Mothers: A Great Untapped Resource
Women, particularly mothers, as Scott Lancaster noted in Fair Play, are “the greatest untapped resource in youth sports.” In order to tap the incredible resource that the 42 million mothers of kids in sports represent, I believe the key is for mothers to become educated about the youth sports environment, and through such education empowered to act and act now.
Only by reclaiming their natural role as guardians of our children at play and confidently stepping onto the out-of-control playground of today’s youth sports to assume leadership roles as coaches and administrators can women and mothers not only protect their children from needless injury playing sports but help break down the gender stereotypes and attitudes in youth sports, atttidues that serve to reinforce the sexist division of labor and leadership that remains so pervasive in both the family and the workplace.
Brooke de Lench is the Founder and Publisher of MomsTEAM.com and the author of Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports (HarperCollins), now available as an e-book on Amazon.com.
Updated July 15, 2012
