From the world of public service we now move to the world of sports and entertainment with Julie Foudy. Who was a co-captain of the winning team in the first Women's World Cup and of two Olympic Gold medals. And then finally, to the immensely popular musical artist Bruce Springsteen. Not too long ago in South Africa, there were a bunch of boys playing a bunch of girls on a soccer pitch. It was in Soweto. Julie Foudy was out there, dressed like an ESPN sports analyst, that she is and was. She was covering the world cup for ESPN. And she was playing on the girls team and was emphatic about pushing them to victory as part of what she was doing there. Just having fun, out there competitive as ever, wanting the girls to beat the boys. She is an outspoken commentator on the soccer circuit. But started, of course, as a player. She began on the national team in 1987 at 16 years old. And then spent the next 17 years on the team, 13 of those years as co-captain. She is known as the team's comic relief and its social conscience, according to the New York Times. Through births, deaths, joyous victories, and frustrations among the members of her team. On that team, she was focused on winning and on building relationships among the players on that team. Many people who know the sport look back at that time as a golden era of women's soccer, with Mia Hamm, Joy Fawcett and others who were a part of it. Let's roll back to her earlier days in Southern California where she was raised. The youngest of four and she was kicking a soccer ball practically as soon as she could walk. Once of the things that's noteworthy about her early life is that her parents made it clear to her that she was going to choose when it came to a big decision. So she was good at a lot of different sports, Julie was, but she chose soccer. And it was her choice, it was her choice. As she recalled, her parents opened doors and then encouraged you to walk through them, or no, leap through them as she put it. But it was up to you as the emerging person to make those decisions. She competed really well and was an outstanding player playing on the Olympic Development Team, then the National Team, and had to make some tough choices along the way. For example, she didn't go to her graduation because the National Team that she was on in high school was in Italy. And she was missing her graduation and the prom. And was very happy, though, to learn that day that she had made the cut for the National Team. A little further on in her life and career she went to Stanford instead of to UNC, University of North Carolina, which was a big decision for her. UNC was the place where many of the great players were, and the coach who headed up that team had wanted her to come. But she chose to go to Stanford. Not only because it was an up and coming team where she could make, perhaps, more of an impact, but she was also thinking about her academic career. She was thinking that she might pursue medicine. So she wanted to go to the best place she could. So she went to Stanford. She there got the nickname Loudy Foudy because of her non-stop chatter. And ultimately, on the women's National Team, she became the voice of the team. While Mia Hamm was the face of the team, Julie Foudy was the voice. This was a [COUGH] very successful team. There was not a lot of glamor, though, on the National Team. But with these women that she played with, she felt a deep connection, a kind of sisterhood. And she was able to pursue her personal passion and to be with her friends. At the start of her career there was no Women's National Team. But in 1991, they won the first ever Women's World Cup in front of 65,000 cheering fans in Beijing, China. And they expected that the American response to this would be tremendous. But turned out, when they returned there was no media awaiting them at the airport, and following a lot less attention than they thought they would have or had deserved. Well, [COUGH] growing up, her heroes weren't women athletes, because there weren't many that she could look up to. She saw basketball greats, football greats. Those were the people that she looked up to. And she began to see herself in this role on the National Team not only as an ambassador for the sport. But she came to see the importance of her role in inspiring the next generation of women athletes. When it came to decide whether or not to go to medical school a little later on in the mid 90s, she deferred that and chose instead to stay with soccer. Which she felt was going to be more meaningful to her and ultimately better suited to her real passions and interests. She married at around that time, and then in 1996, the Atlanta Olympics really pushed the world of women's soccer into the limelight as they won again. But she found that the United States Soccer Federation wasn't treating the women and men in the same way with respect to their pay and bonus opportunities if they won medals. So she wanted to create parity. Equal pay for the same achievements. But she met resistance. And found in Billy Jean King, the tennis great who broke many barriers in the world of tennis [COUGH] for advancing the cause of women's parity in that sport. She, Julie called to Bille Jean for counsel and got it in the form of King saying don't play, strike. That's the leverage that you have. Well, she was able to organize that for the women's team, and ultimately they won the negotiation and won the Gold Medal. But this pushing back against what she saw as an unfair and unjust system, sowed the seeds of activism, and began a new phase of her career in women sports. And it's really the reason why she's in this course and why I've written about her. Not just because of what she's achieved in the sport, but what she's achieved as an ambassador. Not only of the game, but as someone who has challenged the way things are and made change happen beyond just the sport. A little bit more about what she has done in creating positive social impact. She was approached by Reebok, one of the gear and apparel makers. And she was approached to be a representative for them to endorse their products. But she wanted to make sure that they, as some of the other sports apparel makers had been accused of, were not abusing child labor. So she went to Pakistan to see for herself that the labor requirements of keeping children safe, that they weren't abusing child labor, were indeed being enacted. For that effort, she won the FIFA. That's the name of the World Soccer Federation, FIFA. She won their Fair Play Award. And was the first American and the first woman ever to win that. In 1999, they won the World Cup again. But then, in the early 2000s, in the United States there was an emerging challenge to Title IX. Which was an Act from the 70s that had given colleges in the United States the imperative to give equal funding to women's and men's sports. But there was a threat to that coming from the Federal administration at the time. In June, 2002, the Secretary of Education asked for a review of Title IX. And everyone saw this as one step forward towards trying to reduce its power and its role in creating equity for men and for women. This, many people feel, was a defining moment for women's sports. She once again pushed against this repeal and brought together a number of different people to help her to do that. She was part of a movement to protect Title IX and was successful in that. She's involved in a number of other activities that are about empowering women, and especially girls through sport. Through Global Girl Media, she's a part of the organization that supports Global Girl Media, which is a way of empowering women to follow and create media campaigns for women's sports. In 1995, she founded a camp to train young women players. And in 2006, enhanced that for it to become a leadership academy where the goal was not just to teach up and coming female athletes how to play the game of soccer, but to think of themselves as leaders. To engage them in volunteerism. In acting for positive social change, to build confidence. To, as she put it, love the skin you're in. To learn how to lead in all the different parts of life. So, Julie Foudy is a part of this collection because of what she's achieved beyond the soccer pitch. And many people, many women especially, have benefited from her courage to mobilize people toward goals that matter. She was inspired to act by the injustice that she saw. And came to see that her role was to work for improving the game and the world for future generations of women athletes. She became a successful advocate for equality and for human rights. And demonstrates virtually all of the skills that we've been talking about in our course, just like all the others. But the ones we're going to focus on in analyzing Foudy's story are knowing what matters, helping others, and challenging the status quo.
