On June 23, 1972 -- 40 years ago Saturday -- President Nixon signed into law the
Education Amendments Acts of 1972. This
omnibus legislation contained many provisions of political and social significance,
including a major appropriation for higher education and student loans, money
to improve education for Native Americans, and most controversially, a
provision postponing the implementation of court orders related to racial
desegregation. There was so much going
on in the Education Amendments Act of 1972 that coverage of its passage in
the New York Times devoted only a small paragraph near the end to a
provision of the act that prohibits sex discrimination in education
institutions that received federal funds, the provision numbered Title IX.
Yet despite receiving little recognition at the time, Title
IX is the provision with the most enduring effect on American education (the
provision delaying desegregation orders was effectively
overturned in court later that year).
In fact, given Title IX’s small stature, its humble origins, and all
that it has overcome and accomplished since then, we celebrate this month as
the anniversary of “the little statute that could.”
Title IX has quietly ended restrictive quotas for admission
of women to graduate schools and public undergraduate programs, and has opened
up jobs on college faculties and administrations to women. Title IX allows girls to take “shop” and boys
to take “home ec,” and prohibits high schools from banishing pregnant teens to
underfunded alternative programs. Its
application to athletics has increased exponentially opportunities for girls
and women to play sports in high school and college. It has required schools and colleges to
protect students from sexual harassment and sexual violence, and to take
seriously reports of instances that occur.
That’s quite a list of accomplishments for a law whose passage was
reported as an afterthought.
And these accomplishments are even more compelling when you
consider all the challenges it has had to endure. Title IX has fought off attempts to weaken it
in the courts, in Congress, and in the executive branch. It endures a constant barrage of
misinformation promoting the myth that Title IX’s gains have come at the
expense of men. For instance, though men’s athletic opportunities have, like
women’s, steadily increased over the last 40 years, many blame Title IX for the
fact that some schools and colleges choose to concentrate men’s athletic
opportunities in the large-roster sport of football rather than offer men a
more diverse array of opportunities. In
another example, Title IX has come under fire for providing an equal playing
field to victims of campus sexual violence in the grievance process against the
accused.
It has overcome much, but our indefatigable little statute still
has climbing left to do. For all the
improvements in athletics, women still lag behind men in the number of athletic
opportunities at the high school
and college level, as
well athletic
scholarship dollars. Athletic
officials sometimes forget about Title IX, such those at Adrian College in
Michigan who constructed an expensive multi-sport facility, but
omitted a women’s locker room.
Educational institutions still struggle to comply with the
law’s requirements to have clear policies and procedures for reporting,
investigating and adjudicating sexual harassment and sexual violence on
campus. Pick a school and pretend you
need to report an incident of sexual harassment or violence. How long did it take you to find the name and
contact information for your school’s Title IX Coordinator, a position that is
required by law? Is the process for
reporting clear and easy to find? At far
too many educational institutions, these basic requirements are being ignored.
Many schools also abuse the narrow permission Title IX
regulations allow for single-sex classes in core subjects by segregating girls
and boys on the basis of all kinds of stereotypes. This kind of thinking is dangerous for the instinctive
reactions it begets, such as the whimsy of the Dallas Independent School
District to take
only the fifth-grade boys to a theater for a screening of a movie about the
Tuskegee Airmen.
Finally, Title IX must struggle to ensure that all students
of all sexes, races, sexual orientations, and abilities are protected from sex
discrimination in the curriculum, in the enforcement of harassment and sexual
violence policies, and in the distribution of athletic opportunities. Clearly,
there are challenges that lie ahead for our little statute that could. On its fortieth anniversary, let’s celebrate
how far it’s come and how much it’s endured, and at the same time support Title
IX in its climb toward eliminating all manners of sex discrimination in
education. I think it can.
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