Thirty seven years ago today, Title IX was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. The law was supposed to ban gender discrimination from all education programs and extracurricular activities in federally funded schools.
Civilrights.org explained what happened when the law passed and what's changed since then:
"Girls made up only 7 percent of high school sports participants. Now, more than 40 percent of high school athletes are female, according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations. Title IX has also dramatically improved educational opportunities for women and increased their participation in higher education. Before the law passed, 42 percent of college students were women. During the 2003-2004 school year, women composed 57 percent of the students in universities and colleges. It also has become easier for women to assume higher-skilled positions in their occupational fields, such as corporate executives, politicians, and college presidents."
A
New York Times story last week said
a recent court ruling could lead to schools nationwide being held to a much stricter standard for compliance.
A 2008 study from the Women's Sports Foundation concluded:
"There is a nationwide gender gap in physical activity and sports involvement between girls and boys. The size of the gender gap, however, does not stretch uniformly across the country and all age brackets. In many communities, girls show similar levels of athletic participation and interest as boys. In other communities, however, access to sport and physical activity for girls appears to be thwarted by economic disadvantages and inadequate school resources. Young urban girls, especially, have a narrower window of opportunity for becoming involved with sports than their male counterparts and girls from suburban and rural communities. One in four ninth- to 12th-grade girls has never participated in organized or team sports in urban schools, compared to about one in six urban boys. In short, progress on the gender front in U.S. sports has been made, but it remains uneven, and it is often poor and mainly urban girls who are being left behind."
Additionally, the study found that [PDF]:
- Many parents are aware that girls are getting fewer opportunities in sports and physical activity than boys are. More African-American and Hispanic parents feel schools and communities are failing their daughters.
- More Dads Need to "Step Up to the Plate" to Mentor Young Female Athletes. Non-family members are the top two people girls mentioned as their mentors in exercise and sports -- coaches and physical education teachers. For boys, in contrast, dads and coaches top the list of main mentors. Forty-six percent of boys and 28 percent of girls credit their father for teaching them "the most" about sports and exercise. While mothers and fathers provide similar levels of encouragement and support for both their daughters and sons, many girls may be shortchanged by dads who channel more energy into mentoring sons than daughters.
- Sports Help Create Healthy, Well-Adjusted Children. Sports are a health and educational asset for U.S. girls and boys. Organized sports are associated with children's general health and body esteem, healthy weight, popularity, quality of life and educational achievement. Female athletes often derive greater benefits from athletic participation than their male peers.
Here is a Title IX fight worth watching: In Florida,
school districts are considering cutting the number of scheduled games to save school districts money.
Ms. Magazine reported:
"The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) may face a Title IX lawsuit in response to its plan to save school districts money by reducing the number of scheduled games. In April, the FHSAA passed a resolution called
Policy 6, which would cut varsity games by 20 percent and junior varsity games by 40 percent. Football and cheerleading schedules would be exempt from the reductions. The group Florida Parents for Athletic Equity is
protesting the plan because female athletes would be disproportionately affected: 36,000 boys are on football teams while only 4,600 girls are on cheerleading squads in Florida."
The Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y., said
some have argued that counting competitive cheerleading as a sport would help schools meet Title IX quotas:
"The quota system has caused some colleges to drop worthwhile sports such as wrestling. But it's gotten a little easier for athletic directors to cope. Some of them are counting cheer, predominantly female, as a competitive sport.
"Quinnipiac University in Connecticut has caused controversy by trying to drop women's volleyball and elevating the cheer team to varsity status. It serves far more students at much less cost, but the Women's Sports Foundation sees it as a setback for women in Olympic sports. It may be a while before the NCAA recognizes and starts governing cheer, but it's coming."
Sports Illustrated added:
"Not everyone is cheering the rise of competitive cheer -- especially those in the fight to expand women's collegiate sports. They say cheerleading is a support activity, like a marching band, and claim calling it a sport just gives universities an excuse to eliminate more recognized women's teams.
"'Right now girls are vastly underrepresented on college rosters,' said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, an attorney for the Women's Sports Foundation. 'I would hate to see viable sports that lead to Olympic possibilities, international opportunities, thwarted in favor of a sport that doesn't lead to any of those.'"
