Such great points Kerala! 👏👏👏👏 Who would profit really from Clark making more? CEOs of the brands she is endorsing, owners of the WNBA ….. in sum patriarchy and capitalism.
This is absolutely brilliant and makes a really important point. Paying Caitlin Clark more only really solves a problem for Caitlin Clark. Changing how we value the work of women overall begins to solve a much bigger problem.
Well said! I'm so happy that women soccer players were able to settle their lawsuit a few years back, but as you point out, it only really solved their problem. Thanks to Covid, the pay gap actually worsened in the ensuring years.
I love this! "What if we leveraged the growing popularity of female basketball players to help change the narrative? What if the narrative fixated less on what Caitlin Clark is making (or not making) and more on the fact that a rookie male NBA player is deemed by the market to be 39 times more valuable than the care providers who are helping to raise our next generation of children?" Yes!
It also reminds me of the whole "lean in" thing, where women were basically being told to act more like men in our system rather than to think about how we could change the system.
As for your kids' summer — when I was growing up in the 1960s and '70s, we did sometimes go to a local "day camp" in the morning, but mostly we read, wandered around with our friends, and otherwise entertained ourselves. That felt like the way summer should be! I hope your kids enjoy it.
Yes, I'm so over "leaning in!" We need to step back and reimagine.
I also never went to summer camp, but my parents were teachers and had the summer off, so they were able to be a bit more present. Still, I firmly think it's a good thing for kids to be a little bored, as long as the default isn't all-day screen time and there are some other kids around for them to be bored with. Usually that's when the most creative play emerges!
The paragraph you quoted sent shivers down my spine. As someone who has spent almost 10 years devoted to raising kids, I have always felt like the work I do is worthless.
I love this so much! I’ve been so interesting listening to Abbie Wambach on this and I love how you’re making it multifaceted by going deeper into how it compares to the value of homemaking and child rearing. I studied domestic labor and reproductive labour at uni and I’ve been obsessed with the conversation ever since. Thank you for your writing !!
yes!! I think about this often. it seems that many times, our efforts toward equality—though well intentioned—end up reinforcing the broken, patriarchal systems, when what we really need is to reimagine them altogether. I think centering care is a fundamental step in that direction.
Great points about the value of worth and how profit-driven capitalism rewards men over women!
Capitalism isn’t the only culprit here…I spent some time digging into the history of professional sports and athletics once, and the development of basketball as a sport received a great deal of support from government. It was also supported via (government-funded) athletics programs in schools and communities that often excluded girls until the passage of Title IX.
All that to say: the state cultivated an audience for men’s sports, including basketball, before turning them over to the market. Women and girls haven’t received a fraction as much support for the state. So to me the issue is not just about who should be paid what, but also about boys and girls/men and women being entitled to equal investment from the government.
You’re absolutely right that at the end of the day, late-state capitalism is destroying anything we value for reasons that aren’t profit-driven!
I did start researching about how sports are funded and how teams are structured as non- or for-profit entities, but realized this was another rabbit-hole altogether! Government investment in sports makes perfect sense -- they help boost morale and local pride. Equalizing that investment could go a long way, particularly if there were more regulations around how the private sector could profit off teams and athletes. Thanks for sharing!
Such great points Kerala! 👏👏👏👏 Who would profit really from Clark making more? CEOs of the brands she is endorsing, owners of the WNBA ….. in sum patriarchy and capitalism.
Yes, yes, and yes!
This is absolutely brilliant and makes a really important point. Paying Caitlin Clark more only really solves a problem for Caitlin Clark. Changing how we value the work of women overall begins to solve a much bigger problem.
Well said! I'm so happy that women soccer players were able to settle their lawsuit a few years back, but as you point out, it only really solved their problem. Thanks to Covid, the pay gap actually worsened in the ensuring years.
I love this! "What if we leveraged the growing popularity of female basketball players to help change the narrative? What if the narrative fixated less on what Caitlin Clark is making (or not making) and more on the fact that a rookie male NBA player is deemed by the market to be 39 times more valuable than the care providers who are helping to raise our next generation of children?" Yes!
It also reminds me of the whole "lean in" thing, where women were basically being told to act more like men in our system rather than to think about how we could change the system.
As for your kids' summer — when I was growing up in the 1960s and '70s, we did sometimes go to a local "day camp" in the morning, but mostly we read, wandered around with our friends, and otherwise entertained ourselves. That felt like the way summer should be! I hope your kids enjoy it.
Yes, I'm so over "leaning in!" We need to step back and reimagine.
I also never went to summer camp, but my parents were teachers and had the summer off, so they were able to be a bit more present. Still, I firmly think it's a good thing for kids to be a little bored, as long as the default isn't all-day screen time and there are some other kids around for them to be bored with. Usually that's when the most creative play emerges!
The paragraph you quoted sent shivers down my spine. As someone who has spent almost 10 years devoted to raising kids, I have always felt like the work I do is worthless.
I love this so much! I’ve been so interesting listening to Abbie Wambach on this and I love how you’re making it multifaceted by going deeper into how it compares to the value of homemaking and child rearing. I studied domestic labor and reproductive labour at uni and I’ve been obsessed with the conversation ever since. Thank you for your writing !!
yes!! I think about this often. it seems that many times, our efforts toward equality—though well intentioned—end up reinforcing the broken, patriarchal systems, when what we really need is to reimagine them altogether. I think centering care is a fundamental step in that direction.
So much reimagining that needs to be done! And yes, centering care is crucial. I really think this is the next so-called "wave" of feminism.
Great points about the value of worth and how profit-driven capitalism rewards men over women!
Capitalism isn’t the only culprit here…I spent some time digging into the history of professional sports and athletics once, and the development of basketball as a sport received a great deal of support from government. It was also supported via (government-funded) athletics programs in schools and communities that often excluded girls until the passage of Title IX.
All that to say: the state cultivated an audience for men’s sports, including basketball, before turning them over to the market. Women and girls haven’t received a fraction as much support for the state. So to me the issue is not just about who should be paid what, but also about boys and girls/men and women being entitled to equal investment from the government.
You’re absolutely right that at the end of the day, late-state capitalism is destroying anything we value for reasons that aren’t profit-driven!
I did start researching about how sports are funded and how teams are structured as non- or for-profit entities, but realized this was another rabbit-hole altogether! Government investment in sports makes perfect sense -- they help boost morale and local pride. Equalizing that investment could go a long way, particularly if there were more regulations around how the private sector could profit off teams and athletes. Thanks for sharing!
Here, here! I wholeheartedly agree!!!!
This is one of the smartest things I’ve read on Substack.
Well thank you! I went through a lot of drafts, I'm so glad the points I made are coherent enough to resonate with others!
Yes this!