Just a brief post to supplement my earlier post summarizing some of the Title IX 40th Anniversary coverage that has been in the news lately. This article, also from the recent Sports Illustrated issue that is devoted to Title IX, describes the role that fathers have played as key advocates for Title IX and gender equity in athletics. Through their own experiences with sport, many fathers have come to understand why athletic participation is so important, and as a result are motivated to ensure that their daughters receive the same opportunities as they did.
The article profiles one such father, Herb Dempsey, whom the author dubs "the mother of all Title IX fathers." Herb has filed more than 1000 complaints with OCR challenging inequities in high school athletics in his home state of Washington and elsewhere. He became an advocate in his retirement, inspired by the memories of the disparate treatment his daughter's volleyball team received when she was in high school years earlier. Now Herb challenges gender equity on behalf of the next generation of female athletes, including his middle-school aged granddaughter.
Good for Sports Illustrated for taking note of such a devoted Title IX advocate as Herb, and for bringing attention to the role of male allies, who stand along with women to end sex discrimination in athletics and elsewhere in education.
