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Missy Thogmartin
Professor Flanagan
ENC 1101 MW 9:30
28 November 2005
Title IX
Sports are a commanding force today. People of all ages, sexes, and races watch and take part in different sports in increasing numbers daily. Equal opportunity to participate in sports seems like a right that is very common sense issue, but unfortunately this has not always been the case (Porto). Congress passed the Education Amendments of 1972 in April of that year; this amendment contains Title IX which was intended to ensure that there was no inequalities based on what sex you are (Epstein). The area that this has had the most notorious impact is sports. Title IX has amplified opportunities for women to participate in college sports programs with a minimal impact on mens sports programs.
Title IX progressed from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Epstein). Title VII is for employment. It states that employers cannot discriminate on the basis of race, religion, sex, color, or origin. Title IX is based on the same philosophy as Title VII but it pertains to any program that gets federal funding. “Title IX states that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance” (Epstein 88). This basically means that there cannot be any type of unfairness in a program getting federal assistance. An example of a program getting federal assistance would be a high school athletic program or a college athletic program. Many people consider Title IX to be a savior of many female sports programs. The statistics show that the number of female athletes has increased every year since the amendment has been passed (Rhoads). On the other hand, this amendment had also caused some male athletic sports to cancel. Some of the best programs like the University of California Los Angeless mens swimming program were cut. Many of our countrys famous swimmers came from here in the past. Also, in 1993 at the University of Illinois, the mens fencing, swimming, and diving teams were all cancelled due to Title IX. Many of the athletes sued NCAA but lost because the percentage of males participating in sports and enrollment was much higher than the females percentage (Epstein). I think overall that these male programs getting cut are no harm to the sports society because there are many other colleges they could go and play for. It is harder for females to find a school and those schools have their sport program.
One of the most pronoun cases dealing with Title IX is the Cohen v. Brown University. This was back in 1991 when Brown University decided to cut four athletic programs; womens volleyball, womens gymnastics, mens golf, and mens water polo. They cut these programs because of the lack of money to support them. The university decided to make them club teams and said they could still play as long as they fundraised for themselves. When the university decided to do this, the student body consisted of 52 percent male and 48 percent female but the student-athlete percentages were more at 63 percent male and 37 percent female (Egendorf). Amy Cohen was the one who sued the university on the basis of Title IX. Three tests were done on the university and they failed all three tests. The tests were called substantial proportionality, history of the expansion of womens programs, and full and effective accommodation of womens interests (Epstein). So in the end Cohen got exactly what she wanted which was her pride and self-respect. The point of Title IX is to have the same amount of money spent on all the sport programs with the exception of football. Football is an exception because in any school football is what brings in the most amount of money. It is the biggest program and is sometime the best program the school has. So the main reason the program gets the most because it puts out the most. Some statistics show that football can make up most of the athletic program at many schools like they are the main sport but at my high school that was not the truth. At some high schools the boys basketball team is what makes a lot of the money or another sport like baseball or swimming.
There are many reasons of why some people just want to cut there female programs. Some say that woman are not as athletic as men. Some even say that women do not have the same interest in sports as men do. I disagree with both of these statements because overall the difference is that in our past we did not expect women to know about sports and that now females are starting to get more involved and in depth. Many male athletes depend on their athletic ability to get to college but the thing is that many females are the same way. Not all women excel in school. Also many athletes both male and female depend on playing sports to keep their grades up meaning that when you play a sport you have to keep a certain grade point average to be on the team. The grade point average you must have is usually a 2.0 which is a “C” average. Even though all of this was based on men and how they are, females are as important as males and they play sports for some of the same reasons as men do.
There was an email survey done by some colleges and universities that asked female athletes how much they were interested in sports. The problem with this survey is that the athletes were not told that this survey had to do with Title IX and that the finished results from these surveys could possibly change Title IX to go against women (Varughese). The National Association of Collegiate Womens Athletic Association (NACWAA) disagreed with the way they put out the survey. The survey should have been mandatory and given on paper because not everyone checks there email often (Varughese). I completely agree with this. Even though the change was not a huge one, it was just a technicality thing that was changed. Title IX still is based on gender equality in sports. The interest woman have in sports is the same as men. It is just that some of the female athletes did not feel the need to do the survey which does not mean the interest level is low. From my point of view, the difference between male and female sports is that the history behind both. Females were never allowed to play sports before. They were housewives or stay at home mothers.
There has been one change for Title IX. In June 2005, Congress added a law that protects whistleblowers who accuse schools of gender discrimination (Dowling-Sender). Whistleblowers are people who file lawsuits against schools. Protecting