The story of women’s basketball in the United States is one of grit, activism, and transformation. From barnstorming road shows to the bright lights of the WNBA, the game has mirrored - and often propelled - larger social changes in American life.
We journey through that history with the help of Pamela Grundy and Susan Shackelford, authors of the newly expanded edition of "Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball." Drawing on years of research and oral histories, they guide us through some the game’s pivotal chapters:
Barnstorming pioneers: How teams like the All-American Redheads and Hazel Walker’s Arkansas Travellers brought women’s basketball to audiences across the country when mainstream platforms were closed to them.
College roots: The rise of organized play on campuses and the role of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women in carving out space for female athletes.
The 1970s: The seismic impact of Title IX, the fight for the Equal Rights Amendment, and the first women’s Olympic basketball tournament in 1976.
Coming of age: The ambitions and struggles of the Women’s Professional Basketball League (WBL: 1978–81), and the eventual NCAA takeover of women’s college championships in 1982.
The 1990s: How 1996 Olympics success inspired the launches of both the American Basketball League (ABL) and the NBA-backed WNBA - to rejuvenate the professional landscape, and set the stage for the modern era.
Grundy and Shackelford help us frame women’s basketball not only as sport, but as a cultural battleground where issues of equity, representation, and identity have played out for generations - where women players, coaches, and advocates continually broke barriers in the process.
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