It stated
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance...(source :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_IX )
While that law was to apply to education in general, it has became known as a sports law, since sports was where the largest disparity in opportunity was when it comes to school activities.
But the way it has been applied still doesn't totally match the spirit of the law.
For example, check the websites of any U.S. college athletic department
Notice that some sports are available to males but not females?
Notice that some sports are available to females but not males?
How is that in the spirit of gender equity?
Part of this is the whole thing about American football needing about 100 players, but because there isn't about 100 girls on the campus interested in playing the game, to make up for it, universities just provide only women's teams for other sports!
For example, at my university (University of Hawaii - Manoa) there are only women's teams for track, soccer and water polo just to make up for the fact that there is only a men's team for 100+member football team!
How is that in the spirit of gender equity?
Also, there is the controversial proportionality rule when it comes to enforcing Title IX.
official policy
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/t9interp.html
from the following link http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/28/opinion/28IRVI.html?pagewanted=3
The proportionality rule stipulates that the ratio of male to female athletes be proportionate to the ratio of male to female students at a particular college. On average, females make up about 56 percent of college enrollment, males 44 percent; for most colleges to be in compliance with proportionality, more than half the athletes on team rosters must be women.
So yeah, if your university has 56% females, well your university better have 56% of their athletes be females.
That means there WILL BE some sports that are available to female students but not male students, just so the university pass the proportionality test!
From the same article
Can you imagine this rule being applied to all educational programs -- classes in science, engineering, accounting, medicine or law? What about dance, drama or music -- not to mention women's studies?
Look, let'simprove the way Title IX is enforced.
Instead of the proportionality rule, let's change it to this:
Every sport a university offers, there WILL be a male team and a female team!
So, if a school offers tackle football, it should have one team for the males, another for the females.
NO MORE OF THIS "only boys play tackle football" nonsense tolerated anymore!
http://www.sportsgooru.com/top-ten-uh-football/
Why should boys have all the fun?
If a school offers soccer, it should have one team for the males, another for the females.
(as it currently stands, UH has a women's soccer team but not a men's soccer team. That sure pisses off a lot of male soccer players growing up in Hawaii!
The same situation is true for water polo and track)
khon2.com
Why should girls have all the fun?
It's time we start practicing what we preach about "gender equity in sports"
UH swim team
Where brothers and sisters can join the fun
(and in that photo, it's literally brother and sister
Andrew and Jessica Affleck
learn more at http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2003/11/sports.html )
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