Name: Olivia Weil

Social Justice Group: 2023-2024, Sexism Against Women in Sports

Date of Fieldwork: January 25, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):University of Pennsylvania Soccer Student

Type of Fieldwork: [69]

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?:

Our first interview was everything we expected and more. We met with a soccer player at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently a senior. We learned about her struggles, experiences, and success. We learned about how the male soccer team has a much nicer locker room with more than one couch, TVs, and a ping pong table and it is much bigger than the girls’ locker room as the girl’s locker room is half the size of the boy’s room. They have about the same amount of players on both the male and female soccer teams. The girl’s locker room also has a mice problem. The male and female teams get funding from the same place but the men’s team gets more of the money. All of the female sports teams right now are coached by women but not one male team has a head female coach. More effort goes into the male team, especially with the publicity. For example, the Penn newspaper is much harsher on the female team. Although the media coverage is pretty much the same, the way it is advertised and talked about is very different. One of the hardest things for her to face at school is having the confidence to speak up against injustice and be listened to. One thing she would change is making sure that there is a culture that makes female athletes more comfortable.