“No person in the United States 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” — Title IX
Every semester I suggest Title IX as a possible research paper topic for my Gender and Society class. My students have come to age during a time where the passage of laws like Title IX feel like ancient history to them. Many of my students have had the good fortune to be born into white, upper middle class families and for them, inequality is something that is rarely felt.
And yet, every year a group of students chooses to examine Title IX and at the end of the semester presents lots of interesting and compelling information dealing with the history of the legislation and it’s impact today.
There are commonalities in the presentations:
Female athletes often discuss the positive impact of Title IX at our school – the funding for their teams, the financial support offered to them for good grades and athletic prowess, and the positive message sent that all sports are equal. (Well, except for hockey. We have a really outstanding male hockey team.)
Female students in science and engineering fields generally talk about the expanded opportunities for female studies in the STEM majors – the outreach in high school for female scholars, the opportunities available at the college level, and the mentoring circles that have developed for girls in STEM fields.
And finally, male athletes usually take a look at gender and professional sports. With equality happening at the college level, they examine the seeming inequality at the professional level. Often, they are unable to come up with answers – why does the playing field seem to remain unequal at the professional level?
The message that most student groups convey at the end of their research is how powerful the legacy of Title IX has been.
For these students, for most students, being unaware of the law is the biggest triumph of Title IX.
Related articles
- Lisa Leslie: The First Daughter of Title IX (huffingtonpost.com)
- Title IX, Then and Now (blog-aauw.org)
- Women, Equality, and Education: Title IX Turns 40 (with images) – EdweekComm – Storify (girlsplaybaseball.wordpress.com)
This is sort of the good news and bad news about women’s rights, isn’t it? The young people born in a better time don’t realize that life wasn’t always like that. If they are not taught, they risk losing the gains that they take for granted.
One of my best friends in high school ran on the guys’ track team because there wasn’t one for girls. She didn’t do well in the races, but boy, she had some guts. She was called a lot of names, as you can imagine, and treated like a pariah — except that she earned a lot of respect from the guys on the team over time. We aren’t equal yet, but we have come a long way.
Thank you for making sure that Title IX’s history doesn’t get lost.
You raise a really interesting point, Nadine. Sometimes I get frustrated when my students fail to see inequality in their lives. Instead of frustration, I should be thankful that we’ve come so far.
And power to your friend. Sounds like a really tough girl!