This Women’s Basketball Coach Went Viral For Her Powerful Speech About Gender Inequality In Sports & More

It’s a big weekend for college basketball, especially for the University of Notre Dame’s women’s team. On Friday, the team defeated the University of Connecticut and will now advance to the NCAA title game after winning the national title last year. Of course, Notre Dame’s head women’s basketball coach, Muffet McGraw, celebrated the last few wins with a jig on the court, but she also used the moment to speak up on some important issues. At a press conference on Thursday, she launched into a powerful dialogue about gender inequality in sports and more. 

“Did you know that the Equal Rights Amendment was introduced in 1967, and it still hasn’t passed?” she said at the press conference. “We need 38 states to agree that discrimination on the basis of sex is unconstitutional. We’ve had a record number of women running for office and winning. And still, we have 23 percent of the House and 25 percent of the Senate.” 

This was a response to a question about recent comments she made to Think Progress about her reported decision to no longer hire a male coach on her staff ever again.

“I’m getting tired of the novelty of the first female governor of this state, the first female African American mayor of this city. When is it gonna become the norm, instead of the exception? How are these young woman looking up and seeing someone that looks like them preparing them for the future? We don’t have enough female role models, we don’t have enough visible women leaders, we don’t have enough women in power. Girls are socialized to know that when they come out, gender roles are already set. Men run the world. Men have the power. Men make the decisions; it’s always the men that is the stronger one,” McGraw continued. This is a problem McGraw has seen in the sport, and as the head coach, has used her platform to make a real change. According to Think Progress, McGraw has employed an all-female coaching staff for the past seven years. 

 “When these girls are coming out, who are they looking up to to tell them that that’s not the way it has to be. We are better to do that than in sports. All these millions of girls across the country...Right now, less than five percent of women are CEOs of fortune 500 companies,” she said. “So yes, when you look at men’s basketball, and 99 percent of jobs go to men, why shouldn’t 99 percent of jobs in women’s basketball for to women? Maybe it’s because we only have 10 percent women athletic directors in Division One. People hire people who look like them, and that’s the problem.”

Many of McGraw’s athletes tweeted out their support when the video went viral: 

Even former President Barack Obama praised the head coach for her words on equality:

Notre Dame will defend their national championship title against Baylor on Sunday.