The 2007 Tucker Center Research Report

Developing Physically Active Girls: Challenges, Opportunities, and Solutions

Drs. Nicole LaVoi, Barbara Ainsworth, Margaret Duncan, & Diane Wiese-Bjornstal

April 22, 2008

This spring’s Distinguished Lecture highlighted the 2007 Tucker Center Research Report: Developing Physically Active Girls. Using a panel presentation format, the report’s authors—Barbara Ainsworth, Margaret Duncan, Nicole LaVoi, and Diane Wiese-Bjornstal—provided an overview and summary of key findings and recommendations. The 2007 Tucker Center Research Report is a 10-year update of the ground-breaking 1997 President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Report, Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Girls. The purpose of the initial report, as well as the 10-year update, was to ask respected scholars in academic fields of study ranging from exercise physiology to sport psychology, to share the latest research findings about how involvement in sport and physical activity enable girls to reach their full potential.

“You Gotta Be Tough”: Challenges & Strategies of Female Coaches in Youth Sport

Michael A. Messner

April 22, 2009

Over the past 30 years, girls’ increasing participation in youth sports has been nothing short of revolutionary. During this same time period, few women have become head coaches in youth sports and when they do volunteer, they are often relegated to the position of "team mom." To address this "leadership gap," sport scholar Michael Messner examined a Southern California community’s youth soccer, baseball and softball leagues. His research asks the following questions: What are the barriers preventing women from coaching youth sports? What challenges are faced by the few women who do coach? What strategies do these women develop to survive—and sometimes thrive—as youth sports coaches, and what can we learn from their strategies? Messner explores these questions and outlines why recruiting and supporting female coaches is so important for our families, our communities, and our children.

A Hero for Daisy

Mary Mazzio

April 17, 2001

In partnership with Women's Intercollegiate Athletics, the Tucker Center screened "A Hero for Daisy" with filmmaker Mary Mazzio. The over-flow event took place at Cowles Auditorium in the Hubert H. Humphrey Center. Heralded by The New York Times as "a landmark film," "A Hero For Daisy" is an inspirational 40-minute documentary about two-time Olympian and Title IX pioneer Chris Ernst, who galvanized her rowing team to storm the Yale athletic director's office in 1976 to protest substandard conditions. Nineteen women athletes stripped, exposing the phrase "Title IX" emblazoned in blue marker on their bodies. Carried by all of the major international news outlets, the impact of the demonstration was immediate and national in scope, shocking the nation and bringing attention to Title IX as well as to issues of equality for all women in sport. The film includes interviews with Massachusetts Senator John Kerry (Yale '66); legendary football coach and former Yale Athletic Director, Carmen Cozza; President of the U.S. Rowing Association and Yale Rowing Coach, David Vogel; and many of Chris' former Yale and Olympic teammates. Director Mary Mazzio, herself an Olympian on the 1992 Olympic Rowing Team, made the film for her daughter, Daisy, as well as for other girls and boys, to showcase an ordinary woman with extraordinary courage. Mazzio attended Boston University's graduate film production program and is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Georgetown Law School. She is a recipient of numerous awards including the 2000 Women's Sports Foundation Journalism Award, the Henry Luce Foundation Fellowship and the Rotary Foundation Graduate Fellowship.

Eating Disorders and the Female Athlete

Craig Johnson, Scott Crow, Vanessa Seljeskog, JoAnna Deeter. October 24, 2001

The Tucker Center's 12th Annual Borghild Strand Distinguished Lecture, held at the Cowles Auditorium at the Hubert H. Humphrey Center, featured a panel of experts focusing on female athletes and eating disorders. Participants on the panel were: Craig Johnson, Director, Eating Disorders Program, Laureate Psychiatric Clinic and Hospital; Scott Crow, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Eating Disorders Clinic at the University of Minnesota; Vanessa Seljeskog, Associate Athletic Director, Macalester College, whose experience includes working with cross-country and track & field athletes, including 9 All-Americas and 3 National Champions; and JoAnna Deeter, of the Northwest Athletic Club, and former track and field standout at University of Notre Dame. The panel discussion, offered at a time of unabashed media and cultural celebration of near-starving female bodies, provided a forum for education and learning about disordered eating and athletic females.

"Best Seat in the House": From the Locker Room to the Press Box—Women's Sports in the 21st Century

Christine Brennan

October 10, 2006

The Tucker Center Fall 2006 Edie Mueller Distinguished Lecture, "'Best Seat in the House': From the Locker Room to the Press Box— Women's Sports in the 21st Century", was held October 10, 2006 at the Weisman Art Museum on the U of MN's East Bank Campus. The lecture was given by Christine Brennan, a sports columnist for USA Today, guest commentator for ABC News, Fox Sports Radio, ESPN, and NPR, as well as best-selling author. Brennan has blazed a pioneering trail for women sports journalists. She has witnessed the impact of Title IX first-hand and shared her insights about the progress yet to be made for female athletes and sports journalists. Brennan also highlighted the role of her father in giving her the support and confidence she needed to excel in the pre-Title IX world of sports.

Images of Women, Sexuality and Nationalism: What's (Olympic) Sport Got To Do With It?

Lisa Disch, Susan Brownell, Mary Jo Kane, Pat Griffin, and Doug Hartmann

October 4, 2000

In collaboration with the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change, Sustainability, and Justice, the Tucker Center presented a panel discussion, "Images of Women, Sexuality and Nationalism: What's (Olympic) Sport Got To Do With It?" at Cowles Auditorium in the Hubert H. Humphrey Center. The panel members, all internationally recognized scholars, represented a variety of academic perspectives: Lisa Disch, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota, specializes in political theory with a research focus in third party politics and feminist theory; Susan Brownell, Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, focuses her research on China, rituals of state, and uses of sport and the body; Mary Jo Kane, Director, Tucker Center, University of Minnesota, examines media representations of women in sport and the impact of Title IX; Pat Griffin, Social Justice Education Program, University of Massachusetts, addresses in her research heterosexism/homophobia in professional and intercollegiate athletics as well as in higher education; and, Doug Hartmann, Department of Sociology, University of Minnesota, the panel moderator, explores race, culture, and social change, focusing on sport and popular culture in the U.S. The panel event overlapped the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, and the Games served as the crucial point of departure and focus. Panel participants explored the relationships between sport and social processes—focusing especially on gender and sexuality—around the world as a way to recognize and conceptualize the social, cultural, economic and political significance of sport and the Olympic Games in the contemporary, postmodern age. The panel was part of a larger, seven-week MacArthur Program workshop entitled "The Cultural Politics of Sport and the Olympic Games: Comparative and Global Perspectives" which examined the ways in which race, gender, nation and sexuality are implicated in sporting practices and institutions given the fact that sport culture, especially that of Olympic sport, is so often understood in an abstract, universalistic fashion.

Minnesota Female Olympians: Stories, Experiences & Inspirations

Presenters Janis Klecker, Carrie Tollefson, Shani Marks, and Dr. Doug Hartmann

October 22, 2008

The Tucker Center celebrates the participation of female athletes at all levels. This Fall, we are proud to celebrate an elite group of sportswomen in our midst. The 2008 Distinguished Lecture will feature a trio of Minnesota’s finest female athletes—Track & Field Olympians Janis Klecker, Carrie Tollefson and Shani Marks. The performances of Olympians inspire and captivate our imaginations. But the Olympics are not only about medal counts and wins and losses. They occur within a complex set of issues related to gender, class and race. To provide context for this complexity—along with acknowledging the accomplishments of our featured Minnesota Olympians—U of M Professor of Sociology, Doug Hartmann, will critique the Olympics in general and the Beijing Olympics in particular. He will share his own experiences of his travels to China followed by a discussion with our featured panelists in which we will learn about their life stories, experiences and inspirations.

Interview with Mary Jo Kane on the 2007 Tucker Center Research Report, "Developing Physically Active Girls: An Evidence-based Multidisciplinary Approach"