January 8: Portland High School Gender Equity Conversation & Scrimmage

We teamed up with Portland Ultimate to chat with high school youth about what gender equity looks like and how to encourage more young girls to sign up. At the moment, there are only 10 young women who play competitive ultimate in the Portland area. The high school format is primarily mixed ultimate, with underdeveloped equity training for the male-majority coaches, creating perpetuating cycles of discouragement for young women to play and continue to play. 

We centered the discussion around deciphering what it takes to be the best ultimate player in the world (purple writing), and looked at what type of resources are needed to get those aspects (orange writing), and briefly at the intersection of race and gender in the conversation (red writing). Finally, we looked at the social environment of youth ultimate in Portland and what we can do from leadership positions (captains, coaches, members of Portland Ultimate, etc.) (see photos below). 

Then we went out to play a mixed scrimmage under the lights. Lots of talent coming out of Portland so other cities watch out!