Danica Patrick Feminism

By Taru Taylor

Sports figures sometimes transcend sport. Think Jackie Robinson, a civil rights icon second only to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. thanks to his integration into Major League Baseball in 1947.

Danica Patrick's victory at the Japan 300 last Sunday, her first, as well as motorcar racing's first ever for a woman, has thrust her beyond sports into the realm of social justice.

But what makes her a poster-girl of modern feminism is not this year's Japan 300. She earned her street cred as a feminist icon earlier this year, when the Indy Racing League actually changed a rule in order to handicap her.