Athletics

After refusing to voluntarily do the right thing for well over a decade, Franklin County High School has finally filed an agreement in court (PDF) to schedule its girls’ basketball team equally in primetime slots (Friday and Saturday games). Unfortunately, it took a Title IX lawsuit to convince the school that scheduling almost all of the boys’ games on weekends and only about half of the girls’ games on weekends was unfair. Nevermind that the United States Department of Education sent a letter to Indiana high schools expressing concern over their scheduling practice of reserving primetime slots for boys’ games – in 1997! Read more »

Welcome to another roundup! Now that we’re past Labor Day, schools nationwide are back to class in full swing – and for many students, that means back to their school sports teams, too. Some girls will lace up their cleats for soccer or sneakers for cross country. But 17-year-old Erin DiMeglio will lace up her cleats, pull on her pads, and strap on her helmet—as the third-string quarterback for her high school’s football team.

Yep, football. Full contact, full speed football in Florida – a state known for churning out some of the nation’s top male college prospects. I admire Erin for sticking to her guns and landing a spot on this team. But the most heartwarming part of this story is that to the rest of the team, she’s just another teammate. She happens to be a girl… but they don’t really care.

Erin’s been playing football since elementary school. Her father taught her to throw a ball, and she was one of four girls in her fourth grade flag football league. Since arriving at South Plantation High School, she’s helped out with managing the boy’s football team, and she joined the girl’s flag football team in the spring.

Erin’s football coach Doug Gatewood already knew Erin could throw well when she started pestering him about joining the boy’s team, because Gatewood coaches the girl’s flag team, too. Read more »

A decade ago, the National Council of Women’s Organizations pushed Augusta National Golf Club to end its practice of excluding women from the membership rolls of the club. When it refused, the golf club, home to the prestigious Masters tournament, lost television sponsors for two years.

At the time, the club chairman Hootie Johnson defended his decision the way that any old boys club (literally!) or seven-year-old with a tree fort might – by saying that it was a matter of “camaraderie” and that having girls around would spoil the parties.

Of course, private clubs have long used those same arguments to discriminate against people of color and Jews. Augusta did not accept its first black member until 1990. Golly, those golf clubs sure seem welcoming and chummy! Read more »

Yesterday would have been historic regardless of the winner: it was the first time women boxed for gold in the Olympics. But that the US boxer Claressa Shields won the first gold made it even more historic. A middleweight boxer from Flint, Michigan, Chelsea beat two-time world champion Anna Laurell of Sweden and Russia’s Nadezda Torlopova. Oh, and did I mention she’s only 17? She is the youngest to win boxing gold (men included) since 1924.

This year is the first time the US sent more women than men to compete in the Olympics. Thanks to Title IX, American girls and women like Claressa have had more opportunities to participate in sports. The rising number of women playing for and winning gold is a reflection of Title IX’s success. Though there’s still more work to be done, Title IX and the domination of Team U.S.A.’s women in London can be celebrated together. Read more »

The Second Circuit has confirmed that Quinnipiac University ran afoul of Title IX when it dropped the women’s volleyball team and tried to count the competitive cheerleading team as a sport under Title IX. That doesn’t mean cheer isn’t a great activity or that it’s not athletic; it simply means that cheer is not developed enough at this point to qualify as a varsity sport under U.S. Department of Education guidelines. The court held that cheer did not qualify as a varsity sport because it did not walk and talk like other varsity sports. The cheer team did not conduct any off-campus recruiting, did not compete solely against other varsity teams, and had no progressive playoff system in the post season.

The other big issue the court addressed involves the standards for complying with prong one of Title IX’s three-part participation test. Following Department of Education policy, the court held that QU’s 3.62% gap between female enrollment and participation—which amounted to 38 additional spots needed to provide women with proportional opportunities—was large enough to field an additional women’s team and therefore did not constitute compliance. Read more »

Wow! Team U.S.A.'s athletes are amazing.

Did you see Alex Morgan's stunning game-winning goal in overtime? Or Gabby Douglas and the Fab Five making history? And who could forget Katie Ledecky — at only 15 years old — breaking the U.S. record and winning a gold medal in the 800 freestyle.

We are so proud of all of our athletes. London 2012 is the first time that the majority of Team U.S.A. is female, and there is no doubt that thanks is owed to four decades of Title IX. In the 1972 Summer Games, the same year Title IX was born, 21% of the American competitors were women. Forty years later the American delegation is a whopping 51% female.

The Olympic games are far from over. Show your support for what's been called the "Title IX Olympics." You can:

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“We’ve reaped the fruits of Title IX,” says Theresa Edwards, the U.S. chef de mission for U.S. teams.

Title IX certainly turned out to be the seeds of some pretty incredible fruit. As I sit on my couch (usually eating ice-cream, pie, or something else I bet those athletes have never even seen) watching the 2012 games, I am overwhelmed by the sheer power of Team U.S.A.’s female athletes. I mean have you seen McKayla Maroney fly, literally fly, on her vault? Or Missy Franklin make swimming at 1,000,000 miles per hour – okay, maybe not exactly 1,000,000 – look easy?

London 2012 is the first time that the majority of Team U.S.A. is female, and there is no doubt that thanks is owed to Title IX. In the 1972 Summer Games, the same year Title IX was born, 21% of the American competitors were women. Forty years later the American delegation is a whopping 51% female. Read more »

Happy Friday! Hope you’ve all remembered that today is also the opening day of the 2012 London Olympics. And just in case you haven’t heard it yet, 2012 marks the first time that there are more women on Team USA than men. Team USA totals 530 athletes, 269 of them women. To celebrate this achievement and to tip our hat to the influence Title IX has on this year’s team (in its 40th anniversary year, no less!), we created this graphic and posted it to our Facebook page! Please share it with your friends to spread the good news about Team USA and to support our team in London.

And speaking of the Olympics, it seems like there’s a bit of kerfuffle over what some of the uniforms female athletes will be wearing to compete in. While women were required to cover their legs when first allowed to compete in the 1900 games, these days we typically see things like female beach volleyball players competing in bikinis. Starting this year, female volleyball players are allowed to wear shorts and sleeved tops. Of course, this has sparked some debate and is winding up to be just another step in a long history of concern – often times misplaced concern – over women’s Olympic sporting attire. Read more »

Yesterday, Megan Greenwell laid the blame for the decline in the number of female coaches at Title IX’s feet, calling the lack of female coaches “the dirty little secret of Title IX.” This is a classic case of “blame the victim.” Title IX has steadily increased the number of opportunities for girls and women in sports, although the playing field is still far from level.

But the growing opportunities for women and girls in sports are in no way responsible for the lack of opportunities for women in coaching.

Remember: correlation is not causation. As Greenwell acknowledges, now that female coaching jobs are higher-paying and more prestigious they are desirable jobs. Put that together with a hiring process that relies on informal male-dominated networks and voila, no women coaches. Read more »

This is quite a year of firsts for the Olympics!

• The first time every country is sending at least one female athlete.
• The first time the U.S. is sending more women than men.
• And now for the first time, in the summer games, since 1920, a pregnant woman will be shooting – literally – for gold.

Nur Suryani Mohamed, a 29-year-old Malaysian athlete, will participate in the women’s 10-meter air-rifle event. She will be 8 months pregnant when she competes. Read more »