Activists Urge Obama to Restore Educational Equity Protections

Feminist advocates and other progressive groups and individuals are sending thousands of recommendations to President-elect Barack Obama, urging specific action from his administration once he takes office. NOW has developed its own Feminist Action Agenda for 2009 and Beyond and has participated in several sessions with various Obama transition teams.

Recently NOW joined with the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education (NCWGE) to recommend policy changes and legislative initiatives that would restore protections in academic as well as athletic programs -- which apply to both girls and boys.

The list of women's issues that the new administration will be reviewing is important because eight years of the conservative, anti-women's rights Bush administration has taken a serious toll on our rights. Of course the Supreme Court and conservative congressional leaders have done their share of undermining equal education protections, particularly those established in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

At the top of our list is immediate repeal of the "Additional Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy," which we believe discourages the inclusion of young women in college sports programs. Additionally, Department of Education regulations introduced in 2006 allow public schools to establish segregated-sex education programs without strong protections against sex discrimination, Many believe that these regulations are unconstitutional, and the coalition is asking for their withdrawal.

NOW and NCWGE call on our next president to:

• enhance enforcement of Title IX in all federal agencies;
• provide updated guidance on the detection, prevention and handling of sexual harassment in schools;
• issue guidance on how to recognize and address barriers in the science/technology/ engineering/math fields;
• collect better high school data so that progress, or the lack thereof, can be more accurately measured to prevent drop-outs; and
• increase funding for programs that decrease the cost of post-secondary education.

More information on these and other important recommendations can be found at:

NOW's Feminist Action Agenda for 2009 And Beyond

Gender Equity Recommendations for the First Year of the Obama Administration (PDF)