Comments on: Title IX Anniversary http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/title-ix-anniversary/ Feed your mind. Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:44:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU By: B Barron http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/title-ix-anniversary/#comment-734 B Barron Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:27:17 +0000 http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/title-ix-anniversary/#comment-734 One clarification is necessary before I respond to goshawk's comment. "Who's Playing College Sports?" was not the main source for this post; I only referenced it in reporting the Title IX "grades" handed out for proportionality. The primary sources of opinion for the post were the people with whom I've discussed the issue over the last few months. My personal opinion about the Women's Sports Foundation is that this group is grounded at one end of the Title IX spectrum, and may not express totally unbiased opinions. I hold Congressman Denny Hastert (R-Illinois), former Speaker of the US House of Representatives and high school wrestling coach, in the same esteem but at the other end of the playing field. I agree with goshawk that the much more important question than "who's playing sports?" is "what is causing the disparity between men's and women's enrollment in higher education?" That issue is a whole research project in itself and the potential ramifications of the downward trend in men's enrollment are much more important than bathroom stall parity in jocks' locker rooms. I don't know nearly enough about this subject to answer the questions as to how Title IX somehow channeled into the "women in sports law." That's what I meant when I said Title IX had taken on a life of its own. I think it's possible that a group of people, who wanted to champion women's rights through women'ts sports, saw it as an opportunity to advance their own agenda, and took advantage of that opportunity. Those of us who can remember back to 1972, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, may recall that "women's rights" were a much bigger deal then than they are now. Quite possibly that's because so much effort and passion were expended then. One clarification is necessary before I respond to goshawk’s comment. “Who’s Playing College Sports?” was not the main source for this post; I only referenced it in reporting the Title IX “grades” handed out for proportionality. The primary sources of opinion for the post were the people with whom I’ve discussed the issue over the last few months. My personal opinion about the Women’s Sports Foundation is that this group is grounded at one end of the Title IX spectrum, and may not express totally unbiased opinions. I hold Congressman Denny Hastert (R-Illinois), former Speaker of the US House of Representatives and high school wrestling coach, in the same esteem but at the other end of the playing field.

I agree with goshawk that the much more important question than “who’s playing sports?” is “what is causing the disparity between men’s and women’s enrollment in higher education?” That issue is a whole research project in itself and the potential ramifications of the downward trend in men’s enrollment are much more important than bathroom stall parity in jocks’ locker rooms.

I don’t know nearly enough about this subject to answer the questions as to how Title IX somehow channeled into the “women in sports law.” That’s what I meant when I said Title IX had taken on a life of its own. I think it’s possible that a group of people, who wanted to champion women’s rights through women’ts sports, saw it as an opportunity to advance their own agenda, and took advantage of that opportunity. Those of us who can remember back to 1972, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, may recall that “women’s rights” were a much bigger deal then than they are now. Quite possibly that’s because so much effort and passion were expended then.

]]> By: goshawk http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/title-ix-anniversary/#comment-731 goshawk Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:17:29 +0000 http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/2007/06/07/title-ix-anniversary/#comment-731 According to the post the Title IX law is a " comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity." However, the main source for the post, "Who's Playing College Sports" by the Women's Sports Foundation, clearly refutes this argument. The first page of statistics on individual schools shows that 10 schools had an undergraduate population with more than 50% males (6 were overweighted by less than 1%) and 65 had more females than males (26 schools had more than 60% females). The second page is similar with 11 schools more than 50% male and 67 schools more than 50% female (26 were more than 60% female). I think we can assume the other pages would come out pretty much the same. This situation is referred to above with respect to the U of GA where 57% of the undergraduate students are women, but is considered only a problem with respect to its effect on scoring for the sports participation issue. I would submit that the obvious discrimination in terms of access to higher education is much more important than access to sports. On the face of it Title IX would seem to apply to this issue; however, I have never seen any mention of Title IX being used to correct this disparity of access to education for men. So what gives, does Title IX only apply to sports or does it only apply to women? According to the post the Title IX law is a ” comprehensive federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program or activity.” However, the main source for the post, “Who’s Playing College Sports” by the Women’s Sports Foundation, clearly refutes this argument. The first page of statistics on individual schools shows that 10 schools had an undergraduate population with more than 50% males (6 were overweighted by less than 1%) and 65 had more females than males (26 schools had more than 60% females). The second page is similar with 11 schools more than 50% male and 67 schools more than 50% female (26 were more than 60% female). I think we can assume the other pages would come out pretty much the same. This situation is referred to above with respect to the U of GA where 57% of the undergraduate students are women, but is considered only a problem with respect to its effect on scoring for the sports participation issue. I would submit that the obvious discrimination in terms of access to higher education is much more important than access to sports. On the face of it Title IX would seem to apply to this issue; however, I have never seen any mention of Title IX being used to correct this disparity of access to education for men. So what gives, does Title IX only apply to sports or does it only apply to women?

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