Support the Cambridge Girls Softball League’s mission for a brand-new field that has equal amenities as the boys’ fields and meets accessibility standards. Your support will help stamp out the continuing discrimination experienced by these young athletes. 

Below is a list of the current conditions of the girls’ field and the city’s continued violation of Title IX:

1. Multiple Safety Issues

The girl’s main field is located on the top of a hill in an isolated area that is not visible from the street or parking lots. Parents cannot see coaches or team members during drop-offs as all four parking lots are a ¼ mile away from the field. Some parents are forced to take a chance, hoping that there is a coach at the top of the hill as they must transport other siblings to different fields.

The bathrooms are also ¼ mile way away from the field. It’s not unusual for a player to miss her turn at bat because of the journey to the bathroom, not to mention yet another safety issue if a child goes alone to use the bathrooms. 

The field itself is unsafe for the players as the infield is not filled with normal dirt, instead it is filled in with gravel and rocks. Coaches are forced to tell players not to slide as some of the pieces of rock are up to ½ inch in length.  

 

2. An Inaccessible Location

Friends and family with mobility issues cannot climb the stairs up the hill to reach the field and end up missing out on supporting their young athletes. Having the ballfield on top of the hill also makes for windy and colder temperatures in the spring.

 

3. Neglect and Poor Conditions

Glacken field was a dedicated girls field for over 20+ years and after recent state-of-the-art renovations, it was reassigned to the boys’ league. Now the new boys’ field at Glacken has two fenced in ballfields, dugouts, grass and dirt infields, bathroom, storage area, batting and pitching cages and drainage. When the girls played on this field, they were lucky to get chalked foul lines. 

At the current girls’ field, there is no drainage and no one to take care of puddles and flooding after it rains. This leads to games being canceled (meanwhile the boys’ fields are taken care of and can play that same day). Benches are broken with splinters, fences need repairs, the list goes on…

 

4. The City Isn’t Listening

In the past, the league dealt exclusively with the recreation department, resulting in only band-aid fixes, never addressing the root of the problem. 

This past June after collecting signatures, the players from the girls’ softball league had enough of the excuses and elevated the issue by presenting a petition to the city where some young athletes even spoke at a city council meeting. After the league presented their case, an order was passed and “improvements” we expected to be made by August 1. Six weeks later there is still no progress reported to the league.

 

LET'S MAKE THE CITY LISTEN.

What kind of message does this send to young girls when they see firsthand how their own city neglects them as athletes and as members of the community? It's been over 20 years for the girls’ softball league, and it is about time Cambridge starts to act like the progressive, equitable, inclusive city it claims to be. Let’s fight to give the girls a softball field (and a city) they can be proud of. 

 

Please sign the petition and show your support for gender equality for the softball girls of Cambridge as they pursue a field of equal value.