Melissa Ludtke was a journalist for Sports Illustrated in the seventies, she was covering baseball. Because it was the seventies, she had to fight for her position because sports was still very much a man’s world (like many other places), and that included the right to enter the locker rooms after the games to interview the players and write her stories, just like her male colleagues could. Bowie Kuhn who was the baseball commissioner (please do not ask me what that is exactly) wouldn’t allow it, so she sued and her case was the Ludtke vs Kuhn of 1978.

Locker room talk is mostly about that case but the author uses the case to paint a broader picture of what being a woman in the seventies looked like. If you think our society is sexist (it is) boy let me tell you about back then ! The comments around her case, including from some very serious press, were absolutely horrendous. People didn’t see her as someone fighting for equal rights, they saw her as a loose woman trying to see men naked. The public was all of a sudden very concerned about those baseball players sexual privacy, never mind that nobody was naked during that time with the press, and that the players weren’t against her presence at all. Most comments showed how female emancipation was seen, women who wanted a seat at the table were ruining it for everyone else and it was fair game to insult them and accuse them of having loose morals. I’m not American so I’m not very familiar with baseball (it doesn’t stop you from enjoying the book if you’re worried about that), so I like that Melissa talks about how it was such a traditional sport back then, really much a boys club. It’s not just that they didn’t want women journalists in the locker room, they didn’t want women in the sport at all. If women had a place in baseball, what would be left for the boys? In the US and in many other parts of the world, the seventies were a time when women gained many rights and started more and more to emancipate from a very patriarchal society. That kind of change doesn’t come without some backlash, and that was obviously one of them.

Melissa also talks about her private life around that time. How she became a journalist, that guy she met and married way too quickly and who wasn’t a fan of having a wife who traveled so much. Her first abortion in the decade when Roe vs Wade was voted (was it voted? Again not American here, not that familiar with the legal system).

A part I really liked is that she talks about feminists today, and not in the condescending way some people do it sometimes when they’re from an older generation, but with admiration. Women her generation were pioneers and to gain more rights they had to be smart and discreet, often that meant acting like the men and not being too loud. Women today do not ask kindly for their rights, the demand them loudly. But she also talks about the sadness of seeing some rights she gained during her twenties, being erased during her daughter’s twenties. A painful reminder that when you get rights, the fight is not over.

Thanks to the author, Rutgers university press and Netgalley for a copy of this book that will be out August 16

In 1977 at the World Series, Melissa Ludtke, a writer for Sports Illustrated was denied access to the locker rooms by the Commissioner of Baseball, Bowie Kuhn. You mustn’t go in as there may be naked players, but you can stay outside the door and somebody who works for the team will get the players you want to interview. This didn’t work for her. Most players were done talking to the media and also she couldn’t see what happens in the locker room before and after games. Did this player really shed a tear when they talked about the winning run. Was there a heated discussion amongst teammates? What was the ambiance like? Melissa wasn’t able to see or hear any of this. The parent company of Sports Illustrated was Time Inc, and they sued for discrimination as they wanted equal rights to what the men had.

This books tells her story of the trial and her personal story. It was really awesome to learn that the Judge, Constance Motley, was one of the first black female judges in the country to hold higher positions. She was a key part of the Civil Rights Movement and was an aide to Thurgood Marshall in and helped him with the Brown Vs Board of Education case.

Melissa’s lawyer was Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr. She called him Fritz and he was the great grandson of Frederick A.O. Schwartz, the founder of the mega toy store, F.A.O Schwarz.

Even though it was a bit too much legal jargon regarding the case for me, the dialog from the courtroom was interesting.

Oh, she won the case! Yay! I can’t even believe that at one point, females weren’t allowed to access locker rooms – how stupid are people to deny that.