In the fall of 2023 a woman entered a bar and asked if they could put on the final regular season game of the WNBA’s New York Liberty. The bartender told her “I don’t think anyone here wants to see that.” She used that frustration to start organizing. Three years later, it feels like women’s sports are everywhere, especially (but certainly not exclusively) women’s basketball. The WNBA has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years and this spring, the WNBA and the players’ union agreed to a monumental collective bargaining agreement that is a major step towards equitable pay with the men’s league players.
Central to this success is the work of fan organizing like this week’s guests. From 23,000 fans signing a petition demanding better play for WNBA players to an in-game protest of thousands of fans chanting “PAY THE PLAYERS” at a Unrivaled league game in Brooklyn this winter, fans have been showing up for the athletes (and workers) they follow and cheer on, on the court and at the bargaining table.
This was the result of her work building Women’s Sports Rally, an organization for women’s sports fans to collectively build authentic, powerful women’s sports communities and align as active allies rather than just consumers of the sports they love. They are committed to actions that help to fairly and inclusively distribute the social, financial, and cultural benefits that come with the growth of women’s sports.
Our guests this week are the very woman who was told off by that bartender three years ago and the founder of Women’s Sports Rally, Caroline FitzGerald and digital communications and campaign strategist Kathy Plate. Kathy has worked on organizing sports fans as a political and cultural constituency which began in her previous work with Ultraviolet, a feminist organizing coalition representing all women, in all arenas – including sports and culture.
@Womenssportsrally on Instagram.
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Episode Guests
Caroline FitzGerald is a social change strategist with a specialization in the science of social connection and the art of gathering. She founded Women’s Sports Rally, a social club that builds fan friendships, celebrates women’s sports, and accelerates social and economic progress. A trained mental health clinician, Caroline advocates for a relationship-based approach to social change, applying knowledge and skills developed in the areas of behavior change, network science, systems and complexity science, community-building, and social enterprise/cooperative business models. She is a graduate of Ithaca College and CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies.
Kathy Plate is a digital communications and campaign strategist with nearly two decades of experience building power across progressive movements. She currently serves as Senior Director of the Lab at Progressive Multiplier Fund, where she works with organizations to strengthen strategy, scale impact, and invest in the infrastructure movements need to win.
She’s also the founder of Sharp End Strategies, where she focuses on nonprofit digital strategy and organizing sports fans as a political and cultural constituency—work that began during her time leading growth and member experience at UltraViolet and was later featured in Ms. Magazine.
Previously, Kathy led digital strategy at the National LGBTQ Task Force and began her career at Alliance for Justice.