What is Title IX?

1. What is Title IX? • Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. • No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. (Kay & West). • The Title IX regulation describes the conduct that violates Title IX. • Examples of the types of discrimination that are covered under Title IX include sexual harassment, the failure to provide equal opportunity in athletics, and discrimination based on pregnancy.

2. Grove City v Bell, 1984Civil Rights Restoration Act, 1988 • Grove City v. Bell, 1984: Supreme Court ruled that Title IX was intended to apply only to education programs and activities that receive direct federal aid. • Prior to Grove City, the common interpretation was that if an institution received any federal aid, all programs within the institution were subject to Title IX requirements. • Civil Rights Restoration Act, 1988: If any program within an educational institution was receiving federal aid/money, the entire school must comply with Title IX standards. (Kay & West, pp 1070-1075)

3. Reasons behind Title IX • Universities banned women • In 1966, Georgetown’s school of nursing did not permit married women to be students. • Virginia state law prohibited women from being admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Virginia, the most highly rated public institution of higher education in the state. • It was only under court order in 1970 that women were admitted. • Women often were required to have higher standardized test scores and GPAs in order to be admitted to college. • Men got into college under lower academic standards than women. • Limits were placed on the number of women accepted into institutions of higher education.

4. Reasons Behind Title IX • Gender tracking: sex prerequisites for courses. • Home ec for girls ; shop for boys • Girls counseled into humanities, Boys into science and math. • Women were tracked into specialties marked as appropriate for females (nursing rather than medicine, teaching rather than scientific research). • Grossly underfunded spending on girls’ and women’s athletics. • Fresno State University had spent more than $15 million on state of the art facilities for men while it had spent about $300,000 on women’s facilities, which were considered substandard. TITLE IX is not just about athletics.

5. Effects of Title IX • Changing expectations • Gender is a poor predictor of one’s interest, proficiency in academic subjects, or athletic ability. • Interest and ability rarely develop in a vacuum; they evolve as a function of opportunity and experience. • It’s easy to conclude that girls aren’t interested in athletics when in fact they have never had the opportunity. • Lowering the drop out rate • A parent in Chicago contacted the US Dept of Education’s OCR when her daughter, who had given birth in the year, was denied the opportunity to take a final exam because the teacher disapproved of the girl’s pregnancy and her excused absences from school due to childbirth. OCR contacted the school, the exam was given, and the girl received her diploma.

6. Effects of Title IX • Decreased sex-role stereotyping in academics and athletics. • Increasing Math and Science educational opportunities. • Increasing the completion of postsecondary, graduate and professional degrees. • Opening up non-traditional employment opportunities. • Increasing participation in athletics. • Increasing athletic scholarships for women. • New sports for girls and women: Hockey Marathoning (1984 1st Women's Olympic marathon) Pole Vaulting Ski Jumping Wrestling Rugby Other? • Opening up avenues of achievement through athletics. • 80% of Fortune 500 female managers have a sports background • High school girls who participate in team sports are less likely to drop out of school, smoke, drink, or become pregnant.

7. Questions to Consider • Why do we have athletics in academia? • What do we learn from athletics? • Why can’t a school just let everyone who so desires participate in sports? • So how do we decide who gets the resources? • Those that make money? ASSIGNMENT • In 1995, 67% of Division I football teams were running annual deficits that averaged $1Million. (SI, 2.6.95) • Only 20% of NCAA’s 554 football teams pay for themselves(Ibid) • 61% of DI men’s basketball and football teams lost money. (Ibid) • A 2010 NCAA study showed that only about ½ of FBS football and basketball programs breakeven. (Five Myths About Title IX http://espn.go.com/espnw/title-ix/7729603) • Of the 120 athletic depts that play DI-A football, 106 lost money in 2009.(SI, 11-15-12)

8. Questions to Consider • So how do we decide who gets the resources? • Economic efficiency approach: • highest marginal benefit per $ spent • So…who is more valuable to have: • a 5th tier on a football team, or a women’s softball team. • A top ranked female tennis player of the 70th best football player who sits on the bench (SI, 1996).

9. Questions to Consider • So how do we decide who gets the resources? • Male sports because females are not interested in playing sports.

10. Determination of Equitable Treatment: 3 Prong Test Meet any prong and be considered in compliance • 1. Proportionality: Does a college provide intercollegiate athletic opportunities for male and female students in numbers substantially proportional to their enrollment? • 2. Historical effort: Does the school have a continuing history of expanding athletic opportunities for women? • 3. Meeting needs: Has the school demonstrated success in meeting the “interests and abilities” of female students?

11. Booster Clubs and Title IX • First, what does U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights look for. (see handout) • Second, what about the argument that booster clubs are the ones raising money and can spend it however they wish? • Answer: Booster Clubs are included under Title IX. • The question that must be asked: IS THE EXPERIENCE OF BOYS/MEN DIFFERENT FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF GIRLS/WOMEN?

12. Gender Equity Test • An athletics program can be considered gender equitable when the participant in both the men’s and women’s sports programs would accept as fair and equitable the overall program of the other gender”. -NCAA Gender Equity Task Force 1992