Gold Medal Olympic Swimmer Turned Title IX Advocate Nancy Hogshead Makar Shares How To Use The Law When You Get In Hot Water

After bringing home 4 Olympic Medals for Swimming (3 of them Gold) in the 1984 Olympics, Nancy Hogshead-Makar completed a law degree and now focuses her work on advocacy for Title IX, a federal statute that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funds.

In this Extraordinary Conversation, we talk about the challenges faced by women in male-dominated fields, including law and academia and water-related industries as well as the sports industry. Nancy has served as President of the Women's Sports Foundation, where DrCat completed an internship during college, researching the benefits of sports for women working in corporate environments, such as learning resiliency, endurance, and how to work as a team. We also discussed how many Olympians and other athletes involved in water-related sports become active in work on water and the environment.

Nancy has since created her own non-profit organization called Champion Women, which provides legal advocacy for girls and women in sports. The organization focuses on equal opportunities to play, sexual harassment and abuse, and retention of women in sports. Discrimination and the need for industries to examine themselves if women are leaving a particular career are also discussed.

We discuss Title IX, which applies not only to sports but also to programs to support Women in STEM and other water-related professions. Nancy notes how Title IX is not being implemented fairly in schools, affecting women's access to opportunities in both sports and education, and provides examples of how women have had to band together to fight for their rights in academia.

As this is currently the 50th Anniversary Year for Title IX (signed into law June 1972), Nancy talks about how discrimination against women in educational institutions includes sexual abuse. Having been raped while jogging on campus as a college student, Nancy discusses the difficulty of getting perpetrators of sexual abuse out of sports, universities and other organizations, and mentions specific cases such as Larry Nassar and Rick Butler. She emphasizes the need to listen to victims and take action rather than just assuming that perpetrators are innocent. She also highlights the importance of the United States Center for Safe Sport in identifying and banning individuals who have been found guilty of abuse.

Nancy and Dr. Cat stresses the importance of valuing and supporting women in all industries and urges protection for "whistleblowers" to improve industry for everyone. She encourages women to keep records of their experiences and visit her website, championwomen.org, for guidance on success in combatting discrimination and harassment.

Be sure to check out Champion Women at ChampionWomen.Org