We're Launching Women's Sports Policy & Inviting You to Join

A new Substack will offer information, analysis, opinion, and conversation about female-only sports & spaces, brought to you by a mighty team of experts

Hi friends, and welcome, new Stronger Women subscribers!

Our hope is that you’ll help us co-create a future where female athletes enjoy the female-only sports and intimate spaces we all deserve.

This week, I’m eager to tell you about a second publication that I’ll also be publishing — along with some very special friends — and to invite you to subscribe to Women’s Sports Policy.

Please be assured: Women’s Sports Policy is a spin-off of Stronger Women because of its success, and will in no way replace it.

Here at Stronger Women, we recently celebrated our first year of weekly essays and our first 1,000 subscribers, and we’ll continue to inform, entertain, engage, and grow. My energy for Stronger Women has not waned one bit — in large part due to your interest and support — and I hope you stay with me here, too.

Introducing: Women’s Sports Policy

Women’s Sports Policy will offer news, information, insight, and opinion — not just from me this time, but from my team: the Women's Sports Policy Working Group.

What is the Women's Sports Policy Working Group?

We are champion athletes, leaders, and lifelong women’s sports advocates who teamed up in 2020 as the Women's Sports Policy Working Group to restore girls’ and women’s legal right to female-only sports and intimate spaces. We have met every Wednesday for more than five years in pursuit of that goal.¹

Our team is composed of Martina Navratilova, Donna de Varona, Nancy Hogshead, Donna Lopiano, Tracy Sundlun, and me — and subscribers will hear from all of us, individually and collectively.

Along with our allies, we have achieved significant victories, but much work remains.

What will Women’s Sports Policy offer?

Women’s Sports Policy will offer news, information, insight, and opinion related to women’s sports and spaces. It will grant subscribers access to what we’re thinking, doing, and advising — including commentary on current events, behind-the-scenes stories, political strategy, calls to action, and, we hope, inspiration.

We already collaborate with other sports, feminist, legal, political, and scientific organizations and experts; official supporters; and allies, including Champion Women.

Now we’re seeking to enlarge our territory, so to speak: to broaden our influence and impact with decision-makers at all levels, from national and international sports federations to the Supreme Court to Congress; with athletes and coaches of all ages; and with the general public.

As subscribers, you’ll receive ideas, information, and infographics that will help you educate others, including your friends. You’ll have the opportunity not only to learn from us but to offer your thoughts, suggestions, challenges, and questions, thus becoming meaningful members of our team.

Our hope is that subscribers will help us co-create a future where female athletes enjoy the female-only sports and intimate spaces all girls and women deserve.

If this sounds appealing, please subscribe.

Will this be for policy wonks?

No. We offer a model female-eligibility policy, and we track the evolving policies of U.S. and international sports organizations. But we’re interested in the broad topic of female-only sports and intimate spaces, from the personal to the political, and want to change minds as well as policies.

What’s the difference between Women’s Sports Policy and Stronger Women?

Stronger Women is my personal column. In Stronger Women, you can read what I’m thinking, feeling, and wondering about each week — including but not limited to my stories about the need for all-female sports and spaces. Some popular stories among the first 70 have included Recovery: A Love Story; I Would Have Been Trans, Now It's Personal: Trans Sex Offender Exposes Himself in My Locker Room; and When a Friend Slams the Door on Her Way Out. You can follow my Aspiring Cornhole Champion series — which is not about cornhole, but about my quest to regain a sense of myself as an athlete, with reflections on what sports mean to women as we age. You can also engage with me directly as I respond to you in the comments and DMs.

There will be some overlap in subject matter. Stronger Women already published one story by Martina Navratilova and one or two by the entire WSPWG. Stronger Women and Women’s Sports Policy will be philosophically aligned because my teammates absolutely influence my own thinking.

Women’s Sports Policy is designed to offer a broader perspective based on the expertise of the entire group — and personal posts from Martina, Nancy, Donna, Donna, and Tracy, as well as me.

We don’t have a publishing schedule yet; we need to get a feel for it and see how it goes. I will say that if you subscribe (all posts are free; paid contributions support our work), you can expect to hear from us frequently. And you can help us shape not only our ideas but the future of the publication itself by offering your feedback, now and in the future.

After all, every success requires a team.

Signup details: Will I automatically receive a subscription to Women’s Sports Policy?

No. Women’s Sports Policy is a separate publication requiring a separate subscription.

Please subscribe here if this sounds interesting to you.

Thank you “ever so much,” as my dad used to say, for your ongoing interest, support, and participation in any/all of my adventures in sports, feminism, and writing.

I’d love to have you join me — and all of us — over there “in the next lane” at Women’s Sports Policy.

Yours in fair play for all female athletes,
Mariah, on behalf of the Women's Sports Policy Working Group:

Martina Navratilova, OLY
Donna de Varona, OLY
Nancy Hogshead, J.D., OLY
Donna Lopiano, Ph.D.
Mariah Burton Nelson, MPH
Tracy Sundlun

1. Actually, our first question was, Can we ensure fairness for female athletes while also including trans-identified males? This will sound outdated to some readers now, and is. But origin stories matter. Our intent was to be fair and inclusive.

After considerable conversation and research, we realized that it’s impossible to be fair to female athletes and also include males of any gender identity. There are many very good reasons for that.

Our mission evolved: to restore girls’ and women’s legal right to the female-only sports and intimate spaces we all deserve.

As for male athletes who identify as transgender, there’s room for them too — in the male category. Legally, that will be facilitated by laws and policies. Socially, it will be facilitated if male athletes become more accepting of feminine men.

As we established five years ago, we value open minds and respectful communication, including with people with whom we disagree. Please join us in that spirit.