“I am woman, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore, and I know too much to go back and pretend….” sang Helen Reddy forcefully, way back in 1972 when I was eight. Those words would always stay with me, as I knew even then, that I was part of a new era, where women were entitled to go to university, hold top executive positions, drive fast cars and play whatever sports they wanted to.
However, emancipation has always come at great sacrifice, and we must be grateful for the many before us who have paved the way for progress of women’s rights, liberation of laws and policies, and equalization of opportunities. We have to thank all the brave women who picketed quietly, or persisted in their knocking on doors to be heard, in the areas of medicine, law, business and the arts, and in sports. Until the mid-nineteenth century, a patriarchical order was assumed to be the natural order that had existed since "the very earliest twilight of human society” and was not seriously challenged until as recently as the eighteenth century. The woman's suffrage (the right to vote) movement was one primarily run by working class women who were frustrated by their social and economic situation and sought to initiate change. And because of that change, women were soon able to do the very things that men could, have a career, drive a car or a plane, and play sports professionally.
In the arena of sports, women like golfers Babes Zaharias (1911 – 1955) and Nancy Lopez (1958 - present), tennis stars Billie Jean King and Chris Evert Lloyd, were athletes who did wonders for inspiring legions of young girls. Babes was quoted to have said: "Before I was ever in my teens, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. My goal was to be the greatest athlete that ever lived." In 1939, TIME magazine described Babe as a "famed woman athlete, 1932 Olympic Games track & field star, expert basketball player, golfer, javelin thrower, hurdler, high jumper, swimmer, baseball pitcher, boxer, wrestler, fencer, and weight lifter".
And now, here we have the pinnacle of liberty in a woman’s world, whereby a venerated symbol of a man’s world before, the automobile, has zoomed forward to become the vehicle to paving the way for a world class woman’s golf event. The Lexus Cup, that began in 2005 with its world debut in Singapore, is back on our sunny shores, after being away from it for just one year, which speaks well of our island nation in holding itself up as a viable venue for world class sporting events now. Well done Lexus, for giving the gals a chance to play on a level playing field with the men, for making women’s golf more glamourous and fun. Va va va vroom!
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