Eyeblack Odyssey argues that college football is good. In honor of that thought, I’ll be posting a series of daily blog entries that celebrate the good in the sport. I have no idea how far I’ll take this, but for now, let us all bask in the awesome.
Let us all bask in … Women working in football
In the midst of all this Bobby Petrino nonsense at Arkansas, I’ve appreciated certain aspects of the story. Petrino getting his comeuppance, for one. The lunatic fringe fans at Arkansas having to back away from their hero worship for a few minutes is certainly an excellent side benefit. But I do think my favorite part of the whole affair has been being introduced to Christianne Harder via this op-ed on SI.com.
Harder is a woman trying to make her way through a man’s world, college football, and her story is a fascinating one to me. Mostly, I appreciate simply hearing about her, when it’s tempting for the national narrative to focus on women like Jessica Dorrell, the mistress who is one of the co-stars of this Arkansas mess. Here’s a hard-working person, qualified to be an active and productive member of a football staff at a major university … and her dreams of doing so just took a major hit.
That is not good, of course. But her story getting out there is. And more to the point, I appreciate and support her position: Women should be able to work in football. She’s doing what she can to change stereotypes, and I love that. The sport has a long way to go in the realm of gender equality, of course, but it’s better off having people like Harder plugging away, trying to climb the ladder.
She, and other women like her, make the sport better.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the kind words~ C
a friend of mine sent me your blog post, and I just wanted to say that it made my day
Absolutely! Keep on keeping on … having worked in sports for over a decade now, I know how difficult it can be to find advancement (my own experience involved three years post-graduate internship, which is about as trying a situation financially and emotionally as you might guess). I can only imagine how much tougher it is for women in general, and I’m glad SI.com gave you a forum to express your story and bring awareness to the issue.