As many of you know, March is one of the biggest times of the year for basketball enthusiasts, because of the annual March Madness tournament. This year, there was a big difference between the way the Women’s and Men’s teams were treated with space and equipment. The women were given one small rack of dumbbells, while the Men had racks and racks of free weights, dumbbells, and squat racks.
This just shows how far we as a country and people still need to go before we can get equity and equality. The fact that an event funded by the NCAA has this much inequity between the men’s and women’s teams, and the people in charge don’t seem to care or think it wouldn’t be talked about is just sad. One of the best parts about this story is the acknowledgment of the problem. There is no way to achieve equality unless the problem is addressed first. Pictures of the women’s notably smaller weight rack spread through Twitter like a wildfire, which showed the world the problem and unjust treatment of the women.
On the other hand, one of the saddest parts of this was when some coaches and players were not surprised when they saw this inequality. The fact that they were not surprised, or even laughed in some cases, is not helping our country take the right steps toward equality. When the coaches and players saw this and thought, “this is the way things are”, is not ok. Just because it happens all the time does not make it right. People can change, things can change, the world can change, but there has to be a group effort. Change doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time, energy, and unity. We need to work together to stop inequality and start forging a world in which it is expected that things will be the same for different genders, races, religions, and people. Because that’s what we all are, different.
Source
https://www.cbc.ca/sports/basketball/ncaa-womens-tournament-weight-room-inequity-1.5955816