"If you can play...If you're good enough to be on the team, then why shouldn't you be?"
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Obstacles after the League DisbandsWhen the AAGPBL ended its final season in 1954, female athletics had seen the highest social acceptance in history. However, the push for equality in athletics would falter in the post-war culture of the 1950s. In this "conservative...climate that emphasized family, marriage, and conventional femininity, the popularity of women's sports suffered further decline" (3). The rigid gender roles of the 1950s hindered not only the push for female athletics, but the women's rights movement as a whole. As one article states, it seemed "girls and women would always remain a sideshow to the real game of men's baseball" (4). However, public support of female athletics would soon increase, and everyone would realize the important precedent that the AAGPBL set for future female athletes.
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Broader Impact of the LeagueThe example of female athletic prowess set forth by the AAGPBL inspired movements to advance women's athletics worldwide. The league "provided an important precedent for later efforts to promote women's sports," most famously the creation of Title IX in 1972 (5). This groundbreaking legislation stated that "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance" (6). The passage of Title IX, combined with a new passion to provide women with equal athletic opportunity, created a shift in accepted gender roles, a shift that shaped the society in which we live today.
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Educational Benefits
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"I did not think I was pioneering because I always [played baseball], but as I look back now, it absolutely opened doors."
Toni Palermo, former AAGPBL player (7)
1. ProvidenceJournal. "Wilma Briggs reminisces about her baseball career". Youtube video, 3:54. https://youtu.be/5R7yGP9Z-xQ.
2. All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association, Inc., "League History," http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm/pages/league/12/league-history (May 17, 2016).
3. O'Reilly, Jean. Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2007), xvi.
4. Ibid.
5. CONTENTdm, "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League," http://cdm16015.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15068coll11, (May 17, 2016).
6. The MARGARET Fund of NWLC, "Athletics Under Title IX," http://www.titleix.info/10-Key-Areas-of-Title-IX/Athletics.aspx, (mAY 17, 2016).
7. CONTENTdm, "Palermo, Toni (Interview transcript and video), 2009," http://cdm16015.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15068coll11/id/27, (May 17, 2016).
8. The Illinois State Library, "Women's Baseball during World War II," http://www.lib.niu.edu/1995/ihy950452.html, (May 17, 2016).
9. Carol J. Pierman, "Baseball, Conduct, and True Womanhood," Women's Studies Quarterly, 2005, 68.
10. Carol J. Pierman, "Baseball, Conduct, and True Womanhood," Women's Studies Quarterly, 2005, 69.
2. All American Girls Professional Baseball League Players Association, Inc., "League History," http://www.aagpbl.org/index.cfm/pages/league/12/league-history (May 17, 2016).
3. O'Reilly, Jean. Women and Sports in the United States: A Documentary Reader (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2007), xvi.
4. Ibid.
5. CONTENTdm, "All-American Girls Professional Baseball League," http://cdm16015.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15068coll11, (May 17, 2016).
6. The MARGARET Fund of NWLC, "Athletics Under Title IX," http://www.titleix.info/10-Key-Areas-of-Title-IX/Athletics.aspx, (mAY 17, 2016).
7. CONTENTdm, "Palermo, Toni (Interview transcript and video), 2009," http://cdm16015.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15068coll11/id/27, (May 17, 2016).
8. The Illinois State Library, "Women's Baseball during World War II," http://www.lib.niu.edu/1995/ihy950452.html, (May 17, 2016).
9. Carol J. Pierman, "Baseball, Conduct, and True Womanhood," Women's Studies Quarterly, 2005, 68.
10. Carol J. Pierman, "Baseball, Conduct, and True Womanhood," Women's Studies Quarterly, 2005, 69.