicity on the fetid culture eating away at Fox News.  To do so meant standing up to intimidation, denials from Ailes and his supporters at Fox and threats of countersuits.

But signs that the women’s efforts are making a difference are adding up.  Ailes is gone (albeit with a $40 M payout and a nominal title of “Advisor”).  After the New York Times recently reported that host Bill O’Reilly and 21st Century Fox had paid out $13 million to five women in exchange for their silence on allegations of sexual harassment, 60 advertisers pulled out of supporting the show.  And O’Reilly is on vacation, maybe permanently.  The shareholder law firm Scott & Scott is investigating 21st Century Fox to “determine whether Fox’s Officers and Directors have breached their fiduciary duties.”   And The Fox News Channel is under investigation by federal prosecutors to determine whether it broke securities law by masking past settlement payments to victims of Ailes and others at Fox as salary and compensation, to avoid disclosure of the payments and the harassment.

But perhaps in the best sign of winning yet, for the last three weeks in a row, and the first time ever, MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” has outperformed O'Reilly in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic. Maddow’s crisp, intelligent and deeply researched show is building a significant following and beginning to loosen OReilly’s grip on that hour slot in cable news. 

#BeBoldForChange: US Women's Hockey Team

 

For 14 months, the U.S.A. Women's National Hockey team was locked in a battle with the sport's governing body, USA Hockey.  They were asking for equal pay and benefits with their male counterparts and fair treatment (including benefits such as child care, maternity leave and more support for youth development in the sport). After initially failing to reach a deal, the dispute culminated with the team threatening to boycott the International Ice Hockey Federation world championship in Plymouth, Mich. The United States is the three-time defending champion and is currently ranked No. 1.

Finally with just days left before the tournament Friday, the women's team agreed to a four-year deal.  While the complete financial terms were not released, it was widely reported that the four-year deal could earn each team member more than $100,000 in an Olympic year and about $70,000 in non-Olympic years.  Currently U.S.A. Hockey provides each player with $1,000 per month during the six-month Olympic residency every four years. The players also receive up to $2,000 per month in training stipends from the United States Olympic Committee year-round, even in non-Olympic years. Some national team players compete in the National Women’s Hockey League, where salaries, which range from $10,000 to $26,000 a year following a reduction last year.  Rigorous year-round training sessions makes it impossible to hold down a traditional full-time job while on the team.

For years, the women’s team, who have won gold in six of the last eight World Championships, have made do with much, much less, while working just as hard as their male counterparts. USA Hockey has a responsibility to the grow the game of hockey, not just for men, but for women as well, and that’s something they have clearly neglected.  According the release, USA Hockey spends about $3.5 million to support boys who are participating in the National Team Development Program. Until this new deal, there was no such program for girls, and the Women’s National Team only plays in 9 games a year when there isn’t Olympic competition, even though they’ve asked for more games to be put on the schedule.

The slights - big and small - added up to an insidious pattern.  Before the teams left for Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics, USA Hockey hosted a press conference to unveil the sweaters that both the men’s and women’s teams would wear. Despite being the gold medal favorites, the women’s team wasn’t invited to attend the uniform unveiling, only the men were. The women learned about it on TV, along with everyone else. If you need reminding, the 2014 men’s team failed to medal that year, while the women took home silver after a heartbreaking loss to Team Canada in of the best hockey games ever played.

It was a financial as well moral victory for the team and for women's sports in general.  The governing body had tried to force the team's hand by seaking out replacement players replacement players to play in the tournament if team members followed through with their boycott.  That effort was met by a public and vociferous "No" from many of those approached.  

Be Bold For Change. That was the players’ rallying cry in the fight.  As far as wages, the men’s team members don’t get paid any more than the women. But, the U.S. men’s Olympic teams --- starting when the NHL first halted its season to allow players to compete in the Winter Games in 1998 --- have been comprised exclusively of NHL players. And even at the annual Men’s World Championship, about two-thirds of the team is made up of NHL players.  Since NHL players make millions, there’s no need for USA Hockey to kick in more money.  The men’s team, however, does have an edge in some benefits.   USA Hockey covers paid transportation for guests, and those guests are allowed to stay at the players' hotel for IIHF events --- like the World Championships --- and receive meals and game tickets. Players on the women’s team stated that they are not allowed to bring guests and are forced to share rooms with teammates. The men also travel to games in business class, while the women fly coach.

The team received significant support from the player's unions of the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB.  Many players on the National Men's team indicated a willingness to also boycott the games in support of the Women's team.  Dunkin Donuts, a major sponsor, put pressure on USA Hockey to come to terms.  Other sponsors such as Nike, Enterprise, Marriott and Liberty Mutual were silent.  Sixteen US Senators also penned a letter to the executive director in support of the team's demands. The letter was signed by: Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) and Edward Markey (@SenMarkey) of Massachusetts, Patty Murray (@PattyMurray) of Washington, Dianne Feinstein (@SenFeinstein) of California, Patrick Leahy (@SenatorLeahy) of Vermont, Richard Blumenthal (@SenBlumenthal) of Connecticut, Maggie Hassan (@Senator Hassan) of New Hampshire, Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) of Ohio, Thomas Carper (@SenatorCarper) of Delaware, Tammy Baldwin (@tammybaldwin) of Wisconsin, Robert Menendez (@SenatorMenendez) and Cory Booker (@CoryBooker) of New Jersey, Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) of Hawaii, Bob Casey (@SenBobCasey) of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand (@SenGillibrand) of New York and Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) of Minnesota.

Diana Nyad: Found a Way

 

 

In 2013, Diana Nyad became the first person to ever swim unprotected from Cuba to Florida up the gut of the Gulf Stream (in 1997, Australian Susie Maroney completed the swim from within a shark cage. She was 22 at the time).  It was Nyad's 5th try overall and her fourth in as many years.  She was 64 years old.  

Supported by a 35-member team that included navigators, medical staff, shark spotters and her handlers, she spent more than 53 hours in the shark and jelly-fish infested water and swam 110 miles.  In addition to donning a suit meant to protect her against her jellyfish nemesis, she wore a special mask to prevent jellyfish stings to her tongue, a key factor in one of her failed attempts.  There were other gut-wrenching setbacks including rough, strength-sapping and nausea-creating seas and hours-long asthma attack.  But it was probably the paralyzingly and excruciatingly painful sting of the box jellyfish that was her biggest hurdle.  Bigger even then the sharks lurking below.

Nyad is Naiad in Greek meaning nymph of the sea, a girl of the water.  The perfect aptonym.  She began swimming when she was in elementary school in Florida.  Getting up every day at 4:30 in the morning, 365 days a year.  Never needing the help of an alarm clock.  Nyad had the focus and confidence that comes with total commitment.  And many, many hours in the pool.  Soon she was competing in National championships.  By age 12, her parents were concerned she was a "fanatic."  She didn't see any problem - believing that level of commitment is simply what you need to "get ahead in life."  That only "hard work and focus" could shape her into Champion form.  The setbacks were real and damaging - including sexual abuse by a coach - an all-too-common story in girl's athletics.  A bout of endocarditis took her out of the pool and out of school for three months when she was a junior in High School.  But she always just kept swimming.  And swimming. She eventually won three Florida state high school championships, but it was increasingly apparent that speed and sprinting were not her top strength.  She wasn't putting in Olympic-level times.

She was lost when she left swimming during college and bounced from school to school (he was asked to leave Emory after jumping from a fourth floor balcony without a parachute).  She was looking for the next all-consuming passion.  Then she found marathon swimming through a friend.  A sport much better suited to her body type, physical attributes and swim stroke.  This was swimming in the open, often cold, always rough water.  Her first swim was in a Canadian lake in 1970 when Nyad was in her 20s.  She was lubed down with 10 pounds of wool fat to guard against the cold.   Her first solo swim was in Lake Ontario on 1974 where she swam continuously for 18 hours and 20 minutes. There was little prize money but expenses were usually paid and, most importantly, she was back swimming.

Her penchant for endurance swimming and quest for recognition first came together in 1975 at age 26 when she decided to become the first woman to swim around the island of Manhattan.  This had only been done by men - the last one in 1927.  She made it on her second try and broke the record by getting all the way around in 7 hours, 57 minutes.  Coming at the time when women sports were beginning the long journey to serious recognition, when Billie Jean King was dominating women's tennis and title IX was being signed into law, Nyad became a media celebrity with that swim.  She would go on to join ABC's Wide World of Sports as a commentator.  But it is the swim through the Gulf Stream from Havana to Key West and the sheer grit, stamina and refusal to quit of that feat that are her true claim to fame.  

She was 28 when she first made the attempt in 1978.  She first settled on her goal of 100 miles in the open water - twice as long as anyone had ever done and three times longer than her longest swim to date of 18 hours.  She scoured the world for the right route, eventually returning to her roots in Florida and settling on a swim from Cuba to the US - a route tinged with romanticism.  First she had to put together a team.  A navigator was needed to make sure they stayed on course through the strong currents, countercurrents and counterclockwise eddies.  Shark experts were needed to develop a protocol to keep the predators at bay.  Nutritionists, boats, trainers and elaborate equipment were all required.  There even were lobbyist involved to coax the Cuban government into providing the necessary permissions and permits.  And all of this required money.  Fundraising was the first order of business.  

Followed by a flotilla of media boats, Nyad endured 8 foot swells and the sting of jelly fish before being told that they had been dragged too far to the East by the Gulf Stream.  After 41 hours in the water and dropping 29 pounds of body weight, land was no longer reachable.  She bounced back quickly and planned to try again in 1979 but after 8 months of training, was denied entry by the Cuban government.  Instead, they organized a swim from Bimini to Florida.  Although less strenuous than the Havana/Key West swim, it is no cake walk.  At 102 miles, it was the world distance record.  She was 30 years old and although the Cuba swim still beckoned, she moved on the broadcast booth and toured the world on behalf of the Wide World of Sports. 

It was 30 years later at age 60 that she returned to the dream.  She had been a successful athlete and broadcast journalist but Cuba remained the one that had gotten away.  She had stayed in amazing shape physically but she hadn't swum a stroke in 30 years. She started training in September 2009 and by October was doing 5 hour swims in the pool.  She had to raise the money, recruit the team and gather the equipment all over again.  She trained all Spring off the coast of California and in St. Maarten getting up to 12 hour continuous swims.  After training and planning for more than a year, the 2010 swim was a bust when the Cuban government again stalled with the permits.  Undaunted, it was on to 2011 when she made two attempts.  In August in her first attempt that year,  she made it 58 miles after 29 hours in the water. This time it was the sting of the boxjelly fish, a shoulder injury and some flawed navigation that led to a failed attempt.  A new team of medical professionals and a new navigator led the charge for the second attempt in September.  After 40 hours in the water, Nyad was forced to call it quits again after the deadly box jellyfish surface two nights in a row.  

For 2012, Nyad adds to her high-tech gear and has a custom "stinger" suit made that will block the sting but without offering any flotation or warmth which would void the official time of the swim.  She tapes on booties and gloves to protect her feet and hands and smears anti-sting gel over her exposed face.  She hits the water for her fourth try on August 17, 2012.    She is out again after 51 hours when storms and high seas make the crossing impossible.  Her team starts to lose heart and begins to believe that a crossing is truly impossible.  There are just too many variables to manage - the currents, the weather, the wind, the surf, the jellyfish.  All have to be right and be right for three consecutive days - a veritable lifetime in the Gulf Stream. And meanwhile, other swimmers were making the attempt and failing.   But Nyad refuses to give in.  Others were starting to call her continued pursuit crazy, she called it "radical tenacity."  The list of obstacles is long but the human spirit, according to Nyad, is indomitable.  She flat out refuses to quit and quotes Thomas Edison in letters to her supporters: "Our greatest weakness is giving up.  The most certain way to success is to try one more time."

And she knows that they are learning something every time.  In 2012, the jelly fish found the one exposed area on her body - her lips.  So her attempt in 2013 included a specialty-fit mouth guard and face mask that protected her lips and the inside of of her cheeks.  Now no skin, not even for seconds.

On August 31, 2013, Nyad jumps into the Gulf from a pier at Marina Hemingway in Havana, Cuba.  She was completely committed to finding a way to make it to Key West. After fighting seasickness, sleep deprivation and hallucinations, Nyad swims onto Smathers Beach in Key West, Florida.  53 hours and 34 years after her first try.  

She had three things to say that day to the assembled wellwishers and media:

One:  Never, ever give up.

Two: You're never too old to chase your dreams.

Three: It looks like a solitary sport, but it is a team.  

Along this extraordinary journey, she had learned to be the person who "never, ever gives up."  In her fourth book 

"Find a Way", Nyad lays out her philosophy clearly.  

"Take every minute, one at a time.  Don't be fooled by a perfect sea at any given moment.  Accept and rise to whatever circumstance presents itself. Be in it full tilt, your best self.  Summon your courage, your true grit.  When the body fades, don't let the negative edges of despair creep in.  Allowing flecks of negativity leads to a Pandora's box syndrome.  You can't stop the doubts once you consent to let them seep into your tired, weakened brain.  You must set your will.  Set it now.  Let nothing penetrate or cripple it."

"Each day, not a fingernail better.  No regrets."

"Brazen action, versus inertia, leads to people and events you couldn't have imagined.

"I failed and faltered many times, but I can look back without regret because I was never burdened with the paralysis of fear and inaction.  I may have been floundering out of the water, but I was insistent on living a fierce life.  I was bold.  And there was magic in it."

Pat Summitt: Indomitable On and Off the Basketball Court

 

Pat Summitt reached the pinnacle of college basketball.  With 1,098 career wins, the most in NCAA history, she secured her spot in the NCAA Hall of Fame in 2000 when she was also named the Naismith Basketball Coach of the Century.  Over her 38-year coaching career, her team won 84% of the time it took the court.  By the time she retired prematurely in 2012 at age 59 due to early-onset Alzheimer's, she had won 8 National Championships - a standing record when she put away her clipboard for the last time.  Summitt also won two Olympic medals: a gold as head coach of the 1984 U.S. women's basketball team where she was only the female coach for any country in the entire Olympic tournament and a silver as a player on the 1976 team. In 2009, when the Sporting News placed her at number 11 on its list of the 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time in all sports; she was the only woman on the list. She was the first woman coach to earn $1 M a year.  In 2012, when she retired, she was awarded the  Presidential Medal of Freedom  the highest civilian award in the United States for her work in women's sports.  

She was raised on a tobacco farm in Clarksville, TN where the work was physical, tough and constant and her father's expectations tougher.  But there was always basketball.  She graduated from the University of Tennessee, Martin in 1974 leaving the team as the all time leading scorer with 1,045 points.    ("There was never a day without some kind of heavy lifting," Pat Summitt)

At 22, Summitt became the head coach of the Lady Vols at the University of Tennessee. It was 1974 and just two years after Title IX passed.  This was a time when women's sports received little to no resources and even less attention.  UT could afford to put the team into the hands of a  22-year-old with no coaching experience.  No one paid any attention to women's basketball anyway.  Her first game had 53 spectators and those were mostly parents.  

Women's basketball wouldn't become an NCAA-sanctioned sport for another 8 years (the men's NCAA tournament was started in 1939).  Her team had no uniforms, no budget and was relegated to the oldest facilities on campus.  None of this stopped Summitt from building the Women's Basketball program at Tennessee into a perennial powerhouse.  The Championship game between Tennessee and Connecticut in 1995 had 18,000 in attendance.

But there was something she was just as proud of as the win tally - the impact of her leadership on her players.  All 122 players who completed eligibility on her teams went on to earn a degree.  And she bred leaders; when Summitt retired, 78 of her former players occupied basketball coaching or administrative positions.  A former player and assistant coach is now the head coach of the Lady Vols.  She demanded everything on the court, but that wasn't enough.  She also demanded that her players work hard at everything they do and be solid citizens in their communities as long as they represented the team and the program.  

How did she do it?  With complete and total commitment to winning.  She drove herself and her players relentlessly.  She won because she simply willed it to be so.  Cutting corners was anathema.  You didn't miss a sucker on a tobacco plant and you didn't show up even one minute late to practice.  Her players knew this and respected her for it.  Her practices were legendary.  She worked the team until they thought they had nothing left and then she helped them find more.  No detail was too small.  She seemed to see everything.  She was unbelievably tough but she was clear about the rules and the expectations.  And they were applied evenly to everyone.  She once benched a star player even with her family in the stands after that player missed bed check by 20 minutes.  They respected her because her standards were as as much about helping them be successful long term as they were about the season at hand.  ("I've shown you what it requires to win, what real effort looks like.  Now you know, and if you turn away from it, take a shortcut, you'll be settling for less.  And if you do it once, you'll do it for the rest of your life," Pat Summitt)

She won because her commitment was all consuming.  She simply never stopped and she never let her players stop either.  She was a fighter.  She was determined.  She worked non-stop because that is what she had been taught to do.  She wasn't a genius so much as an indomitable will.  It was her work ethic that made her special.  Her commitment was renowned.  ("She had no discernible traces of fear or self-consciousness.  She was forceful, uncompromising, strong-voiced and she didn't seem to think she had to demand less of because we were women," Lady Vol team member.)

Her early days of coaching were played out in the throes of the feminist movement of the 1970s.  Summitt noted and supported the changes women were fighting for but contributed in her own way.  She thought the best way to improve the status and options open to women was to show that we can compete.  That we can win.  She watched the protests but stayed focused on getting her team to the winner's podium.  ("But there was only way I could see that changed things: winning. You changed things for women by winning," Pat Summitt)

In 2011, Summitt was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's.  She coached for one more season with the help of her talented staff, reaching the Regionals in the NCAA Regionals following a 27-9 season.  When she was first diagnosed, she attacked this challenge as she had so many others with resolve and energy.  Refusing to back down and refusing to quit.  ("We keep score in life because it matters. It counts.  Too many people opt out and never discover their own abilities, because they fear failure.  They don't understand commitment.  When you learn to keep fighting in the fact of potential failure, it gives you a larger skill set to do what you want to do in life.  It gives you vision.  But you can't acquire it if you aren't willing to keep score.  Pat Summitt)

Women Who Win

I am starting a new blog topic today.  One I have been planning and contemplating for some time.  A blog on the Women Who Win.  The women who take on big challenges, throw their hats into the arena of competition and fight for achievement, recognition, financial reward, fairness and/or some grand design.  Maybe even all of the above.  I have long been inspired by the stories of women who achieve greatly - often against the greatest of odds.  Odds made that much more daunting because they weren't supposed to compete, weren't supposed to have that job, weren't supposed to win or even to want to.  Unfortunately, the stories - while more common today - still stand out because women remain underrepresented in the ranks of the most recognized,most celebrated and most compensated.  Maybe it was the recent flap around "Still She Persisted" or seeing a more qualified leader lose to a clearly less qualified one that spurred me on to finally start this blog. I will start with a series of profiles - short vignettes - on the women who stories have inspired me along the way.

One thing for sure is that I agree with the woman whose profile will start us off, Pat Summitt, hall of fame coach for the Lady Volunteers of the University of Tennessee.  In describing her college days in the early 1970s she laid out her philosophy vis a vis the burgeoning women's movement.  She said, "Protesting and sign carrying wasn't me - and wasn't going to get it done.  But there was only one way could see that changed things: winning.  You changed things for women by winning."