Rowing taught me … that even very old very traditional institutions can change - quickly

These are the old boathouses of the Cambridge University crews in Ely, where we went pretty much every day for our water training sessions???. On the right in blue, the boathouse of the men (2 crews?????????????????????????????????), on the right NOT the boathouse of the women (3 crews??????????????????????????????????????????????????- as the women’s boat club also included the lightweights, which on the men’s side was a separate club). The women’s boathouse was actually the small annex of the white boathouse on the left - with a tiny changing room in the back where up to 30 girls hardly fit, a toilet outside and no showers or a room for a break between training sessions. We were sitting on the concrete floor in the boat bay eating our sandwiches????. In 2 years, I think I went into the men’s boathouse once - in my memory the water or heating was broken in our boathouse and the boys were training elsewhere. So we were allowed to warm up a bit in their lounge area. However, the women were not the worst off. At least we had a boathouse. The lightweight men meanwhile had a boat rack under some bridge.

???The boathouse situation was symptomatic for the overall situation back then. The clubs were completely separate. I don’t think I talked even once to a member of the men’s squad. The men had the income from the tv sponsorship, which paid for professional coaches and minibuses. We had to pay subscriptions????to the club every term to pay for the expenses of running the club and of our volunteer, unpaid coaches. We were allowed to use the men’s beautiful Goldie boathouse in Cambridge for our ergo sessions - but we weren’t allowed to touch anything, including the music system???, and had to get changed and showered at home. And when someone asked the question why the women couldn’t also row their Boat Races on the Thames (we were rowing a much shorter race in a completely different location one week earlier), the answer was “there is not enough depth in the club, this would be embarrassing”???

?????If you now think “you don’t look that old” - thanks????I am not. All of this was merely 12 years ago.?

???However, the point of this story is not to share a rant/ sob story how terribly unfair we were treated - but rather that next weekend when Cambridge races Oxford, it’s a different world.?

??A few years ago, the three Cambridge University rowing clubs merged into one: men & women, lightweights & open weights actually talk to each other, train together and race on the same stretch of water. There is a new boathouse in Ely which everyone is allowed to use and the boathouse in Cambridge now has a women’s changing room. The women (and lightweights) have proven everyone wrong by putting up high quality, gutsy rows on the Thames. And from what I hear from the squad, they all like being part of a bigger team. So nobody really lost out and everybody won????: The years since forming one club have been some of the most successful ones for Cambridge rowing. Just I have to get used to that I am no longer a member of the Cambridge University Women’s Boat Club but instead I am now a Cambridge University Boat Club member???

???The reason this really makes me emotional is because - despite being a self-proclaimed optimist - I would have never thought it possible for such a traditional institution as the Cambridge University Boat Club to completely reinvent itself. And yet it happened, in record time. So if this is possible, I believe any organization can become more equitable, more inclusive - and more successful???

And for the coming weekend: Go Cambridge - GDBO!!