Spotlight: Pervasive Sexism in Milton Athletics

By: NATASHA ROY ‘19 and CHARLOTTE KANE ‘19

Despite the efforts of many to create a more equitable athletic environment, some believe that Milton has an atmosphere where female athletes do not receive the same attention and recognition as their male counterparts. Interviews with various people have highlighted four distinct issues regarding gender divides in Milton athletics: I. Relationships between male and female athletes, II. Lack of institutional recognition of female athletes, III. Disparities in game turnout, and IV. Social conditioning.

I. Power Dynamics between Male and Female Varsity Athletes:

Several varsity female athletes explained that male athletes are much more widely respected by the student body. Mary Thompson ‘19, Co-Captain of Girls’ Varsity Soccer, Hockey, and Softball, comments that “the title of a male varsity athlete has so much more weight than a female varsity athlete on this campus. Male athletes certainly have more ‘clout,’ for lack of a better word. People respect what they do a lot more than they respect the female athletes.”

She adds that male varsity athletes “walk around like they own the place when the ladies of the athlete realm do the same exact stuff everyday and don’t get any recognition for doing so. We are still expected and have to do well in school, when it feels like some of the guys can get away with not doing any work and still end up totally fine...We all worship these male athletes just because they made a varsity team and ride the pine. Meanwhile, these lovely ladies over here with actual skill who have put so much work into being good at something barely get any recognition from anyone. There are so many more girls that play two to three Varsity sports than there are boys who do the same. And we still don’t get that recognition. Recognition is not what it’s about, but some would be nice.”

Maggie Emerson, Girls’ Varsity Field Hockey Co-Captain, echoes this sentiment, saying “I don’t feel like I’m taken seriously. For other sports, such as Field Hockey, we had a good run and nobody really cared, and everybody cared about the football team who did horribly this year. They’re always gonna be a big deal because of the sport. It’s frustrating that even the teams that have done well don’t get the same credit.”

She adds, “I respect teams like the Boys’ Basketball team and their hard work. But there are other people on the same level and do not get treated the same way. They do not walk around the campus with the same swagger getting the same treatment.”

Serena Fernandopulle, Girls’ Varsity Soccer and Lacrosse Co-Captain, echoes that, at Milton, “Girls’ teams aren’t respected that much. And I think that a lot of times, especially with Soccer, there’s definitely a weird power dynamic between the Boys’ and Girls’ teams. They think that they’re better than us, and everyone else does too... It’s a weird thing where they would make jokes about it, and I would just be uncomfortable because we’re just different teams—and we had the same record at one point.”

“A lot of the sexism is coming from the male athletes,” says Fernandopulle. “I think that they really need to be the starters in terms of supporting Girls’ teams.”

Adiza Alasa ‘19, Girls Varsity Basketball Co-Captain, notices that the support between Girls’ and Boys’ teams doesn’t necessarily go both ways. On their senior night, which was the last game for seniors on both the Girls’ and Boys’ Basketball teams, the entire Girls’ Varsity Basketball team was “there to watch the entirety of the Boys’ game—their ceremony and all of that—and only like one or two [of their] players stayed to watch our ceremony and our game. I don’t think any of them stayed to watch the whole game, and we all stayed to watch their entire game. To be fair, it was a much closer game for them but still, it was the premise.” She adds that “there was one time that we made it our team event to support them—they had an away game after our practice and we went and saw them—and they never returned the favor, never did that for us.”

Lamar Reddicks, Athletic Director, expresses surprise when these gender dynamics are brought up, saying, “that’s something that hasn’t gotten back to me yet, and I would hate for any of our Boys’ sports to do that to any of our Girls’ sports. As a matter of fact, as the Boys’ basketball coach here, we don’t have many opportunities to watch the Girls’ games because nine times out of ten we are playing at the same time at a different location, but when we have a chance to, we make sure that we go out and support our Girls’ team.”

II. Lack of Institutional Recognition of Female Athletes.

Several female athletes explained that not only did their achievements go under-recognized by the student body, but they also went under recognized by authority figures within the Athletics department and the school as a whole.

“Girls aren’t recognized as widely or as publicly as guys are for doing things of equal caliber. I never hear about the accomplishments of female athletes,” says Cianna O’Flaherty, Girls’ Varsity Track Co-Captain.

She adds, “after I broke the school record last year I ran to my coach and said, ‘Coach! I broke the school record!’ and he said, ‘What? Wait, what did you get? No, you didn’t. I’m sure you’re still a little bit off.’ I said, ‘No coach, I know that I broke it’ and he said, ‘Nah, I think I would know, but we can check later.’ I remember when a track guy had broken a school record the year before, all the coaches knew exactly what the boy’s track record was, and it was all they could talk about that meet and the following practices. He got a shoutout from the coaches at the team meeting, and Mr. Ball gave him a shout out at an all-school assembly.”

“I also know multiple instances of Girls’ records not being updated correctly, and not being updated as quickly as guys sports,” continues O’Flaherty.  “I had to ask to have the Girls’ track records updated, and my record is still wrong on the board.”

O’Flaherty adds, “since I was a freshman I have heard the Girls’ on the track team, especially girl sprinters, tell me that when it came to running track in college—be that as a recruit or a walk on—they have to advocate for themselves in the college process. I know that more guy’s sports teams have coaches advocating for them than girl’s sports do.”

Katherine McDonough ‘19, Girls’ Varsity Tennis Captain, adds, “my freshman year, Boys’ Soccer in the Fall went undefeated, won ISLs and New England’s, and there was an entire Monday assembly dedicated to it. But when Girls’ Tennis went undefeated, won ISLs and New Englands for the third year in a row, they did absolutely nothing for us.”

Reddicks affirms that the Girls’ Tennis team has “one of the most insane records and they haven't lost a match.” He explains that he has “never announced anything at assembly...the kids usually do that whenever they get a chance...what normally happens on those assemblies is that the kids ask to present their NEPSAC plaque to Mr. Ball, to Mr. Bland. That's usually how it goes down.”

O’Flaherty explains, “I don't think Mr. Reddicks or the Athletics department are the problem. Mr. Reddicks’ door is always open to everyone.” Instead, says McDonough, “culturally and institutionally there is a preference for Boys’ sports.”

III. Disparities in Game Turnout

Every female Varsity captain interviewed commented on striking difference in turnout for Girls’ and Boys’ games. “Game support is the biggest [gender] difference for me that I’ve seen,” says Alasa. She explains that the aforementioned senior night “was a double header and the Boys played first. I’ve never in my life seen more people at a regular season game than I did at the Boys’ game. And then my team played after that...the gym absolutely just cleared out; there were a handful of people left at our game and it was embarrassing for us...same gym, people just left the gym [and] did not come back,” says Alasa.
Fernandopulle attributes the disparity in community support to the “mentality that [female athletes] aren’t real athletes...My sophomore year we [Girls’ Soccer] had the same exact record as the Boys’ team, and yet everyone would go to their games...It’s weird when there are two games going on, but everyone will be at the Baseball game and not the Girls’ Lacrosse game...my friends will be like ‘oh yeah, I’ll see your game after the Baseball game.’”

Amy Shohet ‘19, Girls Varsity Lacrosse Co-Captain, reiterates this sentiment, pointing out that “a lot of people see male sports as ‘more exciting’ and ‘more intense,’ but when choosing between a Girls’ Lacrosse game and a Boys’ Baseball game, Girls’ Lacrosse moves a lot faster and is way more intense than baseball.”

The turnout discrepancies could also be a symptom of “the timing of sports games on Friday or Saturday nights,” according to Emerson.“The Boys’ games are always later. Whether it’s fan buses not leaving until after or in the middle of a Girls’ game, or just people not even going to the game before and going to dinner during the Girls’ game. The prime time slots are always Boys’ games; it feels like Girls’ games are pushed aside. For Field Hockey, we had a huge game at BB&N, our biggest game of the season, and Boys’ Soccer had a game after. They made a fan bus specifically for Boys’ Soccer that left after the FH game. As captains we tried to coordinate, but it came down to ‘scheduling’ and BS things.”

Jaye Locke, Girls’ Varsity Field Hockey and Squash Coach, hopes her players can see that “We don't need the validation to be our incredible athletic selves...we should be able to say, ‘we're gonna go win this championship and I don't need your support to feel all that and to recognize that what I do matters.” She would explain to all the female athletes in this community, “you all matter, you are amazing, and you’re fantastic athletes. Know that, and we as teammates all know that. Let’s feel good about that.” Unfortunately, she points out, “the reality is that it also feels really good when you've got your peers out there cheering you on.”

Reddicks stresses the importance of community support, saying, “I think that it is good for any high school when kids in the community get behind each other… Any time you can get that, the kid’s experience will be something that you think about for a long period of time, whether you are the athlete playing in the game or a student watching it in the stands.”

One way to encourage attendance at girls’ games is to consciously make them more of a highlighted event. Molly Swain, Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse Coach, comments, “I don’t think there’s any—for lack of a better word—guilt about missing a Girls’ game in the way there is for a Boys’ game.” As Swain explains, this mentality is because Girls’ games are not seen as a major event. “It is such a cultural issue....think of the US Women’s Soccer team; I think people went and watched that game on their own accord. Not because it was widely advertised, not because it was culturally a norm, or any of those things. It was just like this is something I really want to see; this is an incredible team; my daughter or my sister or somebody I know wants me to watch it and I’m gonna get really excited about it.”

She argues that we see this same attitude on the smaller scale at Milton—Girls’ games will get some support from players’ friends and such, but “it’s not like oh my gosh, let’s all go watch the Girls’ soccer team that has a home game in the same way that we get totally amped for a Boys’ basketball game… It’s the culture around ‘this is an event that we’re going to have a social life at.’ And for some reason culturally we really get excited about that for the Boys in a way that we don’t for the girls.”

Reddicks adds “Nobles Day games are our most attended games by far because it’s an event. So we need to start making some of these things more of an event. I’m always careful not to get into me promoting one program over another program...but you know, maybe I may need to promote everyone’s programs a little bit harder than we do now too. So that’s a whole other conversation too.”

In order to address the turnout disparities, Swain offers, “Let’s put some emphasis on it. This is an area of weakness for us as a school, as an institution...Why can’t the school host a tailgate for a Girls’ game? In acknowledging the fact that [support] happens more organically for boys, we have to put more of an emphasis on it for girls in order to actually try to start to balance that out.”

IV. Social Conditioning

External factors may be affecting girls’ experiences in sports. Rachel Pederson, the Assistant Coach of the Sailing Team, explains that the social conditioning young girls experience has lead girls entering the program to back down from becoming a skipper, the person who drives the boat, even if they have “comparable experience to male freshmen.” The sailing team stands out from all others in that girls and boys are in direct competition with each other for starting positions. Pederson elaborates that the skipper gets more of the blame or credit in races, making the position much riskier, and if girls have not been taught to actively take risks and speak up, they will not stand up to get that position.

As a general theme across the sport, Pedersen notes, “you have boys who have always been at the center of attention and put up on a pedestal, and when a girl comes in and the boy’s not getting all of the attention, it becomes an issue of ‘overzealous feminism.’” She explains that she “takes a more concerted effort to combat” both the social conditioning and resistance to change to create more gender parity in the sport by making girls on the team stick with skippering.

Part of the social conditioning girls experience is a lack of female role models in many sports. Although individual female athletes such as Serena Williams receive widespread attention, Swain comments, “women in team sports don’t have any of those icons in the same way” men do. Using Tom Brady and other elite athletes as models for males, she elaborates that women models “aren’t as public” and that “in high school-aged sports we’re not looking for those [icons]...we don’t have the reference point” to look up to. Locke adds that, in Field Hockey’s case, “the unknowns and understanding of the sport actually makes it harder for entry [level viewers] to watch it,” and the lack of an iconic player of the sport makes it even harder for the sport to receive attention.

V. Moving Forward

Many adults in the Athletics department urge sustained conversation about these gender divides as a means to eventually effect change. “When I was growing up, [fighting for equality] meant to never address it...we’re coming to realize now at this point that no, [talking about the issue] can be a real moment of empowerment and to not talk about it doesn’t help anybody,” says Swain.
Pederson adds that “at Milton we fall into the mentality that we’re liberal progressives and therefore not sexist...Self-Identifying white, privileged liberals can have the worst biases and then they excuse themselves because they think ‘oh no, I'm Progressive.’” Moving forward, it’s therefore critical that players, coaches, and administration honestly confronts any biases.  

Locke stresses the importance of these conversations because of the many ways in which sports can empower women, so long as we address these divides. “Watching young women through sports gain more confidence in themselves is really why I do the work I do. And statistics show that girls who have experiences like that do better and are happier in the long term… if you look at women CEOs, many times they were athletes themselves, so they were part of a group that learned to battle through some things and in a space together in a space that has been male-dominated. Athletics have allowed women to gain some equality through Title IX and other things.”

For athletics at Milton to meaningfully empower female students, the Administration, the faculty, and the student body must work together to address the specific disparities outlined above.