Christine Boehm

Former student at Washington-Lee High School, Arlington, Virginia, Class of 2003

I played field hockey at my high school for four years. I loved playing. The problem was, I saw that the school treated male athletes better, as if they counted more. My teammates and I used faded cotton t-shirts as game jerseys and had no locker room to change in before games. The field was so rough that a referee even questioned the safety of playing a league game on it. Meanwhile, football players and other male athletes had nice jerseys, a newly renovated field, and a nicely equipped locker room with television and space for multiple teams.

It just didn’t seem right, so I researched Title IX and contacted the National Women’s Law Center after finding its website. After months of negotiation with school officials, the Center helped my school do the right thing by improving the conditions for female athletes. The school agreed to improve the fields and facilities, ensure that the male and female athletes had equal locker room space, and display girls’ trophies and athletic schedules in an equal manner. The process taught me that standing up and demanding what’s right not only brings results, but also is very rewarding.