Title IX history going and coming

This month, October 2023, marks two milestones in Title IX history — one of a Title IX foremother going to her rest and one marking 10 years of today’s youth coming into the next chapter of Title IX advocacy. Margot Polivy, a crucial player in Title IX’s early years, died at the age of 85 on October 7. Along with another Title IX foremother, Margaret Dunkle, Polivy did more that almost anyone else to ensure that Title IX would provide fairer treatment for girls and women in school sports. Above is an excerpt of my video interview with her in […]

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Bill could fix flaw imposed by Supreme Court on 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 […]

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Video: athletes see the differences in treatment

Rather than read the case files of recent Title IX lawsuits, you can easily get the picture through this short video of athletes describing how they see differences in their schools’ treatment of girls’ and boys’ sports. In this case, it’s royal treatment for baseball and shabbier treatment for softball. It’s an age-old story, unfortunately. A half-century after Title IX outlawed this kind of discrimination, it’s all too common. Girls (and their parents) still have to sue to get school officials to fix it. And girls everywhere almost always win those suits. (Top photo: A screen shot of an athlete […]

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37 Words coming to Korea

Good news — The publisher Wisdom House has licensed the rights to publish a translation of 37 Words in Korea! I’m surprised, I’ll admit. I figured that my history of Title IX and the struggle against sex discrimination in U.S. schools would be of interest only in the United States. I was wrong. Korea has a vibrant feminist movement. Not only will the book be coming to Korea, but this week Tel Aviv University in Israel held a conference on women in sports featuring a Zoom panel with me and others discussing Title IX. Apparently, some people in Israel feel […]

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Potential big deal for Title IX lawsuits

A little-noticed legal ruling this week could be a big deal for Title IX lawsuits going forward. If I’m reading this right, colleges and universities could be held accountable not only for cases in which they were deliberately indifferent to reports of sexual harassment and assault after they happened. They could also be held accountable for inadequate management of campus sexual violence before the next attacks occur because their actions (or lack of them) increased the risk for more victims, violating Title IX. What does that look like in real life? The ruling from a three-judge Appeals Court panel gave […]

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Confronting child sex trafficking on campus

Child sex trafficking isn’t the first thing most people think of when they consider sexual harassment and assault in higher education. But it’s more common than you may think. And perpetrators are almost all white, male academics, according to a study by Lori Handrahan, Ph.D. More than half held leadership positions on campus. It’s perhaps significant that the findings come from an independent scholar, meaning she currently holds no faculty position. Here’s her report in the Journal of Human Trafficking with more. You can see a concise summary of her findings that she posted on Medium. And here’s the awesome […]

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Congress mandates surveys on sexual violence

Once again the federal Education Department is stepping in to do something that all colleges should have done but many haven’t — surveys about sexual violence on campus. Hooray for the feds. Under a provision tucked into a 3,000-page Congressional bill to fund the federal government for six months, the Education Department will develop an online survey to measure students’ experiences with sexual harassment and assault, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Any college receiving federal funds will be required to conduct the campus-climate survey every two years, and the Education Department will publish aggregate results. The legislation also calls […]

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Title IX cases highlight institutional betrayal

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 […]

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New book explores Sexual Justice

Probably the most important book in 2021 related to Title IX looks at how we get to sexual justice both for survivors of sexual assault and for the people accused of assaulting them. This Tuesday, August 24, at 7:30 p.m. ET you can hear author Alexandra Brodsky at a virtual book launch discussing Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash. The New Yorker magazine published an adapted excerpt from the book: “Meeting ‘the other side’: Conversations with men accused of sexual assault.” Check it out. Brodsky co-founded the national student activist organization Know Your IX […]

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Intersectional identities influence 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 […]

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It’s not okay, but we’re getting there

He ran from behind me and body slammed the woman in front of me. The boy looked to be about eight or nine years old, white, with the restless energy of a bored kid. Seemingly trying to amuse himself as his family strolled onto the campus of Yale University, he wanted something to do, and he wanted attention. The woman said nothing. Ahead, the father saw none of this, more intent on the camera and a paper map in his hand. The boy ran back, 10 paces behind me, and launched himself again. He zoomed by within inches to my […]

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Speak your mind on DeVos and Title IX

We’re at a pivotal moment in Title IX history. Not since 1975 has the Department of Education changed the regulations governing Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The Trump Administration now is going all-out to see that its definition of sex discrimination becomes the law of the land and to limit how schools are allowed to respond to it. Women’s advocates are fighting back, but Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave the public only until Jan. 29, 2019 to submit comments for or against her new Title IX rules. Groups like Know Your IX, End Rape on […]

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Weaponizing Title IX serves politics

What happens on campus with Title IX spills over into broader society and vice versa. It’s always been thus in a general way but lately we’ve seen different groups weaponizing Title IX to fight off-campus battles. Social change movements always have influenced Title IX’s use on campus. The civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the LGBT rights movement, and the movement against sexual violence contributed to Title IX’s creation and helped give women and men the self-agency to use Title IX as a tool for progress. Title IX’s application then changed not only campus life but society outside of academia. […]

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Fresno’s robust Title IX history documented

I want to understand Title IX‘s history not only at elite East Coast universities and in the Washington, D.C. halls of power (where much of its story gets told) but in other settings too. When you think of Title IX’s 46-year-history, Fresno, Calif. may not be the first place to come to mind, yet its extensive and robust Title IX history illustrates the evolution of the law’s application and feminism in the U.S. heartland. Feminism shapes Title IX (and vice versa) in all corners of the United States, in all income brackets, and in diverse populations. I could have picked […]

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Title IX advocates sue federal government

It looks like a coalition of advocates for Title IX may get to take the Trump Administration to court. (Video: Lawyers and a student survivor of sexual assault explain their case at a press conference.) A federal magistrate judge at a hearing in San Francisco seemed inclined to let a lawsuit proceed against the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX policy but she asked lawyers for both sides to submit more arguments before she decides. The government had moved to dismiss the suit and plaintiffs opposed that motion, which the judge will decide. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley vigorously questioned attorneys […]

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Scientists say Title IX isn’t enough

Title IX doesn’t always work. It won’t save a student from being deported if she’s an undocumented immigrant. Title IX has never given women a fair share of athletics funding or coaching jobs. As a legal tool, Title IX isn’t much help to students, staff, or faculty who feel too vulnerable to complain about sex discrimination. A new report highlights its weaknesses in stopping sexual harassment in academic sciences. While this civil rights law produced many, many important changes in society, it’s worth noting its weak spots as we celebrate the 46th anniversary of Title IX on June 23. Title […]

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A closer look at Title IX in Fresno

I’m jazzed to announce that I’ll be speaking about Title IX history particularly in the context of Fresno, Calif. at the annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association on Saturday, August 4, at Santa Clara (Calif.) University. I’ll be part of a session entitled “Memories of Political and Cultural Protest” with two other speakers who will focus on campus protests in Paris in 1968 and campus anti-war activism in California’s Silicon Valley from 1965 to 1980. My talk ties the past to the present with the title, “Uppity Women, Nasty Women: From Title IX to […]

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Survivors face backlash

Advocating political and cultural change engenders backlash. Student survivors of sexual assault successfully pushed many educational institutions to do their Title IX duties in the last decade despite ongoing, painful pushback. They worry for the student survivors of gun violence who now command the media spotlight but face attacks from opponents of gun control. “Young people are really, really powerful and really savvy,” says Sage Carson, manager of the non-profit organization Know Your IX. “These amazingly powerful organizations such as End Rape on Campus and Know Your IX were started by young people because they know how to work with […]

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So long, Shakespeare; adios, Aziz Ansari

One of the byproducts of immersing myself into researching Title IX is an altered personal tolerance for sex discrimination. More and more, I don’t. Tolerate it, that is. And that means letting go of some formerly cherished cultural reference points and practices. In this time of upheaval between the sexes, a lot of people may be experiencing something similar. This isn’t a new phenomenon. People — and our society — change as we not only get our eyes opened to injustices but begin to empathize with those who suffer under them. The latter is more “woke” than the former. This […]

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Get ready for more Title IX fireworks

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 […]

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Men complain things to me

Writer Rebecca Solnit brilliantly described the commonplace phenomenon of mansplaining in her book Men Explain Things To Me. There’s a similar phenomenon — menplaining? dudespouting? — in which men co-opt women’s grievances to complain that they’re the victims of sexism when some advance in women’s rights constrains male advantages. Title IX‘s current battles and its history are full of menplaining in the courts. Male student athletes sued in the 1990s and 2000s. They complained of sex bias in the Title IX regulations  because they forced — forced! mind you — athletic directors to cut some men’s teams when budgets got tight. […]

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Systemic sexism cracking under #MeToo

We’re in a #metoo cultural moment that’s removing blinders about systemic sexism. Let’s look at how we got here and explore what comes next. If we do that honestly, feelings come up — anger, embarrassment, shame, regret. There’s probably not one of us who doesn’t wish we had understood things better earlier, hadn’t gone along with some of the sexist confines of our culture, had behaved differently in particular situations, or had been heard by others sooner. This goes for both men and women. It’s important to recognize these feelings, and equally important to channel them into positive action. Anyone […]

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Title IX critics huddle up for special treatment

When I read complaints that Title IX enforcement goes too far in dealing with sexual assault on campus, I think of football. Not because this topic is a political football being tossed around in the court of public opinion, though there’s that. In the history of Title IX, today’s complainers of government “overreach” in dealing with sexual assaults have a lot in common with college football teams and other men’s sports, but especially football. What they want, it seems, is for people to realize that they’re special, and that they deserve special rules. The government more than once has bent over backwards […]

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Happy birthday, Title IX! (from some of us)

Title IX is 45 years old this month! Imagine having your logic, your morality, and even your right to exist constantly being questioned for 45 years — essentially, what most women encounter in overt or subtle ways in our sexist society. You’d be tired of this nonsense by now, right? That’s what Title IX has faced since Congress passed it and President Nixon signed it on June 23, 1972. Fortunately, enough people understand the need to prohibit sex discrimination in education and have benefited from Title IX, giving this law the strength to persist. Compare the muscles and skills of today’s female […]

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When schools ignore Title IX, children suffer

Title IX issues that start in colleges and universities inevitably make their way to K-12 schools, opening society’s eyes to the pervasiveness of the problem at all ages. A year-long investigation by Associated Press reporters provides the latest example — a “hidden horror” of 17,000 sexual assaults by students against other students in grades K-12 over a four-year period. Too often in these cases, students and their parents must rely on Title IX to amplify their cries for help. Student sexual assaults have been the top headline-grabbing Title IX complaint in higher education over the past 6 years or so. The […]

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Framing Title IX controversies: New or old?

The media and anti-Title IX pundits are fond of framing controversies around campus sexual assaults as a relatively “new” phenomenon that started in 2011. Too often that leaves out the 45-year history of schools and colleges unfairly ignoring, obstinately defying, and only reluctantly complying with Title IX’s mandate to fight sex discrimination in education. A case in point: The Chronicle of Higher Education, which probably has the best and most extensive Title IX coverage of any media outlet over the years, published a lengthy and very interesting article (available to subscribers), “One Letter Changed Colleges’ Response to Rape Cases.” The article described events since the Office for Civil […]

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Title IX case bridged Black, women’s movements

Pamela Price entered Yale University in 1974 as a Black nationalist with an Angela Davis-style afro. She’d never heard of Title IX and wasn’t attracted to any of the women’s organizations on campus. She put her heart and energies into the Black community and working for civil rights. By the time she graduated in 1978, though, Price was one of a handful of women at the heart of a pivotal legal case that established for the first time that Title IX covers sexual harassment — Alexander v. Yale. Her involvement bridged the Black rights and women’s rights movements on campus. Thus began a chain […]

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National Lawyers Guild honors Title IX shero

Like many of today’s undergraduates who have spoken up about sexual assaults and harassment on college campuses, a sense of outrage drove Pamela Price  to complain to Yale University officials after a male faculty member offered her an A grade in exchange for sex. Implying, of course, that he’d lower her grade if she didn’t submit. Her final grade: C. But that was in 1976, and the grade wasn’t the end of the story. Price and her allies filed the first legal complaint against sexual harassment under Title IX. Their years-long legal battle — known initially as Alexander v. Yale before the court reduced it to […]

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Hunting Ground documentary in crosshairs of history

The San Francisco Chronicle published my op-ed article about women finding their voices to speak out against sexual assault and harassment on campuses. It’s online now; look for it in print on Thursday, Nov. 19. This Sunday, Nov. 22, CNN will televise the documentary The Hunting Ground about the handling of sexual assaults at colleges and universities. You can watch or record it at 5 p.m. Pacific time (8 p.m. Eastern), followed by a discussion panel featuring the filmmakers and others. Director Kirby Dick and Producer Amy Ziering (creators of the Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War) took some heat […]

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Lack of Title IX in K-12 schools add to college rape crisis?

A third of 96 school districts in the San Francisco Bay Area that responded to requests for public information did not identify a Title IX coordinator in their district — something they are required to have by law. That law — Title IX — has been on the books for more than 43 years and is in headlines today because of mounting complaints about sexual assaults and harassment on college campuses. “What the heck is happening at K through 12,” and how is that contributing to this epidemic of sexual assaults in colleges, Noreen Farrell of Equal Rights Advocates wondered at a focus […]

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Uppity women changing UC Santa Barbara

A nearly 13-hour sit-in by female students and their supporters at the University of California, Santa Barbara produced promises of change from the administration, providing an example of how far we’ve come and how far we’ve yet to go under Title IX. The sit-in happened just as I was watching the 1999 documentary A Hero for Daisy about a dramatic 1976 protest by female students at Yale University who stripped off their clothes in an administrator’s office to reveal “Title IX” or “IX” written in bold letters on their chests and backs. Their leader, Chris Ernst, then read a statement of grievances […]

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Students as sexual predators: the norm?

What do Title IX, the comedian Betsy Salkind, and the new film The Hunting Ground have in common? A historical thread that’s about to change one sorry aspect of U.S. society. Finally. I hope. The Hunting Ground opens in cities across the United States this week and offers the possibility of a fundamental cultural shift toward accepting that non-consensual sex is an assault even if it’s done by a peer, like a student with a student, and that schools must not hide, tolerate, or condone it. At least, I think that’s what the film may point toward. I plan to see […]

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Taking the mystery out of obtaining consent

I’m wondering how the new “affirmative consent” standard adopted by California in 2015 and by an increasing number of colleges around the country is working out so far. It basically says that a college student must obtain consent from an awake, sober person before having sex, or risk having that sex be considered an assault. It doesn’t sound too complicated to me, but some people seem to think so. Here’s an excellent explanation from blogger Rockstar Dinosaur Pirate Princess, who brilliantly says, “If you’re still struggling, just imagine instead of initiating sex, you’re making them a cup of tea.” The rest is […]

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Fresno tied to Title IX over decades

Video: Bernice Sandler coaches Women’s Studies students and faculty who are trying to improve policies at the California State University, Fresno, in November 2014. People all over the United States have links to Title IX. I’m enjoying seeing the fingers of this important law poke up in some unexpected places as I research its history and today’s in-the-news developments. Among them: Fresno, California, which appears often enough that it serves as an example of nearly every phase of Title IX. For example, Frederick W. Ness was president of Fresno State College just before becoming president of the Association of American Colleges and […]

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