Schools rethinking use of ‘Lady’ for female teams
By Alexandra Svokos, Huffington Post
Recent debates at two universities about removing “Lady” from the names of women’s sports teams caused very different reactions, highlighting the two sides of an ongoing discussion about women’s athletics.
The Review, the student newspaper of the University of Delaware, announced on Sunday that it will no longer use the term “Lady Hens” when writing about the university’s women’s sports teams. The newspaper’s decision comes just as University of Tennessee fans and players are fighting to keep the term “Lady” attached to the name of their female squads, which are currently known as the Lady Vols.
“Though this change is long overdue, we are proud to announce we are disposing of a discriminatory term,” the editors of the Review wrote of their decision.
The newspaper’s move was prompted by a letter to the editor from alum James Wiles, who said that “the term Lady Hens is inherently sexist.”
“The men’s teams are somehow solely entitled to the general term Hens, without a gender specific qualifier,” Wiles wrote.