Title IX: For girls and boys
Published 5:01 pm Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Days before the groundbreaking Title IX education law turned 40 on Saturday, the NCAA banned the University of Connecticut’s mens basketball team from 2012-2013 postseason play for failing to meet required academic standards. UConn was the 2011 NCAA tournament champion. Nine other basketball teams, three football teams, one men’s soccer team and one wrestling squad are also on the list.
Such probations and/or penalties for various violations are common in the big collegiate basketball and football programs, apparently the accepted price for winning in athletics at that level. The women’s programs, on the other hand, are generally models of high athletic and academic performance.
For example, the 68 teams in this year’s men’s tournament had a graduation rate of 67 percent, and a 28 percent gap between white and black athletes. The 64 teams in the women’s bracket had an average graduation rate of 89 percent, with an 8 percent gap between rates for white and black players, Bloomberg News reported.
Title IX has been an unqualified success for women, in so many arenas, which was the law’s intent.
Pick a statistic, any statistic: A 2002 survey by Oppenheimer Funds found that 82 percent of female business executives had played organized sports after elementary school.
As it happens, the sponsors of the 1972 legislation were trying to provide more opportunities for women in higher education, to give them a better shot at higher paying jobs, the Associated Press reported. At the time, women earned just 9 percent of all medical degrees and 7 percent of law degrees. The words “sports” or “athletics” doesn’t appear in the 37-word measure:
“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.”
As the law’s sponsors, supporters and beneficiaries found — what’s true for men is true for women — athletics makes for a great backbone in education, business and life.
Meanwhile, through 40 years of Title IX, the numbers have shifted for the sexes when it comes to higher education. The proportion of adults with a four-year college degree has risen from 10 percent to 30 percent over the past 45 years. But women account for almost all this growth, research shows.
Women still earn less than men, in all jobs, but that’s not what Title IX is about. We do see women in all professions, and in all sports, great strides that we cheer on.
But the real gap in college degrees earned by men is worrisome. Good thing we have an excellent law that addresses this very problem.
