The old boy’s club of Augusta National stared down decades of pressure to open their doors to female members. Ten years ago, Martha Burk of the National Council of Women’s Organizations led a sustained yet fruitless push to get the snooty golf club to allow another gender into its doors, and the New York Times, under then-executive editor Howell Raines, dedicated a barrage of front-page stories to the topic.

Bad publicity didn’t change Augusta’s mind, as had happened in 1990 when the club invited its first African-American member after an Alabama golf club was excoriated for its whites-only admissions policies.

But suddenly, Augusta, home of the annual Masters golf tournament, has finally broken down, allowing its first two female members: former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore, who Fortune magazine called on a 1997 cover “The Toughest Babe in Business.” Continue reading...

One of the lasting memories of the London 2012 Olympics is hard to overlook: the measurable impact of women on the Games. More women competed than ever before, more women won medals and, Michael Phelps not withstanding, women garnered more of the media attention. In addition, it seems Procter & Gamble, Visa, and other brand marketers fell all over themselves trying to tie their brands to the success of  female athletes.

But now it's football season in the U.S. and, surprisingly, the focus remains on — you guessed it — women. The National Football League, never one to miss a brand marketing opportunity, is kicking off a campaign called "It's My Team." The target audience for a merchandising push that started last September is 85 million female football fans — almost half of the NFL's fan base. "We realized that while we had terrific products for women, we needed to build awareness," said Tracey Bleczinski, VP of consumer products, in an interview with Marketing Daily. "We have gone after it in a much more significant way and the response from our female fan base has been tremendous." Continue reading...