My Story and What Led Me to the Report

Before I was a parent, I thought we were pretty much over racial and gender discrimination. Boy,

was I wrong! A few years ago, my daughter found out she really liked basketball. She was a gold

level competitive soccer play at the time, but basketball became her true passion. I found out at

that point that the league I coached in the TCYBA, did not allow girls to compete! To be more

precise, they had 1 select team that played citywide, while the boys had their own division. I spent the next

18 months trying to change that, before finally giving up. I talked to the league's board, to the parents,

to BC Baskteball, and while I had many behind the doors sympathetic comments, I got no support

from anyone for ending this basic discrimination (against all human rights charters, including the Canadian

Charter). Unfortunately, my daughter paid a heavy price for my crusade. She was cut from the select girls

team. The only explanation I got from the coach was that she was "too short." She was invited to practice

with other select teams soon after that, but becasue we missed the tryout period, she lost her whole season.

You can find the report I produced to try to convince the TCYBA to give girls fair treament through

this link. While the TCYBA now has changed their policy, the whole experience made me realize

that this was not an isolated case. We continue to separate out girls in many different areas, giving

them less opportunities, treating them as less capable, and all of this reinforces prejudices and makes

everyone, especially many women themselves, wrongly conceive of their capabilities. I believe

that we are all human and boys and girls should have equal opportunities to play competitive or

recreational at all levels of sport. My conclusion is that until we allow for integration of sports,

girls will continue to take the back seat to boys in all aspects and ages of sport, when in fact they

can compete on any level. I welcome your comments and shared experiences.