Abortion controversy altered Title IX history

May 9, 2022
Greenberger politics Title IX

The leaked draft Supreme Court decision that could cancel abortion rights dominated headlines this week, but earlier abortion controversy altered Title IX history in ways that are worth remembering. Read more about this in my article in The Washington Post Made by History section today. Here’s a bit more detail to that story: When a 1984 Supreme Court decision in Grove City College v Bell narrowed the application of Title IX and other civil rights laws in education, enforcement stalled. Several colleges cut women’s sports teams because they no longer had to provide equal chances to play. The Office for Civil Rights dropped some investigations […]

Title IX cases highlight institutional betrayal

February 15, 2022
Author events Greenberger Harvard Knox sexual assault Sports Title IX
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Big names in academia gave shameful public lessons recently on what institutional betrayal looks like. At Harvard University, 38 faculty members signed an open letter challenging the university’s decision to bar anthropologist John Comaroff from teaching or taking on new advisees after two investigations supported reports of his sexual and professional misconduct. The signers included famous academics and public figures. But then 73 Harvard faculty released a letter blasting their colleagues for rushing to defend the alleged abuser without knowing all the facts, thus publicly betraying student victims in a way that could pressure other victims not to report misconduct. After […]

Women got Ford to fund Title IX

July 13, 2016
Cindy Brown Dunkle Greenberger Knox People Sandler
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37 words, Bernice Sandler, Cynthia Brown, Ford Foundation, Holly Knox, Marcia Greenberger, Margaret Dunkle, Mariam Chamberlain, Terry Saario, Title IX

A good idea doesn’t go very far, very fast without financing. In the early years of Title IX, key funds came through a new cohort of women hired or promoted by the Ford Foundation. Uppity women on the Foundation’s staff pressured senior management in the early 1970s to diversify its white-male bastion of decision-makers and to direct more of its funding to issues pertinent to women and people of color. The same process was happening in all parts of society thanks to civil rights movements and the second-wave women’s movement. Ford’s response included giving Terry Saario and Mariam Chamberlain the power in 1972 to […]

Legal muscle behind Title IX still flexing

July 21, 2015
Greenberger People Sports video
athletics, Chicago, Marcia Greenberger, National Women's Law Center, Title IX

The Chicago Public School District just got its sports programs schooled by a Hall of Famer. Not a sports star, mind you, but Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center. (Video: Greenberger describes her reasons for pursuing legal justice for women.) Chicago has agreed to a settlement with the U.S. Office for Civil Rights resulting from a complaint filed by the Center in 2010 claiming that the city denies girls the sports opportunities it gives to boys. As a result, the District will have to create roughly 6,000 more opportunities for girls to engage in sports, affecting most of […]

Video history from women behind Title IX

February 21, 2015
Gleaves McKindra Greenberger People Sandler video
37 words, Alexandra Bueck, athletics, Bernice Sandler, Cheryl Fields, Cynthia Brown, Deborah Ashford, Francelia Gleaves McKindra, Holly Knox, Kay Meckes, Marcia Greenberger, Margaret Dunkle, Margot Polivy, Mary Ann Millsap, Mink, Title IX, uppity women

Eleven of the women most closely involved in the struggle to implement Title IX gathered on January 26, 2015 to give a living history of this most important legislation for U.S. women since the right to vote. Focusing mainly on the early years after its passage in 1972, they also shared their fears that Title IX’s hard-won gains could be lost if people don’t remain vigilant in supporting it. I’m thankful to Margaret Dunkle for organizing the luncheon at the Woman’s National Democratic Club and for including me as I research my book on the people behind Title IX.

Title IX foremothers gather in D.C.

January 31, 2015
Gleaves McKindra Greenberger People Sandler
37 words, Bernice Sandler, Carter, Deborah Ashford, Hillary Rodham, Title IX

I’m heading home from an intensive two weeks in Washington, D.C. doing interviews and research for my book on the people behind Title IX, and I’m especially grateful to Margaret Dunkle for inviting me to a historic gathering of 11 of the remaining foremothers of Title IX for me to witness, listen, and interview. Some brought momentos for show-and-tell. Here’s Deborah Ashford holding a poster that the Carter Administration issued to show that he’d kept his promise to appoint more women to government positions. Look who’s right next to each other — a young Hillary Rodham (center, left) and Title […]