Watch women's basketball coach Muffet McGraw's viral remarks on gender equality

"We don't have enough visible female leaders."
 By 
Chloe Bryan
 on 

Muffet McGraw, the head women's basketball coach at the University of Notre Dame, led her team to a spot in the NCAA championship game on Friday night. Much less importantly, she's had two viral moments this week: her extremely good celebratory dance moves and a powerful sound bite about gender equality.

The latter came during a press conference on Thursday when a reporter asked McGraw about her decision to no longer hire male coaches. In her response, McGraw addressed inequality in both sports and politics, emphasizing the need for young women to see people like them in leadership roles across the board.

"We don’t have enough visible female leaders. We don’t have enough women in power," she said. "Girls are socialized to know that when they come out, gender roles are already set. Men run the world. Men have the power. Men make the decisions. It’s always the man that is the stronger one."

She also addressed her frustration with women's increasing role in politics being treated as a novelty.

"We’ve had a record number of women in office and winning, and still we have 23 per cent of the House and 25 per cent of the Senate. I’m getting tired of the novelty of the first female governor of this state, the first female African-American mayor of this city," she said. "When is it going to become the norm instead of the exception?"

McGraw and Notre Dame will face Baylor in the women's championship game on Sunday night.

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Chloe Bryan

Chloe was the shopping editor at Mashable. She was also previously a culture reporter. You can follow her on Twitter at @chloebryan.

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