Title IX still a mystery to most
You don’t need to be Agatha Christie to wonder why Title IX is a mystery to most people. Congress passed this civil rights law a half-century ago. Activists demanding an education free of sex discrimination have generated headlines for 50 years. So why are people still clueless?
A new poll found that 71% of children and 58% of parents know nothing about Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in education. You can’t access a right that you don’t know you have. If educational institutions and the government wanted people to know about it, they could make sure they did. It’s interesting to note that in a 1991 lawsuit involving sexual assault of a minor by a teacher (Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools), the Supreme Court mentioned that Title IX’s application in a different setting, athletics, had been around long enough that any inequities between boys’ and girls’ sports could be considered intentional. Perhaps it’s time we considered this fundamental ignorance of Title IX intentional too.
This story is part of a profoundly eye-opening series called “Unlevel Playing Fields” published recently by the Shirley Povitch Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism. Besides the poll, they report how it’s impossible to tell if high schools are complying with Title IX, and Congress has refused to fix that. Other stories show how high schools spend more on publicizing boys’ sports than girls’ sports, how there’s no mandated training for administrators, educators, parents, or students about Title IX and athletics, and how recent activists used Title IX to pursue fairness in California, Maryland, New Jersey, and multiple other states.
Elsewhere
East Greenwich High School, R.I., fired two varsity volleyball coaches after one of them sexually harassed players. Students sued Tamaqua Area School, Penn., claiming administrators mishandled complaints of sexual assault. Police filed criminal charges against seven Woburn (Mass.) High School students for hazing by the football team including alleged sexual assault.
One astute columnist noted how the NCAA is celebrating women in collegiate sports without confronting huge imbalances in monetary support.
Another in-depth investigation by USA Today focused on California State University, Humboldt to illustrate the state university system’s policy allowing administrators who get fired for sexual harassment to take faculty jobs. The provost of California State University, Sonoma complained that the campus president’s husband sexually harassed her and the president retaliated after she reported it. The university paid $600,000 to settle the claim; the president subsequently separated from her husband. West Virginia University students protested alleged mishandling of sexual harassment in the School of Music. A former student sued Pennsylvania State University for not protecting women’s fencing athletes from sexual discrimination by the coach.
A judge sentenced a former University of Michigan violin professor to five years in prison for transporting a girl across state lines for sex. Another judge sentenced a former Baylor University student sexually assaulted another student to seven years of “deferred probation,” a $1,000 fine, and 300 hours of community service.
Men associated with the conservative American Enterprise Institute have filed at least 410 Title IX complaints against colleges and universities that offer awards, services, or programs aimed at helping women, prompting some institutions to close or modify those programs or create similar ones for men.
On the up side
The Woman’s National Democratic Club on May 12 hosts a Zoom panel celebration of Title IX’s 50th anniversary. Speakers include activists and organizations that appear prominently in my book 37 Words. The WNDC on June 21 at 6:30 pm also will host a preview of ESPN’s four-part documentary on Title IX, also called 37 Words.
The New York Historical Society’s Center for Women’s History opens an exhibit on May 13 on “Title IX: Activism On and Off the Field,” which will run through September 4.
Three new reports by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine address ways to prevent and deal with sexual harassment. The University of Colorado, Boulder increased its number of all-gender bathrooms to improve inclusivity. Maine lawmakers opened up about their own experiences with sexual assault while discussing legislation to help assault survivors on campuses.
Where you’ll find me
May 12 — I’ll be in New York City for a preview reception of the new exhibit by the New York Historical Society, “Title IX: Activism On and Off the Field.” The exhibit opens on Friday, May 13 and will run until September 4. New Yorkers and visitors: Check it out!
May 26, 6:30 p.m. PT — A virtual get-together with the Riverside, Calif. chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
June 9, 7 p.m. PT — Join me and Lucy Jane Bledsoe, author of the new Young Adult novel No Stopping Us Now, at a virtual event hosted by Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco.
June 22 — Lucy Jane Bledsoe and I will Zoom with residents of Rossmoor, Walnut Creek, Calif.
June 23, 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET — It’s Title IX’s 50th birthday! I’ll be Zooming with members of the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) to celebrate. Read details here. And watch a 30-second promo video with moi here.
The Nation magazine published an excerpt from my chapter 5, which introduces Title IX’s application by the movement against sexual violence.
The Washington Monthly gave 37 Words a fine review — check it out!
The New York Historical Society’s Center for Women’s History & Academic Affairs posted a discussion with me and some of the earliest Title IX activists, available on YouTube.
If you registered for the American Historical Association 2022 conference, you can watch a video that will be available through June of our panel session on “Fifty Years of Title IX: Evolutions in the Struggle Against Sex Discrimination in Education.”
The Washington, D.C. chapter of the National Organization for Women interviewed me on the DC NOW podcast.
