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.

-- 20 U.S.C. Section 1681
 

Introduction

For a project in a class, two of my former students asked to interview me regarding Title IX. They came to my office with several questions written down. One question was how Title IX had impacted me personally and another was how it had impacted me professionally. After asking me all the questions on his list, the student asking the questions asked the other if there was anything he would like to ask me. He said no, but then as he was about to leave he said, "Wait, I do have another question. What do you think about male sports being dropped because of Title IX?" These questions, my years teaching physical education, and a conference I attended this fall in which Athena Yeamouyiannis, Executive Director of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, presented a session entitled, "Title IX at 30 - Today's Challenges" are what inspired me to write this article.
 

Title IX: Personally

My parents were college professors, and I was raised in a small college town in the south. Both my parents were great supporters of the college teams and took me to all the home games at the college, both men's and women's events. The college women's volleyball and basketball teams were highly successful. In fact the women's basketball team won seven conference championships in a row during 60s and 70s. I knew all the players' names, and from the time I was five, wanted to grow up to be six feet tall and play basketball on this team. However, until 1976, the public school system where I grew up did not have girls' basketball. In fact it was 1969 before the local Boys' Club allowed girls to join and come to the club one day a week, Thursdays, to play at the facility. It was also that summer the Boys' Club began having girls' softball leagues, but there was no basketball league for girls. During the summers prior to my ninth and tenth grade years, I attended the girls' basketball camps at the college even though I did not have a team to play for at our school. I loved to compete and did so in tennis from the time I was seven and in softball at the Boys Club from the time I was nine, but whereas the school system and community were avid supporters of the high school football team, girls were discouraged to participate in athletics. In 1975-76 while I was in the tenth grade, I was fortunate enough to be in the physical education class with all but one member of the high school volleyball team. The physical education teacher allowed us to practice volleyball everyday during class and at noon since there was not an athletic period and the boys' basketball team got the gym after school. The only matches we had were when the physical education teacher took us to the state volleyball tournament. The boys' basketball coach served as the girls and boys' tennis coach, and although he rarely came to our practices, he did drive us to our matches. Even though my parents were educators, and I had many opportunities to excel academically, I hated school, missed frequently, but managed a B average. Because of Title IX, in 1976 my school had its first girls' basketball team in over twenty years. The school hired a girls' basketball coach (male) and girls' volleyball/track coach (female) and had a girls' athletic period. Both of these coaches established a rule that if you missed practice and were a regular starter, you wouldn't get to start the next game; I did not miss a day of class my junior or senior years during volleyball or basketball seasons. When I graduated from high school, I received a volleyball scholarship at the local college where I lettered in volleyball, tennis, and softball. My skill level in basketball was not developed enough to play at the collegiate level, but the women's coach who had known me since I was five, allowed me to practice with the team each day. So how did Title IX affect me personally? I got to do something I wanted to do since I was five years old for two years, but it came too late for me to fully realize my dream of playing at the collegiate level. The year after I graduated from high school, my high school dropped senior high girls basketball. It was stated that there was a lack of interest even though nine girls went out for the team. My high school was the only public school in the state that had a boys' basketball team but not a girls.

 

Title IX: Professionally

How has it affected me professionally? That's very difficult for me to answer, because the university I attended was ahead of Title IX in having opportunities for women to participate in athletics, and I would have played with or without a scholarship. However, if I had grown up without having the role models of the women athletes at the university and opportunities to participate, it could have been a very different outcome. Participating in sports helped build my confidence and developed my leadership skills; it motivated me to attend school and excel in the classroom. If I had not been an athlete, I doubt very seriously if I would have graduated in Magna Cum Laude, received the outstanding student in my major or the outstanding student in the school of education, and it would have been impossible for me to have been the first woman to receive the outstanding senior athlete award. With this background, I went on and taught health and physical education and coached volleyball, basketball, and track at the junior and senior high levels for two years before going back to school for my masters and doctorate. After receiving my doctorate, I taught and coached at the collegiate level for three years before leaving coaching and devoting my time and expertise to university teaching, research, and service.

 

Title IX: Its impact on men's sports

What do I think about men's sports being dropped because of Title IX? It was never the intent of Title IX to have schools drop men's tennis, swimming, wrestling, gymnastics, etc., and schools have not been forced to drop these men's programs in order to meet the Title IX standards. The following are three ways in which institutions can meet the standards of Title IX: (1) proportionality, (2) expansion, or (3) accommodating the interests of the underrepresented gender. In order to meet Title IX's mandate to provide equal athletic participation opportunities, most institutions have used the expansion of women's programs or demonstrated how they've met the interests and abilities (NCWGE, 2002). Prior to Title IX, many public institutions did not have any athletic opportunities for girls or women, or if they did, most were very limited and poorly funded; therefore, boys and men's programs received a large majority if not all of the money for athletics. There is a pool of money for athletics at any institution and obviously in order to add new programs (e.g., girls' and women's programs), money must be redistributed. Title IX does not mandate where the money comes from for girls and women's programs; that is the decision for the powers that be at each institution. Today, thirty years after Title IX, 53% of the student population of Division I colleges and universities are made up of women yet they receive 41% of the participation opportunities, 43% of the athletic scholarships, 36% of the athletic operating budgets, and 32% of the recruiting dollars (NCWGE, 2002). Obviously men's programs are still receiving well over half of the funding and opportunities, so why do Title IX and women's programs get blamed for the elimination of some men's programs? Perhaps Title IX makes a nice scapegoat for athletic directors who don't want to tell their gymnastics and wrestling coaches that these sports are a legal liability (it should be noted that women's gymnastics teams are on a decline too for just that reason) or they would rather have a football player on scholarship for four years who may never see any playing time than have a men's tennis team or they would rather double the football and basketball coaches' salaries than have baseball or swimming teams? Some will argue the reason for not touching the budgets of the "major" sports is because they are "revenue-producing" programs, but 78% of NCAA football programs and 73% of all basketball programs spend more money than they raise and contribute nothing to other sport budgets (Fulks, 1999). I regret the elimination of some men's programs, but I don't think it's right or just to point the finger at Title IX or girls and women's athletics.

 

Title IX: The Athletic Snowball

Unfortunately, even though Title IX has increased the opportunities for girls and women's participation in sport tremendously, it has come at a price. Before money was such an issue in women's athletics, most colleges and universities had separate men's and women's athletic departments complete with separate athletic directors. Men had their own athletic organizations and governing bodies (NAIA and NCAA), and women had theirs (AIAW). Men coached men's teams, and a vast majority of women coached women's teams. On the downside, there was not much money for women's programs, but on the upside, women were in control of the women's programs. With Title IX, came money and much more desirable coaching positions in girls and women's athletics that men began to apply for and obtain. In addition, the NCAA that previously would not accept women's teams, began to make serious offers to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) about merging. When the AIAW refused, the NCAA made offers to colleges whose men's programs were NCAA members for free enrollment of their women's programs for the first year. Most of the colleges accepted, and the AIAW was forced to merge in 1982. With this merger, women's athletics went from being almost completely controlled by women administratively to being almost completely controlled by men (Holway, 2002). Today, women coaches are at an all-time low. I graduated from college in 1981 and was a part of the last teams under the AIAW governance. At the time, women coached all of the women's teams at my alma mater; that is not the case today. Today girls and women are often coached by men and therefore do not have female coaches as role models. The philosophy of women's sport has changed to being almost identical to that of the men's programs. The female coaches I had in college were very concerned with my academic and personal growth as well as my athletic abilities. How many university coaches would take the time to make sure that a student who wasn't even a part of the team understood keys concepts skills so she would be a better teacher and coach upon graduation? In 1989, after having won our district, I took my women's tennis team from Washington to the National NAIA Women's Tennis Tournament in Kansas City. I was shocked by the fact that 95% of the seeds were from foreign countries. The team from my home state had only one American on it. They were the best teams money could buy. It reminds me of Corbin's (1978) book, The Athletic Snowball.

 

Title IX: Outside of Athletics

Most of the time Title IX is mentioned it is in a sports context. However, Title IX has also impacted programs other than sport. Physical education is one such program that has been affected by Title IX. When I was in junior high, the boys got the gym for physical education during the winter months when it was too cold to go outside and the girls got the auditorium stage. When it was warmer and nice outside, the boys got the fields, and the girls got the gym that was not air-conditioned. Today, the school would be guilty of inequity regarding facilities. Nevertheless, my junior high physical education teacher taught a diversified and interesting curriculum with gymnastics, dance, table tennis, badminton, volleyball, fitness, shuffleboard, basketball, and many other activities. She was and remains my role model as a physical education teacher. At my first coaching and teaching position that I began in January of 1982, the high school physical education classes were coed and team taught by the boys and girls' basketball coaches. The girls refused to dress out or participate, and the boys would not dress out and would only participate in basketball. At the end of the semester, I went to the superintendent and asked to have segregated boys and girls' physical education classes. He agreed, and the next year all the girls participated and dressed out, and I was able to offer a varied and age-appropriate curriculum. I have heard some persons argue that segregated physical education classes are contrary to the mandates of Title IX, but I don't agree. Segregated classes, in my opinion, do not exclude participation in, deny the benefits of, or discriminate against either gender. I would not segregate elementary school physical education classes, but I believe segregated post-puberty physical education classes are more conducive to learning through high school.

 

In conclusion

Title IX has made great strides to increase the opportunities for girls and women in sport; however, there are many misconceptions about its impact on men's athletics. Many male athletes and coaches have been led to believe their programs had to be eliminated in order to meet Title IX's mandates, but in fact, there were many other options for these institutions. An inadvertent casualty of Title IX was the loss of control of women's athletics by women with the merger of AIAW with the NCAA. Finally, many schools have tried to meet the mandates of Title IX in their physical education classes by making all classes coed.

References

Corbin, C. (1978). The athletic snowball. Human Kinetics Pub.

Fulks, D. Revenues and expenses of Division I and II intercollegiate athletics programs-Financial trends and relationships-1999, Michael V. Earle ed. (2000).

Holway, L. (2002). A fight to the death: NCAA vs. AIAW. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/local/scisoc/sports02/papers/lholway.html

NCWGE (2002). Title IX Athletics Policies: Issues and data for education decision makers. A report from the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.

1. Is this the most conducive environment for teaching junior and senior high physical education classes, and are segregated classes meeting the requirements of Title IX?

- just drop your thoughts - copy and paste the questions above in your reply e-mail - to Guy Van Damme: guy.vandamme@skynet.be

- he collects your replies and will submit these to Dr. John Ferguson. 

- The author reads your ideas/reactions and if needed will add his feedback. 

- This all - your reactions and feedback - will be submitted to Guy and he will post it again onto the list.

January 2003 - Dr. Daniel Frankl will start with a new article.

Have a good discussion, 

co-ordinator 

Guy Van Damme