WEBVTT - These Are the Bodies 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:07.040 It's the middle of winter in Connecticut. Nine. The members 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:09.799 of the Yale crew team are headed to the Housatonic River. 0:00:10.480 --> 0:00:13.080 We would take a bus from the undergraduate campus out 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:15.960 to Derby, Connecticut. That's where the boat house was. The 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.080 river itself is no longer frozen, but air temperatures are 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.639 still below freezing. It's stormy, it's winter. In the wind, 0:00:22.680 --> 0:00:25.479 you get soaked pretty quickly. There's water splashing off of 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:31.040 the oars onto your back, and not infrequently, her sweatshirts 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.400 would be frozen. When we came back in, your hands 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.400 would stick to the ore because they'd be frozen. Then, 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:38.880 after hours of training in the wind and the rain 0:00:39.040 --> 0:00:41.920 and the snow, it's time for the Yale men's rowers 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:45.279 to hit the showers. The women didn't get showers. They 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.920 had to wait on an unheeded bus. While every last 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.440 Yale member of the men's rowing team would shower, come 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.360 out steaming pink, and the women were shivering. They were 0:00:56.400 --> 0:01:00.680 getting pneumonia. The women petitioned Yale for their own shower facilities. 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:03.880 For months, no help came. Finally, the women were like, 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.720 all right, we've had enough of this, And so one 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:10.679 frigid evening. Waiting there on that unheeded bus, wet and shivering, 0:01:11.040 --> 0:01:13.640 the members of the nineteen seventy six Yale Women's Crew 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.640 team hatched a plan. They decided to do something really bold, 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.720 and the impact of what they did continues to be 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:32.080 felt today. To peacefully protests their plight, yasies had to 0:01:32.240 --> 0:01:36.479 strip for their rights, that old nine Hadden and Plain 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:45.880 sign a message clear as day, let us play, Let 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:49.960 us Play. I'm Sean Braswell and welcome to The Threat, 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:52.960 a podcast where we unraveled the stories behind some the 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.280 most important lives and events in history. This season, we 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:05.320 began with a major event in sports districts. That goal 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:10.160 of Women's World Cup marked a pivotal moment. Brandy Chastain's 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.960 penalty kick had the weight of women's soccer on it. 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:18.440 If she scored it, there was gonna be one story 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:22.320 and it was going to change soccer and change the 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:27.240 way people thought about soccer. If she didn't, maybe that 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.120 doesn't happen, but it did happen, and one of the 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.880 reasons it happened for THEE were the efforts of the 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.200 women who wore the USA jersey before them, Starting with 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:41.400 the very first women's national team team had literally nothing. 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.200 I think we maybe went home with a T shirt. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.800 That first team played under harsh conditions for little pay 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.799 and even less recognition, but they were given something more valuable, 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.000 a chance to play. That was because of Title nine, 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.640 the law that banned sex discrimination in federally funded education programs. 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.360 But a law like Title nine means nothing if it 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.160 is not enforced, which is why what the women of 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.680 the Yale crew team decided to do that cold winter 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:19.000 in ninety six still means so much. When you think 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.400 back before Title nine, which is before nineteen seventy two, 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:26.000 you have to imagine world that's really hard to conceive 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.400 of today. Karen Blumenthal is a journalist and author of 0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:32.119 Let Me Play, The Story of Title nine, the law 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:35.480 that changed the future of girls in America. Back then, 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:40.520 women were really second class. There were almost no organized 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.960 sports for girls. You could play tennis, you could swim, 0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:46.160 maybe you could run track, but that was it, just 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.800 the individual sports. For most of American history, sports was 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.800 the exclusive preserve of men. Women were expected to be 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:56.680 feminine and delicate and to avoid strenuous activity. It was 0:03:56.720 --> 0:04:00.280 often said that quote nice girls don't sweat, and when 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:02.560 women and girls were allowed to take the playing field, 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:04.680 it was not to play the same sports as men 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:09.200 or in the same way today. Miss Undergraduate plays field hockey. 0:04:09.760 --> 0:04:14.680 She has an enthusiastic archer, and since the game was 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.240 always to combine, stenu was exercised with grace and charm. 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:25.000 She participates in the modern dance. I think the best 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:28.200 way to think about that period is almost to imagine 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:32.960 it as a treehouse which says on the outside, no 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:37.080 girls allowed. Susan Ware is a historian an author of 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.279 Game Set Match, Billy Jean King and the Revolution, and 0:04:40.320 --> 0:04:45.880 Women's Sports. Women and girls were just not encouraged or 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:51.279 allowed to play sports that their brothers and fathers did, 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:56.719 and somehow sports was portrayed as being entirely natural and 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:01.000 important for boys, and it was seen as being unnatural 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:06.839 and unladylike for girls and women. Still, generations of women 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.400 and girls wanted to play sports, but what they didn't 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:14.599 have were the kind of organized resources that were available 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.200 to boys and men in our society. While schools paid 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:21.160 for men's teams to travel and charter buses, women's teams 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.839 held bake sales to pay for their trips. They shared 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.640 uniforms they practiced late at night because that was the 0:05:26.680 --> 0:05:29.040 only time that the gym, or the pool or the 0:05:29.080 --> 0:05:34.200 field was available. Nobody thought it was odd that a 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:40.640 school sports budget would be devoted to men's sports and 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:45.720 the girls would maybe get one percent. In the year 0:05:45.800 --> 0:05:48.920 before Title nine was passed, girls made up only seven 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.920 percent of high school athletes, and an even smaller fraction 0:05:51.960 --> 0:05:55.359 of women played college sports. That was about to change 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:58.040 big time, But as the women of the Yale crew 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.760 team later found out, that chain was not going to 0:06:00.839 --> 0:06:14.880 happen fast enough. Title nine of the Education Amendments Act 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:17.839 of nineteen seventy two is only thirty seven words long, 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:22.279 but the implications of those words are enormous, author Karen Blumenthal. 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:25.440 So Title nine it seems really simple, right, you don't 0:06:25.440 --> 0:06:28.479 discriminate on the basis of sex and education. But it's 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.039 really complicated. This is a time when girls and boys 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:35.479 are given different career aspiration tests. This is the time 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.200 when boys run the school projector and are the safety 0:06:39.400 --> 0:06:42.000 crossing guards and girls are not allowed to do that. 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.080 This is a time when there are no organized sports 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:50.200 for girls in many many places, and efforts to level 0:06:50.279 --> 0:06:53.960 an uneven playing field could not happen overnight. Especially when 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:58.560 it came to actual playing fields, the reality was truly shocking. 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:02.320 Schools were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, in some 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:07.160 cases millions of dollars on sports for boys and virtually 0:07:07.320 --> 0:07:11.360 nothing on sports for girls, and the idea of somehow 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:15.440 making that equal was daunting. But the demand was there. 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:19.480 Women wanted to play organized sports, so the laws signed 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.600 in nineteen seventy two. Girls are looking at this, going 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:26.920 where's my chance seventy three, seventy four, seventy five. Schools 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.040 and universities were reluctant to implement Title nine. It was 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:33.160 costly and difficult, and the federal government was not exactly 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:35.760 holding their feet to the fire, especially when it came 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.760 to women's sports. Powerful groups like the n c a 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:41.520 A were worried the Title nine with harm college football 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.160 and other men's sports, and so they spent a great 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.600 deal of time and money trying to smother the young 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:50.320 law in its cradle. Historians susan ware again, so you 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:54.520 start to have people realizing it's out there. What you 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:59.760 don't have is any guidelines from the federal government of 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.160 out how this law is supposed to be enforced. And 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:08.360 you have no enforcement at all. Zero. It took three 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.440 years for the government to draft the regulations necessary to 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.120 implement the law. Now it was up to colleges like 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:25.040 Yale to abide by them. Once upon a time, Yale 0:08:25.160 --> 0:08:28.400 University was known as a powerhouse on the gridiron. Since 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:31.120 its first game in eighteen seventy two, Yale has won 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.319 more games than any college in the nation. You can't 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:38.120 name them all. Yale has had eighty one all Americans. 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:41.840 Yale success in sports didn't stop at football, but it 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.600 did stop with men. Yale was an all male school 0:08:44.679 --> 0:08:47.800 until nineteen sixty eight, and the main reason Yale finally 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:50.040 went co ed was that it was afraid it would 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:54.000 lose male applicants who preferred schools that had women. Yale's 0:08:54.000 --> 0:08:56.120 president put it this way to a group of alumni 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.720 at the time, our concern is not so much what 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:01.400 Yale can do for women, but what can women do 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:05.400 for Yale. The colleges administrators found out in nineteen seventy 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:10.240 six just what women could do to Yale susan ware. Again. 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:15.800 Yale had just gone co educational maybe five years before, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:23.560 and women were being brought into a very male institution. 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.679 These were growing pains in the early days, and painful 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:29.720 ones at that. Mary Mazzio is a documentary filmmaker and 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.600 a former Olympic rower. She wrote and directed A Hero 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:35.560 for Daisy, a film about the nineteen seventy six Yale 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:37.560 Women's crew team. And this was a time in the 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.400 seventies where you didn't see as many women running on 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.320 the track, and you didn't see as many women in 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:47.400 the weight room. This was a time when women were booed, 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.840 they were jeered. The male athletes at Yale looked down 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.480 on their female peers, sometimes quite literally. Well members of 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.240 the women's crew team lifted weights, some men would stand 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.920 on a platform above the weight room, hooting and hollering 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.120 and calling the women names. Yale itself did not treat 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.960 them much better. Historian Susan ware they were finding that 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.240 they were not getting anywhere near the resources that were 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.719 being given to men's teams. The Yale men's crews had 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:16.480 state of the art boats, the women had old, worn down, 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.199 wooden ones. The disparities did not stop there. We were 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:23.360 at a boat house where almost all of the boats 0:10:23.440 --> 0:10:27.199 belonged to the men, and the men had a locker 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.080 room upstairs that they used. Cathy Pugh was a member 0:10:30.120 --> 0:10:32.800 of the nineteen seventy six women's crew team and today 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:36.760 as a pediatrician in Seattle. So the women would come 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:39.960 out and wait on the bus for thirty minutes while 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:43.240 the men took a hot shower. Then you're sweatshirt is 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.760 slowly throwing out in the bus, but there's not really 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:47.960 heat in the bus. Then the shivering women would have 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:50.640 to endure a thirty minute unheated drive back to the 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:55.040 Yale campus, and oftentimes we would arrive just in time 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:57.600 to get to the last open dining hall for dinner. 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.959 Mary O'Connor was also a member of the nineteen seven 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.520 six crew team. Today she's an orthopedic surgeon and works 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:05.600 at the Yale School of Medicine. So there was no 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.600 time for me to go back to my dorm and 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:13.880 and change out of my cold, wet, sweaty clothes and 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:18.080 then go to dinner. And some of our teammates got sick. 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:21.360 The women started to complain about the conditions. There had 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:25.160 been some efforts to bring to the attention of the 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:31.679 university leadership. Are are polite? Nothing was happening, filmmaker Mary Mazio. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:36.320 So the women were told, the wheels of change grind 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.360 slowly here at Yale University. So after about a year 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:44.680 of trying to pursue a diplomatic resolution to hey, maybe 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.280 the bus can stay longer so that we can shower 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.679 after the men, Well, then the men would be late 0:11:49.720 --> 0:11:51.920 for class. That's not acceptable, right. There were a whole 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.920 series of obstacles thrown up at every juncture, and so 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:58.320 the team's two leaders and best rowers decided something more 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:12.160 needed to be done. When I was a freshman, Mary O'Connor, 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:16.600 there were two senior women on the team. Chris Ernst 0:12:16.800 --> 0:12:20.240 was the captain and Anne Warner was a junior, and 0:12:20.280 --> 0:12:27.240 they had both been on the nineteen uh national team 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:30.400 for women's rowing and had competed at the World Championships 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:36.559 and won silver medals. And they were like goddesses to us. 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.800 They were very charismatic. They just offered a kind of 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:45.360 world that I had never even imagined, where women, you know, 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:47.960 like to be strong and they liked they had once 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:51.840 and desires and they fought for them and they liked 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:55.560 to win, and they liked having muscles. And it was 0:12:55.640 --> 0:13:00.240 just earth shattering for me to meet these women one day. Well, 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.280 they waited on the cold bus for the men to shower. Chris, 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.840 Ernston and Warner discussed what to do about it with 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:10.160 their teammates. Title nine started to be mentioned while we 0:13:10.160 --> 0:13:13.280 were sitting on the bus, when Anne and Chris were 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:18.520 back from pneumonia and feeling angry and also feeling very 0:13:18.600 --> 0:13:20.600 scared that they might not be able to make the 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.960 Olympic team if they we're gonna get sick again. Someone 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.440 on the bus joked that they should throw Johnny Barnett, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.280 the director of women's Athletics, into the river so she 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.920 would know what it felt like. Other outlandish suggestions followed. 0:13:34.440 --> 0:13:37.559 So all of those those ideas were hatched because we 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.000 were all wet and shivering on this bus for thirty 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:43.240 minutes while the men took showers after practice. Then another 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.440 idea was raised, one that was also unconventional, even a 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:50.079 bit outrageous. Chris and Anne, the two team captains, looked 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.440 at each other. What they recall is that they kind 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.319 of dared each other. Neither of them quite had the 0:13:56.440 --> 0:14:00.520 nerve until they just caught each other as I and 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.000 said dare, and the two leaders and seventeen of their 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:08.040 teammates accepted the dare honestly there we were at Yale. 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:13.520 I mean, we're at Yale University. We are incredibly bright women, 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.440 and if we were to say it's okay for us 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.840 to be treated this way, what kind of message would 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:25.280 that be for us to send out into the universe? 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.360 And the statement the Yale nineteen made the following day 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:37.680 changed everything in the Yale universe and beyond. On the 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:42.160 afternoon of March third, ninety nineteen, members of the Yale 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:44.160 Women's crew team met in the locker room at the 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.520 Pain Whitney Gymnasium on the college's campus. The women were nervous. 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.600 Team member Cathy Pew, there were some athletes who chose 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.720 not to participate. Two of them were afraid of losing 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:59.760 their scholarships and um others just didn't feel like they 0:14:59.760 --> 0:15:03.600 want to be that out there in vocal. Most of 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:08.360 us were just devoted to both In and Chris and 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.080 would have done anything. They came up with team member 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.560 Mary O'Connor. It was pretty simple, and we met down 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.920 in the locker room and we had a marker and 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.880 we wrote title nine in big letters on our bare 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.600 chests and our bare backs, and then we put on 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:28.800 our Yale Women's crew sweats and we had nothing on underneath. 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:31.880 The nineteen women marched past the workout tanks toward the 0:15:31.920 --> 0:15:35.040 office of Johnny Barnett, Yale Athletic Director in charge of 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:40.320 women's athletics. Cathy Pew. We had a Yale Daily camera 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:44.200 person with us, who promised us that um he would 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.360 just only take pictures from the back and from the 0:15:46.400 --> 0:15:49.760 waist up. We had a New York Times reporter ready 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.680 with no camera. The women marched up the steps to 0:15:52.720 --> 0:15:56.480 Barnett's office behind team leaders Chris Arnston An Warner, the 0:15:56.560 --> 0:15:58.760 Yale photographer climbed up on a desk well. The New 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.480 York Times reporter sat in a chair, his back to 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.240 what was about to unfold. Mary O'Connor. Chris gave us 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:09.960 the signal and we stripped. We we took off our sweats, 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:14.320 and we stood there naked with our Title nine message 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:17.520 on our chests in our backs. That's right, twenty three 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:20.760 years before Brandy Chastain took off her jersey and exuberants 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.080 at the Women's World Cup, the members of the Yale 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.960 Women's crew team took off everything in protest. Cathy Pew. 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.640 We were all absolutely terrified. It's super scary to walk 0:16:31.680 --> 0:16:36.400 in and be naked in an athletic director's office with 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.400 the stun Barnett looking on. Chris Ernst read the statement 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:42.040 that the women had composed. It was not your average 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:47.840 grievance letter. It was a manifesto. These are the bodies 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.240 Yale is exploiting. We have come here today to make 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.960 clear how unprotected we are, to show graphically what we 0:16:55.000 --> 0:16:58.960 are being exposed to. These are normal human bodies. On 0:16:59.040 --> 0:17:02.560 a daylight today, the rain freezes on our skin. Then 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:04.840 we sit on a bus for half an hour as 0:17:04.880 --> 0:17:09.000 the ice melts into our sweats. To meet the sweat 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:11.960 that has soaked our clothes underneath, we sit for half 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.960 an hour chilled. Half a dozen of us are sick now, 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:18.000 and in two days we will begin training twice a day, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.639 subjecting ourselves to this twice every day. No effective action 0:17:22.720 --> 0:17:25.520 has been taken, and no matter what we hear, it 0:17:25.560 --> 0:17:30.040 doesn't make these bodies warmer or drier or less prone 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:33.480 to sickness. We are, as you can see, desperate. We 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.080 are not just healthy young things in blue and white 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:39.879 uniforms who performed tasks of strength for Yale in the 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.399 nice spring weather. We are not just statistics on your 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.520 wind column. We are human and being treated as less 0:17:47.560 --> 0:18:04.240 than such. Mary O'Connor again. So we did our demonstration 0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.640 and it was very a very silent event. We put 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:11.920 on our sweats, we went back downstairs to the locker 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:14.119 room and changed into our workout clothes to get on 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:16.679 the bus and go to the boathouse for practice. The 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:20.479 imprint of their protests remained, especially on its intended target. 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:23.760 One of my favorite pictures is is you can see 0:18:23.840 --> 0:18:26.800 Chris Earns back with title nine written on her back, 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:30.720 and she's reading the statement and the athletic director is 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:36.080 looking down at the floor, arms folded, very closed body language, 0:18:36.119 --> 0:18:39.040 because of course this was a very negative moment for her. 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.479 The following day, a brief article about the protest appeared 0:18:42.480 --> 0:18:46.199 in The New York Times, filmmaker Mary Mazzio again, and 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.760 the story went around the world in a nanosecond. Yale 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.920 Women's strip and this becomes this huge story. Author Karen 0:18:53.920 --> 0:18:58.280 Blumenthal again yell alumni or Paul that women have been 0:18:58.320 --> 0:19:00.919 mistreated in this way, that they haven't been allowed to shower. 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.760 Alumni wrote concern letters to campus administrators, some enclosed checks 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:09.480 to contribute to new facilities for the women. Newspaper cartoonists 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.520 lampoon the college drawing pictures of naked women inside Yale boats. 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:19.520 The college was embarrassed. We needed to speak our truth 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:25.240 and and we wanted our voice to be heard. Unfortunately, 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:29.040 our voice was heard, Team member Mary O'Connor again. So 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:31.680 the bottom line was that by the next spring, there 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:33.800 was an addition onto the boathouse and we had a 0:19:33.800 --> 0:19:39.119 locker room. I mean like it worked. It was honestly amazing. 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.440 It worked. The Yale Women's Crew team got their locker 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.119 room and their showers, but they accomplished much more than that. 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.359 Word of the Yale protests spread. It became a rallying 0:19:58.400 --> 0:20:01.480 cry for women on other campuses. This Title nine was 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:04.439 now more than an obscure law. It was a cause. 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:09.760 And I can imagine that in other athletic departments, athletic 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:12.720 directors all of a sudden said, oh my god, did 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.680 you hear what those those women at Yale did? And 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:21.600 maybe they started to think, could that happen here? How 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:25.080 are we treating are our women's teams compared to our 0:20:25.119 --> 0:20:28.520 men's teams? Team member Cathy Pew. Every time we would 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.639 raise another school, they would ask us about it, and 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.600 they were all kind of ashamed because they had, in 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:38.360 many respects less for their women's crew than we had. 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:41.760 Filmmaker Mary Masa. When the women stood up and said 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.159 we are going to be counted, we are going to 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.520 say something. We're gonna speak what needs to be spoken. 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.200 Athletic directors across the country stood up and they said, well, well, well, 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.800 we don't want articles in the International Tribune or the 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:59.240 New York Times like this is what gender equity means, 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.840 all right, let take steps. In the end, Yale benefited 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:06.160 hugely from the team's protest. Mary O'Connor, and we were 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:12.000 a very successful team, producing national team rowers, Olympic rowers, 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:16.920 We were collegiate champions. I mean, we were a powerhouse 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:21.199 in women's rowing and created a legacy at Yale that 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.920 has continued to this day. That legacy also extends past 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:29.320 Yale's walls. Mary Mazzio. Again, what they didn't realize was 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:32.840 the impact that it would have on women today. If 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:36.480 you look across the spectrum, what Title nine has done 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.600 for women has been nothing short of extraordinary. If you 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:43.440 look at the statistics of women in sport in nineteen 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.879 seventy six when the women did this and made this 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:50.360 statement and protested in the fashion that they did, and 0:21:50.400 --> 0:21:53.040 you compare it to the number of athletes today, it 0:21:53.200 --> 0:21:57.800 is exponential, since the number of women playing college sports 0:21:57.840 --> 0:22:01.920 has gone up by three and impact. The Yale crew 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:05.520 team could not have imagined Cathy Pew. When I look 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:10.320 back at myself doing that protest, I was just doing 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.919 it out of that bond of friendship and for an adventure, 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:18.760 and I did not appreciate the meaning of that at all. 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:23.920 I really didn't, and yet it has come to affect 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:27.159 my life. People ask me about it, and I have 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:33.080 really come to appreciate how much that was needed. Mary O'Connor, 0:22:33.520 --> 0:22:36.400 it was a very personal moment, at least for me. 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.600 It was a moment that also really created a deep 0:22:40.640 --> 0:22:44.119 bond with those of us that experienced this, and I 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:48.760 remained extremely close to Many of those women. Members of 0:22:48.760 --> 0:22:53.440 the Yale nineteen went on to become Olympians, doctors, professors, lawyers. 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:56.879 They include a taekwondo world champion, the owner of a 0:22:57.040 --> 0:22:59.600 w nb A team, the head of an all female 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.840 plumbing company. Many have sons and daughters who are also 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:06.320 rowers and who continue to benefit from their mother's bold statement. 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:11.639 My youngest child, one of my daughters, Rose, she's a 0:23:11.720 --> 0:23:16.000 lightweight women's rower and excellent grower at Boston University. Mary 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:19.080 O'Connor again, she never told Rose about what she did 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.720 in college. And then one day and she was reading 0:23:22.760 --> 0:23:27.320 a story about Title nine and came across the demonstration 0:23:27.359 --> 0:23:29.919 at Yale and she mentioned it to my husband, and 0:23:29.960 --> 0:23:32.359 my husband said, well, you know, your mother was there, 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:35.320 and my daughter says, what are you talking about. He said, 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:39.119 your mom. Your mom was part of that demonstration. So 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:43.760 I came home and she was like, Mom, I can't 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:48.080 believe you never told me this story. And I said, well, honey, 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:52.520 I guess I never really found it important to tell 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:56.280 you that story. And she said, but of course it's 0:23:56.320 --> 0:24:00.520 important that you tell me the story. She actually gave 0:24:00.560 --> 0:24:05.880 me the perspective that sharing the story matters because she 0:24:06.480 --> 0:24:11.600 needed to hear what I had done. She knew that 0:24:11.680 --> 0:24:20.600 this demonstration made a difference for her. Mary O'Connor, Cathy Pugh, 0:24:20.720 --> 0:24:23.320 and the other members of the Yale nineteen fought to 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:25.760 uphold the promise of the law that was supposed to 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:29.399 protect their rights, but that law, Title nine could not 0:24:29.480 --> 0:24:33.639 have happened without the efforts of another woman. My mother was. 0:24:34.160 --> 0:24:37.679 My mother was a badass. Bernice Bunny Sandler wasn't always 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:40.399 a badass. She was a mild mannered Jewish wife and 0:24:40.400 --> 0:24:44.600 mother of two from Brooklyn. Then everything changed. Sandler earned 0:24:44.600 --> 0:24:46.720 a doctorate from the University of Maryland when she was 0:24:46.760 --> 0:24:49.680 forty one years old, but she wasn't considered for any 0:24:49.680 --> 0:24:52.760 of the open teaching positions she applied for. She was 0:24:52.800 --> 0:24:55.800 told she came on quote too strong for a woman. 0:24:56.480 --> 0:24:59.520 Bunny Sandler went home and cried. Then she showed just 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:03.760 how wrong a woman she was. She had, I think 0:25:03.800 --> 0:25:08.040 a sense of righteous outrage whenever something was just, not just, 0:25:08.480 --> 0:25:11.560 when something wasn't fair. On the next episode of The Thread, 0:25:11.880 --> 0:25:14.439 the story of the badass women like Bunny Sandler who 0:25:14.480 --> 0:25:17.040 went to remarkable lengths to get a law passed called 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:25.840 title nine, let Us Play, Let Us Play, let Us Play, 0:25:26.520 --> 0:25:30.600 let Us Play. The Thread is produced by Robert Coulos, 0:25:30.680 --> 0:25:34.920 Shannon Williamson, and me Sean Braswell. Evan Roberts engineered our show. 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:37.840 This episode features the song let Us Play, written and 0:25:37.880 --> 0:25:40.600 performed by teacup Jin. You can hear more of their 0:25:40.640 --> 0:25:43.720 songs at teacup gin dot com. To learn more about 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:46.600 the thread, visit Aussie dot com. Slash the thread all 0:25:46.640 --> 0:25:49.280 one word, and make sure to subscribe to the thread 0:25:49.560 --> 0:25:52.560 on Apple podcasts, follow us on I Heart Radio, or 0:25:52.600 --> 0:25:54.400 listen wherever you get your podcasts.