It was 40 years ago today that the verdict came down in federal court that mandated equal access for women reporters to interview teams in their locker rooms.
As a baseball reporter with Sports Illustrated, I’d watched male reporters troop into locker rooms to talk with players, coaches and managers. Being a woman kept me out by the conventions of baseball, not the law. If I had tried to enter, the guards at the door would have stopped me. At the 1977 World Series, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn certified my unequal status when he banned me from ever going into any team’s locker room. At first, my employer, Time, Inc., tried negotiating with Kuhn, but when he refused to budge, we turned to legal action.
Source: Melissa Ludtke, Medium