Is that Clear? The Department of Education Redefines Title IX

On March 18, 2005, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights released a memo that could forever change Title IX, the historic legislation that bans sexual discrimination in institutions that receive federal funds.

The memo announced that college athletic departments could survey students to gauge women’s interest in sports and then use the surveys to comply with Title IX regulations.

Women’s rights activists are outraged by the change, which they claim happened covertly. Meanwhile, coaches and athletes from men’s teams are expressing relief from what they call a gender quota.

What is Title IX?

Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in federally-funded education programs. The 1972 law is most visible against the backdrop of high school and college sports. Although the law is not specific to sports, it has found its home there, and both proponents and opponents of Title IX use sports examples to make their points.

Nature versus nurture

The debate over Title IX can be traced back to beliefs about what is "natural" to men and women. Many believe that nature dictates men’s greater interest in sports. Others believe that nature has nothing to do with it; they claim that society has established sports as a men’s activity and that schools’ emphasis on men’s teams reinforces the relationship between male gender and sports.

Title IX insists that women have the same chance as men to participate in sports. Individual schools may decide to comply by decreasing men’s participation instead of increasing women’s participation. This maneuver illustrates the rigid reluctance to women’s participation in sports.

Title IX’s major impact on sports

The Commission on Opportunity in Athletics reviewed Title IX because of complaints of discrimination against male athletes. Some claim that Title IX is to blame for men’s wrestling, swimming and tennis teams being cut.

But schools may choose how they wish to apply Title IX, and some schools cut men’s teams instead of adding women’s teams. The participants, coaches and supporters of those teams are angry and convinced that if Title IX were eliminated or enforced differently, fewer men’s teams would be cut.

While he was assistant secretary of education for civil rights, Gerald A. Reynolds sent a letter to high schools and colleges to clarify that those schools do not have to cut teams in order to comply with Title IX. They can also add women’s teams or expand women’s rosters.

Uneven support of sports

Schools often choose to cut men’s wrestling, swimming and tennis because these teams do not generate revenue for the school. Schools invest in the most popular (and therefore most lucrative) sports. Therefore, it could be said that men’s football is as serious a threat to men’s wrestling as is women’s basketball.

In many schools, women’s basketball exists because of Title IX. If the law were not there, the team would not be there. Proponents of Title IX claim that the law has increased women’s participation in sports by 400% at the college level and 800% at the high school level. Despite these statistics, many people believe that women are less interested in sports than men, so there should be fewer women’s teams than men’s teams.

Many schools say that they would like to create new women’s teams, but claim that they don’t have the resources. So, instead of re-allocating football money to women’s lacrosse, they cut men’s swimming to bring down the number of male students participating in sports. Feminists and male wrestling coaches would agree that that isn’t the proper approach.

Three prongs

Title IX demands that schools comply to one prong of a three-pronged test for compliance:

1. Proportion - the proportion of female to male athletes must come close to the ratio of female to male students.
2. Record - the school has a practice of creating athletic opportunities for the underrepresented sex, usually women.
3. Accommodation - the school fully accommodates the interests and talents of the underrepresented sex.

A school is considered in compliance with Title IX if any one of the three rules is followed; however, some schools tend to act in accordance with the first prong because it is the easiest to prove.

But the March 17th memo, posted on the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights’ website and signed by the new Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights James F. Manning, may change the way that schools meet the terms of Title IX.

"Clarifying" Title IX

Manning claims that the online letter attempts to "clarify" Title IX. Now, a school will be considered in compliance with the law unless it fails to meet considerable student interest in a new sport for the underrepresented gender (women) and that interest can now be determined by a survey, which will probably be filled out online.

Is that clearer, or is it just easier for the schools? The burden of proof has shifted from the schools to the students, who had better speak up if they want women’s sports.

Women’s rights groups argue that the surveys do nothing to create opportunities for women and that they don’t take into account grade school and high school discrimination against girls’ sports.

Further, critics say that it was unfair for the Office of Civil Rights to change the terms of Title IX without soliciting public opinion. And they complain that the 177-page user’s manual (which included samples of online surveys) was released too quietly.

Others say that the surveys will provide data to support the belief that women are as interested as men in playing sports.

But is an online survey an adequate way to measure desire? Is it fair to assume that women who don’t fill out the survey aren’t interested? What presumptions do schools have about women’s interest in sports, and how do these assumptions affect the survey? Should schools also survey the students to find out if they want to do math or science or history?

What government does, in addition to spending our tax dollars, is set standards and guidelines. Title IX applies to many other issues, including equal pay for women and equal opportunity in science and technology. WomenMatter will track all ten parts of this critical guideline so important to equality for women.

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Update Posted on: 4/24/2005