Proposed Title IX changes punish female athletes

A landmark of American democracy is up for grabs. A commission
appointed by George Bush proposed changes which are pending
approval to Title IX ““ the 1972 law that prohibited gender
discrimination in federally-funded education and guaranteed women
and girls equal access to athletic participation. To make it easier
to reinstate pre-1972 discriminatory practices, opponents of Title
IX have fostered confusion about how the law functions. Read the
facts and decide for yourself.

Title IX is working. In 1972, only one in 27 high school girls
participated in sports. In the 31 years since Title IX became law,
female athletic participation has skyrocketed: today, nearly half
of all high school girls participate in sports, and more than
100,000 women participate in intercollegiate athletics ““ a
fourfold increase. In addition, athletic scholarships allow many
girls, who otherwise could not afford college, get an
education.

However, despite gains, women have not yet levelled the playing
field. Contrary to popular opinion, women still do not receive
equal access or funds for sports. According to the 1999-2000
National Collegiate Athletic Association Gender-Equity Report done
by the Women’s Sports Foundation, men get $133 million more
in college athletic scholarships . What’s more, men have more
opportunities to participate. Many schools offer women inferior
facilities and coaching. Throughout Division I, schools spend about
$2 on men’s sports for every $1 they spend on women’s
sports.

One problem is that Title IX does not make athletic departments
cut certain male sports. It lets them decide how to allocate their
funds. To say that football (and, in some schools, basketball) is
the big winner is an understatement. It eats up most of the
men’s sports budget, leaving precious little for the entire
roster of other men’s sports. While football also generates
money for some schools, many of the costs associated with football
are hidden. Furthermore, football teams are ridiculously large. The
average Division I team has 85 players on full scholarships, plus
32 walk-ons. This is more than twice as many players as a National
Football League team has. Economist Andrew Zimbalist has shown that
if football scholarships were cut to 60, the average college would
save approximately $750,000 annually ““ enough to finance more
than two men’s wrestling teams. As a result, some of the
men’s teams for “minor” sports have smaller
rosters and less sponsorship and gear than their female
counterparts for that sport. This doesn’t seem fair. But we
should all help them stand up to the big guys, instead of picking
on the women, who still don’t have half the budget.

The Bush Commission is stacked against Title IX. Bush has
appointed a majority of Title IX opponents to his “Commission
for Opportunity in Athletics.” This group stands ready to
eliminate between 31,000 and 78,000 opportunities for girls and
women to participate in college-level sports and between $75-188
million in scholarship dollars each year. The Commission has also
absurdly suggested requiring women and girls to prove their
interest in sports in order to be given opportunities to
participate ““ clearly an unfair and ridiculous measure that
will ultimately deny many girls equal opportunities. The attack on
Title IX is part of what many people are already calling
Bush’s “other war” ““ his “War Against
Women.”

But we can do something about this “war.” Next time
someone bashes Title IX, due to its “damage to male
sports,” please consider the whole picture: 31 years after
Title IX was passed, girls and women still face unequal funding and
opportunity in high school and college sports.