Never in Jenifer Mackenzie’s wildest dreams did she imagine her film Kick Like a Girl, about her daughter’s recreational soccer team, would bring her into classrooms and boardrooms of nonprofit organizations and corporations. The film tells the tale of a girls’ youth team Mackenzie coached to undefeated seasons and which eventually competed in the boys’ division. Not everyone in the Salt Lake City, Utah league agreed with the decision to allow co-ed competition. What resulted would be a clash of sexism, gender and diversity issues. On Feb. 2, Mackenzie came to Hooker Auditorium to speak and present her documentary in recognition of National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
Mackenzie opens her movie with a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “My advice to women is to get in the game, and stay in the game.” A three-sport high school athlete and with a four-week volleyball career at Brown University, Mackenzie has always treasured women’s influence on sport. “What we’re really looking for is true equity, and I think to really reach that kind of equity, we have to have female role models in every area of our life.” Mackenzie took it upon herself to be one of those examples after her daughter Lizzie cried about playing basketball with a co-ed team because the boys refused to pass the ball to her.
Mackenzie began the Cheetahs, a soccer team where young girls would be treated equally. Questioning why coaching styles between girls and boys so often differ, Mackenzie decided to take a gender-neutral approach. “I actually use fairly direct assertive language with eight–and nine0year-old girls…No one’s getting past you, you’re a wall!” Mackenzie firmly deems that this attitude helped the Cheetahs be a success. Yet the fathers, coaches and sons in the men’s division were not always supportive of Mackenzie’s emphasis on equity. According to Mackenzie, the “gender card” led to more sideline bantering than any other team’s matches, and shouts similar to “You’re losing to girls!” became common occurrences. During one match, a boys’ coach, who later declined to be in the film, announced to Mackenzie, “If your girls are playing in the boys division, they have to be ready for rougher games.” It’s moments like these when Kick Like a Girl’s fight for equality comes into the spotlight. Indeed, sometimes children are our best teachers. Mackenzie believes the film has been so successful “because kids are telling the story and I think sometimes people are a lot less defensive when they hear it from children’s mouths…Take these teachable moments, and run.”
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