Gender Equality
Exploring issues of equality and representation in running.
Mind the Gap
For years, women have been told they can “have it all.” But having it all means doing it all – and that means navigating a landscape shaped by expectations, societal norms and, at times, a lack of representation. The first thing to go when women have their hands full? Exercise.
Time for change
After five minutes or so, the dancing comes to an end. The women make their way to rows of plastic chairs arranged under a gazebo. The organisers take their seats in a second gazebo facing the main group.
Better Faster Farther – an exclusive interview and book excerpt
In June 2024, Maggie Mertens book Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women will be published by Algonquin Books. Here is an exclusive interview with the author followed by an excerpt from Mertens’ book.
Still waiting for the change
Just after 11.30am on 5 November 2006, Samia Akbar took a last right turn in Central Park and raced towards the finish line of the 37th annual New York City Marathon. As 12th woman, she would cross the finish line – in her first marathon – in 2h34m14s.
Enough is enough
I ran every night in the dark and had felt pretty comfortable. A man blocked the bridge I was crossing to ‘get directions to the metro’… aka to tell me I was beautiful and that he wanted to talk to me.
A Women’s Place is on the Start Line
Even though the running boom of the past 20 years has been driven by increased female participation, negative racing experiences for women remain a broad and endemic problem that seems baked into the very structure of many events.
Ask Stef
This issue of Like the Wind examines, celebrates and questions what it means to be a female runner in 2024. But it isn’t all that long ago that female runners themselves were a rare breed …
More than Sport
Many people only know of Afghanistan via the news or history books as a terrain that has faced centuries of war and conflict. But for me, Afghanistan is a country of immense natural beauty and a resilient, passionate people.