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Wiki Assignment #8

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Title IX's Impact on Women's Sports

Implementation and Regulation

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In 1972 women's sports in the United States got a boost when the Supreme Court passed the Title IX legislation. Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in schools that receive federal funds through grants, scholarships, or other support for students. The law states that federal funds can be withdrawn from a school engaging in intentional gender discrimination in the provision of curriculum, counseling, academic support, or general educational opportunities; this includes interscholastic or varsity sports [1]. In practice, the difficulty with Title IX is making sure schools are compliant with the law. In 1979, there was a policy interpretation that offered three ways in which schools could be compliant with Title IX; it became known as the "three-part test" [2].

  1. Providing athletic participation opportunities that are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment. This prong of the test is satisfied when participation opportunities for men and women are "substantially proportionate" to their respective undergraduate enrollment [3].
  2. Demonstrating a continual expansion of athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex. This prong of the test is satisfied when an institution has a history and continuing practice of program expansion that is responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex (typically female) [4].
  3. Accommodating the interest and ability of underrepresented sex. This prong of the test is satisfied when an institution is meeting the interests and abilities of its female students even where there are disproportionately fewer females than males participating in sports [5].

Although schools only have to be compliant with one of the three prongs, many schools have not managed to achieve equity. Many schools attempt to achieve compliance through the first prong, however, in order to achieve that compliance schools cut men's programs which is not the way the OCR wanted compliance achieved[6]. Equity is not the only way to be compliant with Title IX. To be considered compliant with Title IX, athletic departments simply need to show that they are making efforts to achieve parity in participation, treatment, and athletic financial assistance [7].

Effect on Women's Sports

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The main purpose of Title IX was to bring equality between the sexes in educational institutions. However, Title IX is most commonly associated with its impact on athletics and more specifically the impact it has had on women's participation in athletics at every age. Today there are more females participating in athletics than ever before. As of the 2007-2008 school year, females made up 41% of the participants in college athletics [8]. To see the growth of women's sports just look at the difference in participation before the passing of Title IX and today. In 1971-1972 there were 294,015 females participating in high school athletics and in 2007-2008 there were over three million females participating, meaning there has been a 940% increase in female participation in high school athletics [9]. In 1971-1972 there were 29,972 females participating in college athletics and in 2007-2008 there were 166,728 females participating, that is a 456% increase in female participation in college athletics [10]. More females are getting involved and finding a love and passion for sports that were once seen as something for men. Increased participation in sports has had direct effects on other areas of women's lives. These effects can be seen in women's education and employment later on in life; a recent study found that the changes set in motion by Title IX explained about 20 percent of the increase in women’s education and about 40 percent of the rise in employment for 25-to-34-year-old women [11]. This is not to say that all women who are successful later on in life played sports, but it is saying that women who did participate in athletics received benefits in their education and employment later on in life [12].

The Battle for Equality

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Today, the battle for equality between men's and women's sports rages on. Women make up 54% of enrollment at 832 schools that responded to an NCAA gender equity study in 2000, however, females at these institutions only account for 41% of the athletes. This violates Title IX's premise that the ratio of female athletes to male athletes should be roughly equivalent to the overall proportion of female and male students [13]. Many of the issues today often revolve around the amount of money going into men and women's sports. According to 2000-2001 figures, men's college programs still have many advantages over women's in the average number of scholarships (60.5%), operating expenses (64.5%), recruiting expenses (68.2%) and head coaching salaries (59.5%) [14]. Other forms of inequality are in the coaching positions. Before Title IX, women coached 90% of women's teams, in 1978 that percentage dropped to 58, and in 2004 it dropped even more to 44 percent [15]. In 1972, women administered 90 percent of women's athletic programs, in 2004 this fell to 19 percent and also in 2004 18 percent of all women's programs had no women administrators [16]. The most startling statistics is in 2004 there were 3356 administrative jobs in NCAA women's athletic programs and of those jobs women held 35 percent of them [17]. Today women are allowed to participate in every aspect of sports, but even in women athletic programs men are still outnumbering them. These statistics show that while Title IX has gotten rid of the discrimination against females participating in sports, there is not equality.

References

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  1. ^ Coakley, Jay (2007). Sports in Society. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 238.
  2. ^ "Title IX". Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  3. ^ "Title IX". Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  4. ^ "Title IX". Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  5. ^ "Title IX". Retrieved March 27, 2012.
  6. ^ Irons, Alicia (Spring 2006). "The Economic Inefficiency of Title IX" (PDF). Major Themes in Economics. Retrieved April 17, 2012.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  7. ^ "Title IX Information". Retrieved April 17, 2012.
  8. ^ "Title IX Athletic Statistics". Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  9. ^ "Title IX Athletic Statistics". Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  10. ^ "Title IX Athletic Statistics". Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  11. ^ Parker-Pope, Tara. "As Girls Become Women, Sports Pay Dividends". New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  12. ^ Parker-Pope, Tara. "As Girls Become Women, Sports Pay Dividends". New York Times. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  13. ^ Garber, Greg. "Landmark law faces new challenges even now". Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  14. ^ Garber, Greg. "Landmark law faces new challenges even now". Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  15. ^ Coakley, Jay (2007). Sports in Society. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 255.
  16. ^ Coakley, Jay (2007). Sports in Society. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 255.
  17. ^ Coakley, Jay (2007). Sports in Society. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 255.
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