We all know by now that for the first time in history, the U.S. Olympic team will have more women (269) than men (261). Just incidentally, these numbers also exactly reflect the demographics of our country as a whole, where women make up 50.8 percent of the total population.
So the dominance of women this year is just a natural progression, right?
Not exactly. When our female athletes march into Olympic Stadium in London, they will be marching on the shoulders of feminists, male and female alike, who worked like hell against very long odds to make it happen. The London games have been called the "Title IX Olympics," appropriately laying credit to the 1972 law that opened athletic opportunities to girls and women in schools taking federal money, meaning virtually all of them.
Getting Title IX passed was no stroll down daisy lane. It took hard work, smarts, and most of all determination on the part of many people. People like Bernice Sandler, who filed 269 sex discrimination complaints 
against colleges and universities in the 1960s and early '70s, and who first proposed Title IX in congressional hearings along with Representative Edith Green. Pioneers like Congresswoman Patsy Mink, who with Green produced the first draft of the law. And don't forget Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana, who introduced Title IX as an amendment to the Higher Education Act reauthorization on February 28, 1972 (it became law in June).
But the amendment would never have gotten enough votes for passage if it hadn't been for women's groups like NOW, and individual fighters like Billie Jean King pushing from outside the halls of Congress. King believed the future of women's sports depended on changes in the law. She also knew that girls had to "see it to be it," to become successful in sports, as she told me in a recent interview. The thousands of women who had been working tirelessly for years to get the Equal Rights Amendment out of Congress for a ratification vote in the states deserve a lot of credit too -- Bayh's bill had its roots in the ERA's equal education philosophy.
So now that women will lead men in the Olympic delegation, it looks like we've finally reached parity and we can declare the job done. Not so fast. Women and girls are still not getting the sports opportunities in schools that their male counterparts enjoy. Literally thousands of schools nationwide are out of compliance with Title IX. Girls are still being transported to games in parent's vans while boys enjoy air-conditioned top-of- the-line buses. Boys sports still enjoy more coaches per sport, better equipment, better locker rooms and playing fields, and far more scholarship opportunities. If you don't believe it, ask any parent of a female athlete -- it's an open secret.
In addition, Title IX has been under constant attack ever since it was passed, with dozens of weakening amendments and rules put forward over the years. Some lawmakers still claim it should be repealed, that it's unfair to boys, and takes away from male sports teams. But statistics show football hogs resources from both male and female teams -- and Penn State should teach us what football worship at its worst can do.
As the mother of two male athletes, I don't advocate taking opportunities away from one group to give to another, and neither do any feminists I know. What we want is a cultural change that says boys and men don't own sports, and boys and men are not better athletes by virtue of their gender.
The number of women entering that Olympic Stadium on Friday night ought to settle that argument once and for all. Kudos to the feminists that made it happen.
Follow Martha Burk on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MarthaBurk
| 1 | United States | 46 | 29 | 29 |
| 2 | China | 38 | 27 | 23 |
| 3 | Russia | 24 | 26 | 32 |
| 4 | Great Britain | 29 | 17 | 19 |
| 5 | Germany | 11 | 19 | 14 |
| 6 | Japan | 7 | 14 | 17 |
Taking away sports from men because girls don't like sports as much is completely horrible and shameful.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Feminists aren't interested in equality, and they will never stop advocating for more more more. There has never been an issue feminists have acknowledge as complete. They complained 44/56% women/men diploma attainment was unacceptable and examples of discrimination. Now that it is 60/40% woman/man diploma rate, feminists still complain it's unacceptable and proof of discrimination and demand yet more action, using title IX to try and establish proportionality in the STEM fields (yet, somehow, the typically female programs, such as women's studies, teaching and nursing are to be left unaffected. these new title IX provisions are to be for STEM fields only).
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/24/application-of-title-ix-guidance-to-math-and-science-education/
Feminism is a bloated outdated movement that has long since run it's course. It has become too complacent in it's activism, it see's victimization in any action, and is unwilling to accept success. It needs to end.
"It is clear that universities have attempted to comply with Title IX legislation; however, they have done so by eliminating men’s teams while creating, upgrading or reinstating women’s teams. Boston University recently dropped its football program due to Title IX pressures, San Francisco University cut football after 64 years, Colgate University no longer continues men’s baseball after 107 years, Cornell University’s men’s fencing team was discontinued after 98 years, Princeton University ended its wrestling program for fear of litigation due to an inability to satisfy “proportionality,” and UCLA dropped its swimming and diving team that had produced 16 Olympic Gold Medalists."
Don't blame the lady folk sports for the "lesser" men's teams being scrapped... blame the football program for taking up so much of that pie in the first place.
While football might 'hog' up other resources you can thank those profits for bankrolling unprofitable women's teams.
There is no question Title IX has taken opportunities away from men. While the number of boys participating in college sports has increased since the implementation of Title IX that's simply the result of population growth. The more problematic statistic is the percentage of boys in sports has dropped.
To make matter worse, the Obama administration has begun exploring ways to use Title IX as a means to increase the number of women in STEM programs.
Sending more female athletes to the olympics "better represents out country at 50.8 female" Because thats the point of the games, to send a visual census of our country.
Maybe I'm missing something, and please, feminist, put the pitch forks and torches away, because for me it will always be very simple. There will be the sports I know and love, and occasionally pay money to watch or attend, and the female version of the sport.
USA defeat the world 2012.
If male athletes want to compete in the Olympics, they need to get better than all of their competitors, male or female. If the US is going to win at the Olympics, we need the best athletes, not the ones who made it because others were blocked from competing.
Except, of course, you do since you advocate for Title IX.
Therefore, Males get the attention.
Look at Tennis, prize money is the same for Men and Women because Women's Tennis is just as big as Men's Tennis.
Compare that to the NBA and WNBA.
It's all in the viewership. Treatment of the athletes is directly proportional to how much money they make their respective institutions.
But go for the Sexism angle if it makes for a more entertaining read.
That is quite the leap. Football also, more often than not, generates more revenue than other sports for schools. Guess where a chunk of that revenue goes...to help out other sports teams.