Title IX: 40 years of working for gender equity in athletics
By:
Pamela Martineau
Published: June 28, 2012
Step onto most any K-12 campus in California immediately after the school day ends, and you’ll likely see a strong flow of boys and girls headed to sports practice.
Forty years ago, few girls would have been among that stream of kids. Before the passage of Title IX in 1972, only 1 in 27 girls participated in a high school sport—and usually it was cheerleading. Fast-forward to today and the rate has increased nearly 11-fold, so now more than two of every five girls are on a sports roster.
Many people credit the increase to the addition of Title IX, the Education Amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Title IX mandates that no person, on the basis of gender, can be excluded from participating in any educational program or activity that receives federal funding.
“I’m just so thrilled that it was enacted 40 years ago,” says Laura Binczak, coordinator for physical education in the Oakland Joint Unified School District. “Without Title IX, I don’t think girls would have had an equal playing field.”
Title IX pushes school districts to work toward equity between the genders in terms of sports facilities, participation and funding. Equity often is a moving target, however, since it’s extremely difficult to obtain a perfect 50-50 sports participation rate between girls and boys. But many districts report that they believe they are close to that gender balance.
“It’s become an accepted standard operating procedure for us,” Ken Dyar, coordinator for physical education, wellness and athletic competition for the Delano Union School District, says of his district’s Title IX compliance. “In terms of athletics, we do take care that all of our offerings are equitable. If we have a boys-only sport like football in the middle school in the fall, we offer girls-only volleyball in the fall.”
Compliance can be complicated
But attorneys and researchers warn that compliance with Title IX can be complicated, and school districts need to ensure they have designated staff paying close attention—both to the numbers of girls and boys participating in sports and to the condition of the sports facilities they use on campuses. And if things look out of balance, they advise, develop a plan to bring them into line.
Elizabeth Kristen, director of gender equity at the San Francisco-based Legal Aid Society-Employment Law Center, tracks Title IX compliance throughout California. Her aim is to help bring districts into compliance with Title IX.
“The 40th anniversary is a really great year to take stock of where we are as schools, where we have come from and where we can go,” says Kristen. “I know that there are a lot of schools out there that are committed to doing things right and are succeeding,” but others are not.
Title IX itself is a simple statute, but ensuring that a school district is in compliance can be complicated, Kristen cautions.
“You have to do a whole program analysis,” she explains. “You can’t just look at one sport. You have to look at the whole athletic experience for girls and the whole athletic experience for boys.”
Since Title IX requires equal participation opportunities, district officials should be tracking gender participation rates. A simple mathematical analysis will show where their schools fall in terms of compliance for participation—what percentage of girls play a sport versus what percentage of boys.
“At most schools you will not find proportionality,” says Kristen, but “four or five percentage-point differences.” “Schools should be looking at their numbers and they should be developing plans on how they are going to get into compliance on Title IX.”
Equal playing fields–literally
Equitable facilities also are a critical component of Title IX compliance, and one on which Kristen says schools often fall short.
Baseball fields for boys and softball fields for girls are a frequent area of concern.
“When the boys’ baseball team has covered cinderblock dugouts and the girls’ team has a bench behind a chain link fence—there is a problem,” says Kristen.
It’s an issue for Sheila Allen in her dual role as a board member in the Davis Joint Unified School District and the mother of a girl on the softball team at Davis Senior High School. As a parent—and stipulating that she’s speaking only as a parent here—Allen says the boys’ baseball field is fenced in and locked when not in use; it has a concrete dugout, press box and scoreboard.
The girls have an open area with a bench for players to sit on.
The discrepancy is exacerbated, Allen says, by the boys’ booster club being able to bring in more money than the girls’—a problem shared with many other districts.
“But the district can’t stand behind saying—‘Well, the booster club paid for it,’ ” she adds. “It’s up to the district to make sure there are equal playing fields.”
Allen acknowledges the district has come up with a temporary improvement plan to build a shaded area for the girls’ bench and is working on more permanent improvements.
“The administration is aware of the issue. In order to be compliant, you don’t have to blink your eyes and be all correct,” she says before echoing the point made by Kristen back at the Legal Aid Society: “You have to have a plan.”
Similarly, Kristen reinforces Allen’s point: Boys’ booster teams often raise more funds than girls’ teams for facility improvements—but the discrepancy in fundraising is not a sufficient excuse for disparities in facilities.
“Title IX does not allow schools to use private money to engage in sex discrimination,” Kristen says. She suggests: “Ask the donors to the football program to also provide a donation to the girls’ volleyball team.”
Get girls moving
The end goal of Title IX is to give girls equal access to the benefits of athletics and, by extension, the benefits of physical activity in general. Some researchers caution that school districts need to take a broader view of physical activity on their campuses to see whether girls are moving their bodies to the degree that boys are. With the nation struggling with a high rate of obesity among its youth, ensuring physical activity for both genders is key.
Jim Sallis, professor of family and preventative medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and director of Active Living Research, a national program of the health-oriented Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, praises Title IX but says there is more to the issue of getting girls moving.
“If you look at it from a sports point of view, things are much better for girls” than before Title IX, says Sallis. “But if you are a health professional and are hoping this crosses over and creates more physical activity for girls, I am not so sure about that.”
Sallis says research shows that girls, from a very young age to older adults, still are significantly less active than their male counterparts.
“We used to think maybe it’s biological and boys are just meant to be more active than girls,” says Sallis. “But then we looked at data around the world, and there is this pattern that in countries that really focus on gender equity, such as those in Scandinavia, they don’t see these differences between boys and girls. ... That makes it seem it’s not something biological, it’s cultural.”
Studies have shown that during recess, for example, boys will play basketball or soccer while more girls tend to stand around in groups and talk. Sallis says districts can make simple—and inexpensive—changes to entice girls to move more during recess. It can be as simple as buying more basketballs and soccer balls so there are enough to go around for everyone, or having recess supervisors help organize games and encourage bystanders to get involved.
“Recess is a low-hanging fruit for things to improve,” says Sallis.
Thinking outside the extramural box
Older middle school students and high school students who don’t play organized sports also need encouragement to get them moving, he adds.
“Under Title IX you aim for 60 boys per sport and 60 girls per sport, but what about the other 500 students in that school? What opportunities do they have?” Sallis asks. “If the school is spending all its money on the talented, the few and the elite, and no money on after-school opportunities for everybody else, from a public health standpoint that is spending money on kids who would be active anyway.”
Intramural sports are a good way to get more kids physically active, he suggests, calling it “a hot-button issue” that he would like more schools to address. “More kids participate and they get more activity,” says Sallis. “They are open to everybody.”
Sallis also cautions that studies have found that even if girls are participating in equal numbers with boys in a sport, out on the playing field they often aren’t moving to the degree that boys are. This is particularly true in softball, where girls tend to stand around on the field more than their male counterparts in baseball.
Again, he stresses, the key is to get more girls moving in general, not just to increase their numbers on the playing fields.
After-school programs aimed at girls
Enticing girls into athletics and greater physical activity is an endeavor undertaken by organizations outside of schools, too. One example: the San Jose-based Bay Area Women’s Sports Initiative, started by former professional soccer players Brandi Chastain and Julie Foudy with Marlene Bjornsrud, former general manager of the San Jose Cyber Rays women’s professional soccer team. They wanted to become role models for young girls to illustrate where sports and physical activity can take a young woman.
“We felt that as women athletes we owed it to our communities to be role models for little girls,” says Bjornsrud, chief executive officer and cofounder of BAWSI (pronounced “bossy,” the group’s website offers).“We would pay it forward to the next generation of little girls.”
BAWSI organizes after-school sports activities at schools throughout the Bay Area. The group brings college-age young women into low-income schools to introduce sports to girls and to act as mentors and role models, showing them where hard work and athleticism can take young girls—such as college.
“Oftentimes PE has been cut to the bone, especially in high-poverty areas,” says Bjornsrud. “In those schools, the boys are still playing on the playground and the boys are taking the tether balls and basketballs out and the girls are relegated to watching them.”
Sometimes too, she adds, athletic directors and principals will argue girls just aren’t interested. “What we are saying is ‘we are going to spark that interest.’ ”
And Bjornsrud stresses that the link between girls’ sports participation and their college attendance rates is well documented. Sports also improve girls’ confidence and ability to work within a team.
“Where would we be without Title IX?” she asks. “We would not have women running corporations. We would not have women doctors and attorneys. ... When you look at the number of Fortune 500 executives, those women almost all played sports. They bring with them the transferable skills of teamwork, leadership, work ethic, never giving up.”
Girls Inc.—not really a corporation but part of a national nonprofit network headquartered in New York—also targets K-12 girls in under-resourced communities. The program provides girls with after-school and summer sports and academic programs, working with foundation and government funding.
Judy Glenn, chief operating officer for Girls Inc. of Alameda County, says her chapter also runs Eureka, a five-year summer program for girls starting in middle school and moving through high school. The program focuses half the day on sports and the other half on college readiness. Girls are exposed to careers related to science, technology, engineering and math, and given SAT preparation workshops and visits to college campuses.
“We give the girls a head start and are opening those doors for them,” Glenn says. “We try to build their confidence.”
Schools recognize the value of Title IX
Ken Dyar, the PE, wellness and athletic competition coordinator back at Delano USD, says he is grateful for Title IX—not just as an educator, but as a father.
“I think it took a piece of legislation to break that mind set that boys should be out playing football while girls are taking sewing classes,” says Dyar. “I am thankful that my daughter has the same opportunities that my son has.”
Allen, of the Davis Joint USD, says she is grateful for Title IX as an individual, a parent—and, here, as a trustee.
“I am one of the immediate beneficiaries of Title IX,” says Allen, who graduated from high school in 1981, less than a decade after the act was adopted. Girls in the grades ahead of her at her school in rural Wisconsin played sports in an athletic association, but not on school teams. She helped to form the first girls’ volleyball and basketball teams at her school and believes she was only able to do so because of Title IX.
“It was a chance to learn about teamwork and competition and doing your best and working hard,” says Allen.
“I want to make sure that is happening in our school district,” the board member says.
Pamela Martineau is a frequent contributor to California Schools.
Added resources
Title IX experts say schools should do regular self-evaluations to determine whether they are in compliance with Title IX or if they need some work to improve facilities or the proportionality between girls and boys in sports participation. The links that follow offer helpful information on Title IX self-evaluation and related topics.
Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972; U.S. Department of Labor
www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/titleix.htm
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” begins the relevant section.
Title IX Legal Manual U.S.; Department of Justice
http://1.usa.gov/MthomG
“This Manual provides an overview of the legal principles of Title IX,” according to the introduction.
“Play Fair: A Title IX Playbook for Victory”; The Women's Sports Foundation
http://bit.ly/Lu80nw
The introduction to this citizens guide promises: “We’ll concentrate on explaining Title IX rules and regulations so that you can sort out your school’s athletic program. Once you have a better idea of what is and is not allowed under Title IX, you will be able to use this knowledge to ask the athletic department, school board or other authority for change.” Reviewing the guide can help school governance teams anticipate questions and implement policies and practices that may avoid having those questions raised in the first place.
Active Living Research
activelivingresearch.org
A national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Active Living Research’s website says the program’s “primary goal is to support and share research on environmental and policy strategies that can promote daily physical activity for children and families across the United States … [with] special emphasis on research related to children of color and lower-income children who are at highest risk for obesity.”