Greetings, 19th friends!
We're thrilled to announce that Mariel Padilla will be joining our reporting team. Mariel is a data reporter currently based in New York City. Previously, she covered breaking news at The New York Times, compiled data at the Toni Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism and contributed to a Pulitzer Prize-winning project at The Cincinnati Enquirer. She holds degrees from Columbia Journalism School and Miami University, and her first day is July 13. Until then, follow her on Twitter.
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(Unsplash/Dave Adamson)
HAIL MARY
It’s official: Women’s flag football is joining the world of varsity college sports.
- Last month, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), National Football League (NFL) and Reigning Champs Experience (RCX) announced that they would be bringing women’s flag football to college campuses.
- This week, the NFL revealed that 15 schools have committed to adding the sport to their athletics department, which will offer scholarships to the athletes.
- This will be the first women’s flag football program to be governed by a collegiate athletics association. The women will hit the field in spring 2021.
The school commitments are a crucial step in women’s flag football becoming a “championship” sport.
- The 15 committed schools put women’s flag football in the “emerging” phase, and getting to 25 would move it to “invitational.” After a minimum of 40 schools pledge to add the sport, it will be elevated to championship status — qualifying it for an annual national championship — after final approval from the NAIA.
- Just last month, the NAIA voted to make women’s lacrosse its 27th championship sport.
Experts in the sports world say that “unprecedented” demand for women’s flag football was the reason it reached emerging status so quickly.
- Laura Courtney-Todd is the athletic director at Florida’s St. Thomas University, one of the schools that will begin offering women’s flag football. She believes that the demand for the sport at a collegiate level is there. “Title IX obviously is a big reason why flag football was started in high school," Courtney-Todd told CNN. "But I think what they found was that females were really interested in the sport and oftentimes they were switching from their traditional sport to only play flag football. So that's why we see such a great potential in the sport."
- Meanwhile, rosters are coming together, and women and colleges are making history across the United States as the first recruits sign on, scholarships in hand.
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Join The 19th’s Amanda Becker on Thursday, July 9 at noon ET (11 am CT) for a live conversation with Amb. Kay Bailey Hutchison. President Donald Trump appointed Hutchison to be the 22nd U.S. permanent representative to NATO and she was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in August 2017. Hutchison previously served as a U.S. senator from Texas from 1993 to 2013 and authored a book on gender representation in that chamber with her female colleagues. A provision in the U.S. tax code is named for Hutchison that allows spouses who do not work outside the home to contribute to their own individual retirement account. RSVP now to submit your questions ahead of next week's conversation.
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Warren discusses fight to end systemic racism as some discuss her as potential VP
By Errin Haines
While many black women are calling for Joe Biden to choose someone who looks like them as his running mate, others say the white woman they are open to is Elizabeth Warren, whom they see as having shown a commitment to confronting racial justice as a professor, senator and presidential candidate.
Warren (D-Mass.) sidestepped a question about the role, but in a wide-ranging interview on Wednesday, the senator laid out her evolution on race, class and inequality in America and talked about the need to end racism with big structural policies.
“The vice-presidential decision is up to Vice President Biden and whoever he chooses. I am 100 percent committed to making sure Democrats get elected up and down the ballot,” Warren told The 19th when asked about Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s announcement that she would take herself out of the running. “We need Democrats at every level of government fighting tooth and nail to end police brutality, to end systemic racism in every part of our society, and to make our economy truly work for every single person.”
Read our whole story at the Washington Post.
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TROUBLE AHEAD
The Bureau of Labor Statistics monthly report showed that the economy gained 4.8 million jobs in June, but things are still looking bleak for women.
An analysis from the National Women's Law Center shows that about 1 in 9, or 11.2 percent, of women over 20 were unemployed in June, an improvement from May’s 13.9 percent. Although women accounted for 60 percent of the job gains last month, most of them were in the leisure and hospitality sector — one of the most vulnerable industries as coronavirus spikes across the country.
Latinas accounted for the highest percentage of the unemployed at 15.3 percent, which is triple the pre-pandemic rate. Unemployment among Black women was at 14 percent, almost three times the pre-pandemic rate.
Women aged 20 to 24 and women with disabilities were still unemployed at disproportionately high rates: 20.6 percent and 18.4 percent, respectively.
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 What we’re reading
Curated by May Olvera
Pregnant in a pandemic. Four expecting mothers write a letter to their unborn child, sharing a snapshot of what the world looks like now. Despite their fear and anxiety, they describe the peace they’ve found through connecting with their babies. (The Washington Post, June 30)
Florida State just barred many employees from caring for kids while working remotely. Moms ask: ‘What am I supposed to do?’ When most schools and daycares shut down because of the pandemic, many parents were forced to take care of their children while working from home. With schools looking toward reopening in the fall, Florida State University told its employees they will no longer be allowed to care for their children during work hours — on or off campus. (The Lily, June 30)
Effa Manley fought for social justice and the Negro Leagues. Over eight decades ago, long before sports leagues (reluctantly) embraced Black Lives Matter, Effa Manley was providing a blueprint for the future. Manley, a co-owner of the Newark Eagles, used baseball to fight for the rights of Black Americans both in the sport and outside of it. (The Undefeated, July 1)
How corporate America’s diversity initiatives continue to fail Black women. Despite making up 7 percent of the workforce, Black women make up 12 percent of minimum wage earners and only 1 percent of C-suite leadership. Gender and racial biases have made it significantly harder for Black women to succeed in corporate settings. (CNBC, July 1)
My ___ was a suffragist. In 2020, the centennial of the 19th Amendment, descendants of suffrage leaders share stories of their foremothers’ triumphs and consider how far we still have to go. (The New York Times, July 2)
🎧 Listen: The child-care problem. The uncertainty surrounding the future of child care is becoming increasingly pressing as the economy reopens. Child care centers that have opened back up are operating at reduced capacity, leaving them financially vulnerable and many parents with no option but to reduce their working hours or quit their jobs altogether. Experts worry this will have a long-lasting negative impact on the gender wage gap. (Post Reports via the Washington Post, June 30)
📺 Watch: Daring Women Doctors: Physicians in the 19th Century. Long before they had the right to vote, a diverse group of women physicians broke into the male-dominated medical sphere and made strides towards equal rights by expanding women’s professional and educational opportunities. (PBS, July 1)
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