Don't Weaken Title IX!

Don't Weaken Title IX!

October 18, 2002

There are no changes to the Title IX standards that are warranted or necessary. Modifications to the Title IX standards that would limit future opportunities for women would violate the goal of gender equity. At a time when real progress is currently being made under Title IX toward equality of opportunity for women and men in athletics and education, cutbacks don't make sense.

Opportunities for Women Are Not Yet Equal: While Title IX has made significant progress in leveling the playing field between males and females in education and athletics, equity has not been achieved. What is necessary to ensure equal opportunity is vigorous federal enforcement of Title IX at every level of education. Title IX has proven itself to be an effective tool in moving toward equality. As it is the responsibility of the federal government to ensure equal opportunity, the federal government should fully enforce this law.

Stronger Enforcement Is Necessary: Title IX has been in effect for 30 years, yet women athletes continue to get fewer teams, fewer scholarships and lower budgets. Each year, male athletes receive $133 million or 36% more than female athletes in college athletic scholarships at NCAA member institutions. In Division I, colleges spend an average of $2,983 per woman athlete compared to $3,786 per male athlete, a disparity of 21%.

And the situation for women coaches is even worse. Women coaches lack the improved opportunities enjoyed by female athletes since Title IX's enactment. Women coaches have fewer job opportunities and receive lower salaries than their male counterparts. Since 2000, 90% of available head coaching positions in women's athletics have gone to men, and women are almost completely shut out of coaching men's teams. Women hold only 2% of coaching positions in men's collegiate sports. This is compounded by a striking disparity in the salaries paid to coaches of men's teams compared with coaches of women's teams. At the Division I level, men's basketball head coaches average $149,700 while women's basketball head coaches average just $91,300—that's only 61 cents to every dollar.

Title IX is flexible, lawful and reflects fundamental principles of equality

Title IX requires institutions to provide equitable athletic opportunities for all students, regardless of sex, in three areas: participation, treatment of athletes, and athletic scholarships. Equality of participation is based on three factors:

whether male and female students are participating in athletics in numbers roughly proportional to their enrollment at the institution;
whether the institution has a history of expanding opportunities for the underrepresented sex; and
whether an institution's athletics offerings fully meet the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.

If an institution meets any ONE of these tests, it complies with Title IX in the area of participation. Every federal appellate court that has considered the validity of these tests has upheld them as constitutional and consistent with the statute.

Don't Believe False Claims of "Quotas": Maybe it is desperation that causes naysayers to use false claims of quotas to attack Title IX. Nothing in the law or its associated policies requires schools to set aside a mandatory number of slots for females. In fact, every court that has heard this argument has stated that Title IX does not require quotas.

Blaming Women Athletes Is Hypocritical: Title IX does not require schools to terminate men's teams. In fact, 72% of colleges and universities added teams for women without cutting any teams for men. Since the passage of Title IX, the number of men's teams, men's budgets and the number of men in intercollegiate play have increased.

Title IX Successes:

In Education:

In 1997, women received 41% of medical degrees, compared with 9% in 1977.

In 1997, women earned 44% of law degrees, compared with 7% in 1972.

In 1997, 41% of all doctoral degrees to U.S. citizens went to women, compared with 25% in 1977.

In Athletics:

Prior to Title IX, there were 32,000 women on intercollegiate teams, today there are 150,000. That's an increase of more than 403%.

Prior to Title IX, there were 300,000 girls on competitive high school teams (or 1 in every 27 girls), now there are 2.78 million- that's 1 in every 2.5 girls.

Need for Further Improvement: Women are not receiving equal treatment or opportunities to participate 30 years after passage of Title IX.

In Education:
Women continue to be underrepresented in traditionally male fields that lead to greater earning power after graduation. While women received 75 percent of all education degrees awarded during the 1997-98 academic year, they received only 18 percent of engineering degrees. Women also continue to lag behind in earning doctoral and professional degrees.

In Athletics:
While male and female participation in athletics has grown steadily, female students lag in participation opportunities, receipt of scholarships, and allocation of operating and recruitment budgets.

The above is based in large part on information from the University of Iowa's Gender Equity in Sports project and the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.

For more information on protecting Title IX, please see:

National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education
On this page you will find a recent report, "Title IX Athletics Policies: Issues and Data for Education Decision Makers," which includes the questions being asked during the town meetings being held by the Secretary of Education's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics and provides answers to these questions in support of Title IX.

The University of Iowa's Gender Equity in Sports Project

Women's Sports Foundation

For information on the U.S. Department of Education Secretary's Commission on Opportunity in Athletics and on past town meetings, please see: http://www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/athletics.