Join the Fight for Title IX
by Ralph Nader
Dissident Voice
January 30, 2003
Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972, one of the most important and successful civil
rights laws in U.S. history, may soon be undermined by the Bush
Administration's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics.
Title IX bars
sex discrimination in any educational program or activity that receives federal
funding, including athletics. The law gave women access to classes, facilities
and opportunities that had historically been male-only.
While not at
risk of being repealed, it is widely believed that the Bush Administration
established the Commission on Opportunity in Athletics as a vehicle to push a
pre-determined agenda to weaken Title IX. The commission is to submit a written
report to the U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Page by February 28, 2003.
Prior to Title
IX, if a woman wanted to pursue a professional degree in college, she could be
passed over for a law school or medical school program simply because she was a
woman. Since then, the 30-year-old law has proven itself integral to women's
rights. From the class rooms and playing fields to the executive suites, Title
IX has been a vital tool in advancing equal opportunities for women and girls.
It is the
college playing field where Title IX is now being threatened. Some athletic
directors and commentators mistakenly blame the law for the elimination of some
minor men's sports. To give women the same athletic opportunities as men, say
Title IX critics, schools are forced to remove men's opportunities because of a
lack of money to support added teams. They claim that Title IX's equality
standard (commonly referred to as "proportionality"), which requires
colleges to demonstrate roughly the sameratio for male and female athletes as
for students enrolled at the school, results in discrimination against male
athletes.
Contrary to the
rationale of those who would like to weaken Title IX's equality standard, men's
sports participation and funding have continued to grow.
The real
expenses starving minor men's sports of funding are the disproportionate share
of university athletic dollars spent on one or two teams - football and men's
basketball - and not spent to add new teams for women or to support other men's
sports. Title IX should not be the scapegoat for irresponsible, nonprofit
institutions of higher education that operate their football and men's
basketball programs like professional franchises.
Attention should
turn to college presidents and athletic directors who fuel the growing arms
races in football and men's basketball with million dollar coaches and
excessive expenditures. The fact that these sports may bring in revenue (though
some actually lose money) does not justify their bloated budgets, which take
funds away from other men's sports as well as women's sports. Rather than
sharing a little of what the football and men's basketball programs spend, the
remaining men's and women's sports are forced to fight for the scraps, pitting
the deprived against the deprived.
Despite the
gains women have made under Title IX, resources for women's sports have never
caught up to resources for men's sports at most colleges and universities.
Women's athletic programs continue to lag behind men's programs by every
measurable criterion, including participation opportunities, athletic
scholarships, operating budgets and recruiting expenditures.
While 55 percent
of our college populations are female, female athletes still receive only 42
percent of all college athletic participation opportunities,36 percent of sports
operating expenditures, 32 percent of athlete recruitment spending, and 42
percent of athletic scholarship money amounting to $133 million less than male
athletes receive in scholarships each year.
Why are women
still second-class citizens in athletics despite a law guaranteeing that we
treat our daughters as well as our sons? Because Title IX has never been
adequately enforced. In fact, the federal agency responsible for enforcing the
law, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has
never initiated a single proceeding to remove federal funds at any school or
college that fails to comply. Instead, OCR has served as a negotiator of
settlements that are usually less than what Title IX requires.
In order to
obtain the legal rights for gender equity in athletics guaranteed them under
Title IX, women across the country have successfully filed civil rights
complaints and lawsuits against institutions. But until women have the same
opportunities as men to enjoy the psychological, physiological and sociological
benefits that sports participation can provide, we must all insist on the
preservation and strengthened enforcement of Title IX.
If you'd like to
help, visit the League of Fans website at www.leagueoffans.org,
where you will find contact information for the key government offices and
public officials involved in the Title IX fight as well as the citizen
organizations dedicated to the law's protection and enforcement.
Ralph Nader is
America’s leading consumer advocate. He is the founder of numerous public
interest groups including Public
Citizen, and has
twice run for President as a Green Party
candidate. His latest book
is Crashing the Party: How to Tell the Truth and Still Run for President
(St. Martin’s Press, 2002)