We don’t know if you know this, but Whitworth has a women’s soccer team. If you don’t believe us, just ask the one hundred plus fans at our game, or the University of Puget Sound, the formally second-ranked team in the nation before we beat them Oct. 18
We are aware that the women’s soccer write-up is not the most popular section in the Whitworthian. We are also aware that we may be the only people that read it. But rushing to our mailboxes on the following Tuesday to see the men’s soccer team not only overwhelm the sport’s section but also the front page after a 0-0 result was disheartening to say the least. How does the men’s result of a tie and a win to two unranked teams earn triple the coverage of two wins by the women’s team – one to a team who hasn’t lost in 25 conference games? After much discussion we are still left without a logical explanation.
Our purpose is not to start a crusade for women’s rights or discredit the men’s soccer team, but to bring it to the attention of the editor that we sweat and bleed as much as the men’s team and win big games also.
Respectfully,
Sophomore Callie Bergstrom and senior Lindsey Oakes
28 comments
It has been particularly difficult for me to not see this as a blatant bias towards male athletics, overlooking the merit of specific accomplishments simply due to gender. I hope that the Whitworthian can learn from this misrepresentation, and start looking at the actual accomplishments of our athletic programs as opposed to the genders affiliated with them.
Boys team = awesome
Girls team = awesome
equality in coverage over the entire season (not just the UPS weekend) = consistently disappointing There is a reason that news articles are called "stories." Journalists should always be looking for the unique and extraordinary in what they are assigned. I understand sports articles are often sufficient in explaining the stats, providing key quotes from players and highlighting upcoming games. This particular instance however, could have been a perfect opportunity to capitalize on a great weekend for Whitworth athletics. The games were intense, the fans turned out in what seemed like record numbers, and the women finally beat their most loathed, nationally ranked rivals! Instead, on our biggest weekend of play in my three years at Whitworth, it seemed like someone slapped together an article recapping women's soccer after they noticed it was missing an hour before printing.Thanks to the Whitworthian for posting this letter...we like reading you, please make us proud.PS - if this does make it to print, make sure the title is correct.
but really i was disappointed to open the whitworthian and see that the ups victory for women's soccer was so minimally covered-- and if i didn't know any better i would have thought, based off of the few paragraphs written about it, that the game was of little consequence--an ordinary win....but i know this victory was a huge deal. i wasn't able to make it to the game but i did see the video of the double overtime, with a team ranked number 2 in the nation, and the header goal. it was amazing, and even i can appreciate how important that win was, so i can imagine that if i had played that game, had worked as hard as those girls worked, had beat the number 2 team in the nation, i'd be pretty upset to see that the highlight of the soccer season (and something that whitworth should know of and be proud of) was reduced to a few paragraphs on page 13, or whatever it was.