I have just been reading about the American athlete Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, who deserves to be celebrated as a predecessor of Michelle Wie.

After winning two golds and a silver at the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, Zaharias turned pro…

… touring with basketball and baseball teams, playing billiards and golf; she even pitched a shut-out inning for a major league baseball game (in spring training). She won a diving championship, swam at record-setting pace, and mastered or at least tried lacrosse, soccer, handball, fencing, cycling, volleyball, bowling, boxing and ice skating. Eventually, she focused her efforts on golf and tennis, and made a good living in tournaments and exhibitions. In 1938, she was the first woman to play in a men’s PGA tournament. She co-founded the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1948.

(From the Yahoo Born On This Day list, which features a new woman each day. Thanks Penny!)

Now I’ll whisper this quietly (Hi Tony), but I have been watching some men’s sport – the World Cup Australia v Italy. Sadly, however, I’m unlikely to be watching any more Cup games, after this result. (My Blogcritics report.)

Interesting that two of the European states that were most under the patriarchal thumb of the Catholic Church — Ireland and Spain — have not just broken out, but broken out with a vengeance, seeking to address centuries of unusually repressive treatment of women, gays and other “deviants” with progressive human rights legislation. The latest in Spain is preferential treatment for companies with women on their boards:

It is the latest in a string of measures, including a housework-sharing clause in civil marriage contracts, targeting machismo. Companies have eight years to reach a 40% quota of women on their boards, a leap from today’s 3.8% average in public companies.
Those who fail to reach the quota will lose competitive status in bids for state contracts.

Wimbledon, however, remains in its English public school past, with prizemoney for women still below that of men’s. But good on Venus Williams, who today in The Times takes on the issue:

Equality is too important a principle to give up on for the sake of less than 2 per cent of the profit that the All England Club will make at this year’s tournament. Profit that men and women will contribute to equally through sold-out sessions, TV ratings or attraction to sponsors.

From the inbox: the Society for Women in Philosophy-UK is in the middle of a relaunch. Thought some readers might be interested, and I was particularly taken by a couple of their aims, “* to promote philosophy by women, past and present
* to foster feminism in philosophy and philosophy in feminism”.