From the 1940s to the 1970s, some school districts in Utah had policies that specifically prohibited girls from competing in sports against other schools. This episode highlights two athletes and coaches who fought for women and girls in Utah to have the same chance to play organized sports as their male counterparts:

Natalie Williams, a former WNBA player and Olympic gold medal winner who runs the Natalie Williams Basketball Academy

Norma Carr, a softball, volleyball, and basketball coach who was the first female athletic director in the state of Utah to oversee both men’s and women’s sports, which she did at Salt Lake Community College

Both women faced gender barriers in their careers, but they pushed back and found ways to empower the generation of female athletes that came after them.

Soul Sisters: Mother Augusta and The Rev. Elizabeth McVicker

THIS IS HER PLACE tells the remarkable stories of Utah women, past and present, in all their diversity. Businesswomen and religious leaders, poets and politicians, healers and homemakers, artists and activists, women in the Beehive state have never fit into easy stereotypes. 

Through interviews and lively narrative retellings, each episode features at least two women, one historical and one contemporary, whose stories are distinct but whose lives illuminate a common theme. These subjects encompass the range of women’s lives and experiences—famous and forgotten, rich and poor, believers and skeptics, feminists and traditionalists, from all races and every part of the state. Their stories will make you laugh, cry, and, most of all, think. 

After getting to know these compelling women, you’ll be inspired by the unique ways each of them has made Utah her place.