Does your local paper cover boys' sports more than girls' sports? Have you ever had an urge to change that?

In Minnesota, the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport is helping girls do just that. Through a special program called, "Image Is Everything: Achieving Equitable Media Treatment for Females," the Tucker Center is empowering girls to obtain media coverage through their own initiative.

"We just can't wait around for the media to change on their own," says Mary Jo Kane, Director of the Tucker Center and an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota, where the Center is housed.

Started in 1998, the program is specifically tailored for high school students and has been done at six Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area high schools. This year, the program will expand to 15 schools across Minnesota. The Tucker Center's long-term goal is to develop the program for use throughout the nation.

The workshop begins by teaching girls what makes a negative image and what makes a positive image in the media. The participants then talk about how to combat the negative images. From there, the girls begin working on specific projects that can promote girls and women in sports.

"I show them examples from the media--the good, the bad and the dangerous," says Kane, "then I invite them to create their own alternative images."

Mentoring is another significant part of the program. These mentors provide information about resources for the girls' projects, and also help them arrange for presentations at such venues as the Minnesota AAUW statewide convention. The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has provided many of the mentors who have developed important relationships with the workshop participants. Graduate students from the Tucker Center also have played key roles as mentors.

Girls who have participated in the project are choosing to spread their message via such outlets as a calendar featuring female athletes from their school, Web pages, banners, and posters. "One hope we have is that once these girls have participated in our program, they know they never again have to sit on the sidelines in sport or life," Kane said.

More on the Tucker Center:
The Tucker Center opened five years ago when Dorothy Tucker, a 1945 University of Minnesota graduate, donated $1 million for university research on women athletes. It's primary objective is tied to public service and community outreach.

"If we do not do research work and train students in a way that can make a difference in the lives of girls and women, in my view, we have failed," says Kane, who played football, basketball, and baseball as a youngster, but was not allowed to do so upon entering Holy Trinity High School in Bloomington, Ill. in 1965.

Along with the "Image is Everything" workshop, the Center's most recent project is the documentary, "Throw Like a Girl: A Revolution in Women's Sports," which was a joint effort with KARE-11 television. In the video, Minnesota women of different generations (1920 to the present) tell their version of women's sports history. Many of the sportswomen featured have close ties to the Upper Midwest, including Karyn Bye and Alana Blahkoski, members of the U.S. women's hockey team that won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics.

The video focuses especially on how opportunity has increased dramatically for athletic females since the passage of Title IX. Before Title IX legislation, 30,000 high school girls played sports nationally. Now, three million play. One in 27 girls played high school sports before the law passed. Now, one in three girls participate. Scholarships for female athletes did not exist before Title IX. Now, 30,000 women receive athletic scholarships nationally.

For more information on the Tucker Center, visit its home page.