A Brief Overview of Title IX and how it effects both Men and Women Title IX ofthe Education Amendments of 1972 is the ?Federal law which prohibits sexdiscrimination against the students and employees of any educational agency thatreceives Federal financial assistance?(Mathews I-1). From June 23, 1972 allthe way up until today, there has been a constant struggle as to whatgender?equality actually is.
Title IX has had a profound effect on both maleand female students on college campuses all across the country, because as itgives one group of students opportunities, it, in a sense, is responsible forstealing away those same opportunities from another group of students. There maybe an attempt to achieve equality in college athletics based solely on gender,but this attempt may actually be creating inequality especially in regard to thenumber of athletic opportunities, which are available for student-athletes. Theeffects of Title IX on male student athletes are very noticeable in that inorder to create an equal number of scholarship opportunities for women, men mayhave to give up their scholarships. An example of this is the lawsuit of TomCaruso v. University of Arkansas-Fayetteville on May 27, 1993 (Curtis 6).
Mr. Caruso was a member of the Universities’ diving team, and their decision todiscontinue the diving program in an effort to comply with the Title IXguidelines, was definitely unfair to him. Another example of inequality wheremale athletes are concerned is the decision that the Southeastern Conferencemade in 1995 that has required each of its member institutions to provide aminimum of two more women’s sports than men’s sports (Curtis 2). Byrequiring there to be two more women’s sports than men’s sports, men arelosing out on two additional opportunities to participate in intercollegiateathletics. Many colleges and universities are doing away with non-revenuegenerating men’s sports such as tennis, soccer, and track in an effort to findthe additional funds to support the extra women’s sports. The female studentathlete population can definitely feel the effects and benefits of Title IX aswell.
There are women’s sports programs seemingly popping up every day. Schools that basically ignored female athletics in the past are now offeringwomen’s gymnastics, golf, volleyball, water polo, etc. Every single femalesport that is being added is not only providing opportunities for the women asathletes right now, but also the opportunities to be involved in their specificsport when their playing career is over. Whether they look for positions ascoaches, athletic trainers, or administrators, opportunities are definitely onthe horizon whereas before, they had a very limited future in regards to thenumber of positions available, and due to the ?lack of parity between male andfemale salaries in those positions? (Kovacs 16). Women may have more of avariety of sports to choose to participate in now, but the total number ofscholarship opportunities is still way below the opportunities given to the men. Also, there are quite a few institutions that are ?dragging their feet? whenit comes to compliance with Title IX.
The promise of more opportunities is outthere, but it seems to take a while for those promises to materialize. A hugemyth that has circulated from the beginning of the Title IX struggles is thatfootball programs will become extinct if girls and women are given theopportunity to play sports. Unfortunately, the gender equity debate has boileddown to the myth that girls are not as interested in playing sports as boys. Andeven if they are, the male-dominated sports society doesn’t want to add moresports teams for girls, because they are in fear that this will cause them tolose their favorite college football team.
The myth that women’s volleyball ortrack will cause football an untimely death is absurd. If for no other apparentreason, football is the ?cash cow? at most universities and without themoney that football programs bring into the athletics department budgets, notmany other sports could survive. All that women want is the opportunity to playsports, not the opportunity to take sports away from men. By giving women theopportunity to participate in college athletics, men are having opportunitiestaken away from them. If you want girls softball and gymnastics, then we aregoing to have to take away your boys lacrosse team. The girls shouldn’t reallybe blamed here, because all they want is an opportunity to participate, justlike the men have done for decades.
Women deserve the opportunity, as do men, tonot only participate in college sports as athletes, but also to participate incollege down the road as an administrator or coach. Once again, the questionarises: In the attempt to create equality based solely on gender, how can youkeep from creating inequality? It’s a shame that one gender may have to sufferso that the other can attempt to have ?equality?. BibliographyCurtis, Mary C. , Dr. Gender Equity in Sports.
26 June 2000. The University ofIowa Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics Department Research on Title IXLawsuits and Voluntary Acts. *http://bailiwick. lib. uiowa. edu/ge/Title_IX.
html. *Kovacs, Frank W. Title IX: Parity of Coaches’ Salaries for Male and FemaleAthletic Teams. Washington, D. C. National Education Association.
1979. Mathews,Martha. Implementing Title IX and Attaining Sex Equity: A Workshop Package forPostsecondary Educators. Washington, D. C. Resource Center on Sex Roles inEducation National Foundation for the Improvement of Education.
September 1978.
