Title IX: From High School Gyms to Beijing

As the Olympic games closed yesterday, the number of women athletes winning gold medals was significant. It reminded me of a recent trip I made to see athletes that were not yet at the level of these girls representing America on the world stage, but no less inspiring: the Girls Volleyball Festival in Reno, Nevada where over 9000 girls ages 12 to 18 converged in camaraderie of positive sportsmanship.

Watching the girls in this arena it is easy to see why health care professionals extol the virtues of playing sports. Sports can help kids academically, socially and playing sports is just plain fun. Typically kids who participate in sports develop lasting relationships with a group of friends that share same goals and interests. Research has found that kids that play sports, especially girls, are more likely to have a positive body image and higher self-esteem. They also are less likely to be overweight, take drugs or smoke because they realize the impact that these destructive activities can have upon their performance.

No one understands the intrinsic worth of the annual volleyball festival than its founders. This year the tournament celebrated its 25th year born from a legacy brought about through the spirit of Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. That's right - this empowerment of young women was motivated by legislation introduced to increase access for young women to quality athletic training and competition. This is indeed the life breath of the civil rights movement in action motivating today's teens to invest their hearts and souls in the realization of their potential.

Sometimes I think we take the effects of Title IX for granted, but whether watching the finest female athletes in the country competing on a world stage, or watching teenage girls working together to win a high school volleyball match, the benefits become clear. These girls are the women who will lead us to a brighter tomorrow. Girls who are afforded the entitlements of their male counterparts see themselves as vital components of society. They envision a future of endless possibilities in a world where doors are open and they in turn reach for lofty goals. Perhaps they will usher in a future where women have equal pay, equal rights and equal representation without the need for its mandated enforcement. Dare we dream?

Bettina Duval is the founder of CALIFORNIA LIST, a network to elect Democratic women to California state government.

Comments

[S1975]

Title IX is an unfair over-response to feminist protests of the past. Today it forces schools to overspend on female sports, when the female students are not even interested in competing at nearly the rate that boys are. And it takes money from male sports that have more variety and more participants! Is it worth it to shortchange boys, in the name of false "Equality"?!

[NoSillyName]

Apparently, you think so. I haven't done the research, but wonder if you have the numbers to back up your contention. "Athlete" was not considered a career path for young women when I was in school, pre-Title IX. Good for them, that it is now.

[tsw22]

Damned straight! But with the number of negative comments I read all over the web in response to women playing sports (things like "Who care? It's just girls" and "I'd be more interested if they played naked!") I for one would never take Title IX for granted. There's still lots of work to do. Thanks for the article.

[wagadog]

Title IX gave us our school's first women's track team, which was a great experience, even though it happened in my senior year.

It also changed the way college admissions worked.

Prior to Title IX, a university -- even a public university -- could legally and openly set different standards for admission for men and women. They could also legally discriminate on the basis of gender in awards and honors (Rhodes scholarships were exclusively for men until the mid-eighties) and in scholarships.

The standard for admission to Stony Brook, for example, for women, required both higher grades and higher SAT scores. When my aunt questioned this practice (she had slightly better grades and SATs than her boyfriend, who was admitted while she was wait-listed) she was told -- up front -- that "Girls just get married and have babies anyway."

While university faculty, admissions officers and grants and scholarship committees continued to think this, and act on this prejudice well into the 90's -- they were at least exposing themselves to liability by being so blatant about it.

Why so few indeed.

[NoSillyName]

Wish they'd had Title IX before I finished school. It is a very good thing.