Bill could fix flaw imposed by Supreme Court on Title IX

December 9, 2022
Intersectional LGBT Pamela Price sexual assault sexual harassment Title IX

A federal bill could repair a flaw imposed by the Supreme Court on Title IX more than 20 years ago that makes it harder to address sexual harassment in education than in employment. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced the SAFER Act with multiple co-signers and support from the likes of the National Women’s Law Center, Know Your IX, and other women’s advocates. The Students’ Access to Freedom and Educational Rights (SAFER) Act would bring management of sexual harassment under Title IX closer to management under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which covers […]

Book censorship attempts on the rise

September 22, 2022
Author events Book news Intersectional Title IX

Requests for book censorship are a bigger problem than ever before, the American Library Association announced as part of Banned Books Week, September 18-24, 2022. In 2021, 729 requests tried to ban 1,597 books. So far in 2022, 681 attempts tried to ban 1,651 books, on a pace to break the record for book censorship activity in the 20+ years that the American Library Association has been tracking it. This blog focuses on Title IX and its prohibition of sex discrimination in education. Attempts to ban books don’t fit neatly into that niche. But consider this: People and organizations that […]

Comments on Title IX regulations hit record

September 14, 2022
Author events Book news Intersectional OCR Office for Civil Rights Office for Civil Rights Title IX

People and organizations submitted a record number of comments on Title IX regulations proposed by the Biden Administration. The Department of Education will review 240,085 comments received by the September 12 deadline before taking its next steps to revise Title IX’s regulations. The surge in interest continues a trend in Title IX history. Before the Department of Education proposed the first Title IX regulations in 1974 to combat sex discrimination in education, notices of proposed regulations to implement laws might draw 10 comments, or maybe 400 for more controversial proposals. The draft Title IX regulations generated nearly 10,000 comments, an […]

Women’s Equality Day includes education

August 25, 2022
Book news Intersectional LGBT Office for Civil Rights sexual harassment Sports Title IX
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Women’s Equality Day on August 26 includes the struggle for equity in education, which handily illustrates how movements for various aspects of women’s rights are never really separate from each other. On that date in 1920, U.S. women won the right to vote, though racism limited access to voting mainly to white women for the following 44 years until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Author and activist Betty Friedan surprised her feminist allies in 1970 by calling for a Women’s Strike for Equality, urging women to pour into the streets on August 26. And they did all […]

Transgender athletes caught between inclusion and competition

Today’s debates about transgender athletes competing in elite sports remind me of the early days of Title IX when feminists and everyone else in society were trying to figure out how to include women of any kind in school sports. What’s the fairest way? Some argued for not following “the male model” of athletics, with its long reputation for cheating, winning at all costs, and exploiting young athletes. Inclusion is more important than competition, they argued, favoring the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women’s slogan “every girl in a sport and a sport for every girl” so that all girls […]

Title IX history coming out

Title IX turns 48 years old today. Part of its history is still in the closet. People who face intersectional discrimination make up the bulk of movements against discrimination — in the grass roots, the grass tips, the leadership, you name it. I don’t know if there are statistics on that, but think about it. Women are more than half of people of color, of people with disabilities, of immigrants, etc. Some of the most visible leaders of the transgender rights movement have been trans women of color. Lesbians always played an outsized role not only in struggles against sex […]

Intersectional identities influence Title IX

July 29, 2019
DeVos Intersectional politics race sexual assault Title IX
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Andrea Pino, Congress, intersectional, Title IX

Title IX has helped millions of people — especially girls and women — deal with sex discrimination in education. You know who it hasn’t helped as much? Girls and women of color or who are ethnic minorities, disabled, immigrants, old, queer, transgender, poor, or have other intersecting identities that increase the likelihood they will be discriminated against. In this recent video interview with Andrea L. Pino-Silva, co-founder of End Rape on Campus, we talked about some of the ways that intersectionality manifests in education, in Title IX activism, and in our lives: Since Prof. Kimberle Crenshaw championed the concept of […]

Exploring intersectional activism under Title IX

I’ll be on the East Coast this summer, kicking off with a presentation on “Intersectional Activism Under Title IX” at the annual meeting of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars June 21-23 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. From its inception to today, activists pushing to realize Title IX’s potential included women of color, LGBTQ people, financially vulnerable women, and people with disabilities, all of whom faced multiple barriers to equity in education. Much of the published history, though, centers on affluent white cisgender women. Using theories of intersectionality to examine Title IX history unearths buried stories highlighting the importance […]

Get ready for more Title IX fireworks

December 31, 2017
DeVos Intersectional OCR Office for Civil Rights Pamela Price People politics race sexual assault sexual harassment Sports Title IX Trump Uncategorized Yale
#metoo, Brodsky, DeVos, Know Your IX, Olivarius, Title IX, Trump, Yale

Happy 2018! In the new year, the backlash against Title IX will make more headlines as the Trump Administration continues to change regulations dealing with sex discrimination in education. Advocates for girls and women will push back and eventually move society two steps forward for every step back. We’ve seen this before, many times. Let’s take a look at the challenges that Title IX faced and overcame at this point in previous decades. It’s been a wild ride toward equity in education. The fun isn’t done. This timeline leaves out a lot, yet you can see patterns and progress: 1968 […]

Title IX advocates say Black Lives Matter

November 28, 2016
Intersectional race
ACLU, alexandra brodsky, ATIXA, Bernice Sandler, Black Lives Matter, Daniel Swinton, intersectionality, Pamela Price, race, Title IX

A professional association of Title IX administrators recently proclaimed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit in Minnesota claims that protecting transgender students’ rights amounts to discrimination against girls under Title IX. The intersections between discrimination based on sex, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, disability, etc. — and how these intersections are used to try to achieve political goals — have always been part of Title IX history. Perhaps never more so than today. The statement released by the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) generated a standing ovation when first read at its […]