I recently went to Saint Louis, MO to see the NCAA women’s division I championship game. I was not a huge fan of either team left in the championship game – Uconn & Louisville. I was actually pretty upset that I didn’t get a chance to meet some of the more successful female college coaches like Pat Summit or Vivian Stringer. It seemed like something was missing from the atmosphere in that women’s championship game, perhaps a head female coach leading the pack. No offense to Gino Aureimma, he is obviously a very successful coach, but I will argue that he can relax more on the job than any female coach I have ever seen. I think that Gino gets away with more, maybe because of his high status as such a successful coach, but I would argue that people would talk a lot differently about Pat Summit if she won the national title and stuck her head and then her body through the rim after cutting down the nets – which is exactly what Gino did. Pat Summit is not seen as the most personable coach, she does not seem incredibly approachable, but she does seem very professional. If she had put her head through the rim along with her body I’m sure the media would be all over how cocky the gesture seemed and how unprofessional that would make her. I guess since Gino is a guy, the terms cocky, brash, and arrogant are more easily acceptable and his unsportsmanlike actions can be brushed off.
It’s funny how sports figures like Pat Summit and Gino Auriemma are analogous to political leaders like Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush. I hear and see a lot of similarities among Hillary and Pat. For example, I believe the words “shrew,” “bitch,” and “power-crazy” have been thrown around during the political debates last year when Hillary was running for office. A strong, professional, hard-working presidential candidate is defaced because she is a woman. Although Pat Summit is praised in the basketball world I have heard people who do not follow basketball so closely comment about how cold she is, how she could relax a little bit more, and doesn’t need to be such a bitch all the time. Perhaps if Hillary Clinton started cracking jokes about chucking wood or maybe if Pat Summit put her body through a basketball rim they’d be viewed as more human. Something tells me that if either woman acted that way they’re professionalism would be questioned, and then they wouldn’t be fit for the job. When we only see women as either Hillary Clintons or Sarah Palins it’s easy to see why we are dichotomized into two extremes. I can only hope we find the middle ground.
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I think your discussion about Pat, and the analogy to the presidential race, raises a very interesting question about gender in today's society: in the age of so-called tolerance, are men and women still held to different standards within the same professions? I believe that the answer clearly is yes. Take Hilary Clinton for example. When she spoke eloquently but prudently about foreign policy issues during the presidential primaries, she was considered by the media to be too weak to handle the stressful environment of the Oval Office. The underlying implication here is that feminity itself is for some reason not well-suited to the job of leading a nation. On the other hand, when Clinton took hard uncompromising stands on hot-button issues, she was effectively labeled as a "bitch." Thus, she was basically damned if she did and damned if she didn't. Coach Pat was placed in a similar situation. She needed to act tough in order to motivate her team, but at the same time she was wary of the fact that her toughness could be misinterpreted by the media as manlieness. As much as we hate to admit it in many professions today, especially in the world of basketball, male and female coaches are judged by the media according to different standards. It is important to remember that these standards are themselves often based on archaic and outdated conceptions of the proper gender roles for men and women respectively, and these standards are reinforced by the fact that women are paid less money for doing the same work as men within a given field. After observing this unnacceptable disparity, maybe we will finally realize that it is time to abandon our traditional preconceived notions of gender in the workplace, and start anew.
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