A women’s sports policy agenda for the Biden Administration
By: Lucy Montgomery
Tags: Biden, White House, WNBA, USWNT, Sports

Women’s sports have been one of the few bright spots of 2020. WNBA and NWSL viewership numbers are way up. Women athletes are rising to meet the moment, with the players of the WNBA dedicating their entire 2020 season to social justice. Exciting new clubs like Angel City FC in Los Angeles are bringing new investors and an approach to the game that is raising the bar for everyone. And Athletes Unlimited is an innovative new concept that is giving athletes in sports like softball, volleyball, and lacrosse professional opportunities that didn’t previously exist.

President-elect Biden has been a vocal supporter of the USWNT.

President-elect Joe Biden has an unprecedented opportunity to build on this momentum and make women’s sports an integral part of his domestic policy agenda. President-elect Biden has shown that he cares about women’s sports. He attended the 2015 World Cup Final in Vancouver, is good friends with fellow Delaware native Elena Delle Donne, and has demanded that the US Soccer Federation pay the USWNT equally. He took to Twitter to congratulate Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe on their recent engagement. And his granddaughter Maisy is a talented hooper in her own right. President-elect Biden should build on this foundation of respect and appreciation to demonstrate that women’s sports have a home in the highest office in the land.

President-elect Biden and his administration should prioritize these actions:

Use the platform of the presidency and White House to celebrate and promote women’s sports.

· Appoint a sport liaison within the Office of Public Engagement. The person in this position would be responsible for interfacing with athletes and leagues, keeping a constant pulse of what is happening in the women’s sports world and identifying opportunities to uplift their stories.

· President-elect Biden has promised to reinstate the White House Council on Gender Equality. The Council should make sports one of its priority issue areas and convene key leaders from leagues (WNBA, NWSL, NWHL, PWHPA, LPGA, WTA, and Athletes Unlimited) and national nonprofits (Women’s Sports Foundation, Aspen Institute, RISE, Pro Sports Assembly, Play Like a Girl, Laureus Sport for Good, etc.) to advance the conversation.

· Invite women athletes to the White House to celebrate medals and championships. But also give women athletes a place at state dinners, Christmas parties, and White House Summits. Demonstrate that the White House is truly the people’s house and that women athletes have a place there beyond the normal designated celebratory days.

· Use women athletes in PSAs and social media content. During the Obama administration, men’s athletes made cameos in PSAs for the Affordable Care Act and dating violence prevention. In the Biden administration, women athletes should have a similar platform to share their stories and connect with Americans across a range of important issues, like LGBTQ inclusion, maternity leave, and civic engagement.

· Award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to deserving women athletes. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, awarded to those who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” Of the 39 athletes and coaches who have been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom since its inception in 1963, only two are women (Pat Summitt and Billie Jean King). President-elect Biden can begin to right this discrepancy by starting with six deserving women athletes: Wilma Rudolph (posthumous), Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Trischa Zorn, Mia Hamm, Megan Rapinoe, and Serena Williams.

· President-elect Biden should attend the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and meet with New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern while there. This would be a powerful show of support for gender equity, considering that Ardern is a model of grace, competency, and humility for women everywhere.

· President-elect Biden and other Cabinet members should have a consistent presence at domestic women’s sports events, like the Final Four, US Open, and LPGA Championship. Biden should attend Washington Mystics games to support his good friend Delle Donne.

The pride of Delaware: President-elect Joe Biden and Elena Delle Donne.

· Coordinate a phone call and congratulatory tweet from Vice President-elect Harris or President-elect Biden to each of the NCAA and women’s professional league champions.

· In 2019, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order to create the Michigan Task Force on Women in Sports. This first-of-its-kind initiative, led by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, produces research and develops strategies to support and promote opportunities for women and girls in sport in Michigan. President-elect Biden’s administration should highlight this success story and encourage/assist other states in creating similar initiatives.

· Title IX’s 50th anniversary will be in 2022. The Biden administration should plan and execute a massive celebration at the White House to mark this important milestone.

· President-elect Biden should use his bully pulpit to call out sports networks and media outlets for sexist headlines and lack of women’s sports coverage (because, unfortunately, this has proven to be inevitable).

· President-elect Biden should publicly affirm his support of inclusion of trans people in sport.

· President-elect Biden should follow President Obama’s playbook and complete a women’s NCAA Tournament bracket every March that he is in office.

· President-elect Biden should include women’s sports commissioners and owners in conversations on COVID-19 restart guidelines.

Restore sports-related positions across the federal government.

· Make the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition in the Department of Health and Human Services functional again. Under the Trump administration, the federal government no longer updated Fitness.gov and the President’s Council became largely ceremonial. Under President-elect Biden, the President’s Council should take on renewed importance in implementing the National Youth Sports Strategy and building on the momentum of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative.

· It’s no secret that President Trump decimated the State Department during his presidency. One of the victims was the Sports Diplomacy Division within the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). Sports diplomacy is a powerful way to transcend sociocultural differences and build relationships with countries of strategic importance to the United States. Professional women athletes have served as sports envoys and represented the United States overseas, holding clinics for young people and participating in community outreach efforts. President-elect Biden should restore funding to ECA to allow sports diplomacy programs to thrive.

Dedicate federal funds and resources to support issues that directly impact women athletes.

· Fully enforce Title IX through the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR). Title IX is the single most important piece of legislation for women athletes, but Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration have drastically weakened its provisions. The nonprofit Champion Women has compiled extensive data about the stunning number of schools who are not in compliance with Title IX. The Biden administration should act swiftly to affirm its commitment to strengthening and enforcing Title IX.

· The Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA) of 1994 is a federal law that requires universities and colleges to make available gender equity information about their athletic programs. This data is buried on the Department of Education’s website and is difficult to manipulate and analyze/compare across schools. The Biden administration should make EADA information more user-friendly and actionable.

· Promote equal pay efforts by expanding funding for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and requiring that medium and large employers collect and disclose compensation information by race, gender, and ethnicity. Affirm commitment to upholding the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and support the Paycheck Fairness Act (introduced in Congress in 2019).

· More and more athletes are speaking out about their mental health struggles. A recent NCAA study showed that 50% of women college athletes felt overwhelmed by all they had to do. Elite athletes suffer many mental health symptoms and disorders at rates equivalent to or exceeding those of the general population. President-elect Biden should work with Congress to fund the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

· Women athletes are twice as likely as men to experience a concussion — and the effects are more severe. But most concussion research focuses on men. President-elect Biden should direct federal funding for additional research on women athlete’s concussions through the National Institutes of Health.

· President-elect Biden should support the enforcement of the Empowering Olympic, Paralympic, and Amateur Athletes Bill of 2020, which establishes safeguards to protect amateur athletes from sexual and emotional abuse by coaches and employees in US Olympic and Paralympic sports.

· President-elect Biden should make it easier for current and retired women athletes to start their own business. Many women athletes have their own training/coaching businesses or are pursuing other entrepreneurial passions. President-elect Biden should direct federal funding to women-owned businesses by improving Small Business Administration programs that support women-owned businesses and make capital more readily available.

Support legislation and policies that empower women college athletes.

· President-elect Biden should support Senator Cory Booker’s College Athlete Bill of Rights, which provides athletes with lifetime scholarships, government oversight of health and safety standards, and an opportunity to share the profits they have generated.

· President-elect Biden should appoint pro-labor members to the National Labor Relations Board to usher in a new era of workers’ rights.

Women athletes have been at the forefront of change in the United States, inspiring generations and helping expand our notion of what’s possible. Women athletes constantly give of themselves for the betterment of our country. It’s time that we give them the platform and support that they deserve, starting with the highest office in the land.

Lucy Montgomery is a MBA/MPA student at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Harvard Kennedy School. You can reach her at lucy_montgomery@hks.harvard.edu.