Posted on 10/10/2007 8:17:51 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
WHEN Title IX was passed 35 years ago, high school athletics were an overwhelmingly male pastime. The boys played sports and the girls cheered them on from the sidelines.
In the years since, Title IX has radically changed the local high school sports landscape. Once the law banned schools from engaging in gender discrimination in sports, girls flocked by the millions to the fields, courts and swimming pools to join their school teams. Today, a high school without opportunities for girls to play sports is almost unimaginable.
Yet as much as things have changed, much has remained the same. Though schools added competitive girls' sports to their athletic programs years ago in response to Title IX, they still frequently treat the boys' teams better than the girls' teams. And in the area of special treatment, football reigns supreme.
Because of the tradition and importance placed on high school football, school administrators routinely turn a blind eye toward the special treatment given to the football team. Football teams frequently have their own special locker room and weight room. Football teams have a proportionally higher number of coaches than other teams. Most football teams have booster clubs that raise money to provide special benefits for only the football team.
Title IX is not just about opportunities to play - it also mandates that girls and boys compete on a level playing field. Title IX requires schools to provide equal athletic benefits to male and female athletes. That means that athletic facilities, uniforms, equipment, practice and game times, publicity, coaching and transportation must be of equal quality and quantity for girls and boys teams.
While the football team has its privileges, invariably, the girls' teams do not. Instead, girls' sports are typically provided with fewer benefits than boys' basketball and baseball, and are often treated worse than other boys' sports as well.
The main rationalization for the special treatment provided to the football team seems to be tradition - that it has always been done that way. Yet, no school administrator would argue with a straight face that tradition was a sufficient justification for providing the boys with calculators and the girls with slide rules to use for their calculus homework.
At many schools, football is more than just a sport - it defines the school's culture. By eliminating the football team's special privileges and instead providing equal athletic benefits to boys and girls teams, schools will do more than just comply with Title IX. They will stand for a new sports tradition - equality for all.
www.cwlc.org
Vicky L. Barker is the legal director of the California Women's Law Center. She has successfully litigated Title IX cases throughout California.
Don't give them any ideas.
I was gonna say, talk about some serious penis envy!
“I’ve long advocated the separation of sports and academics at the high school level. Athletic teams could still be affiliated with schools in some way, but let the participants pay all of the costs associated with those sports.”
I see...but then the lawyers like the one above would litigate that the football players DIDN’T have to pay ANYTHING (since their sport actually GENERATES REVENUE)...but the girl’s golf team would have to pay a boatload of cash...
actually the fact mens sports has been eliminated save for the money making sports, is one of the reasons fewer boys are going to university.
Today a girl can get an athletic scholarship for just being WILLING to do a sport. (ie rowing teams in the desert)
she has the bitterness of a women’s professional basketball fan.
(seriously did anyone THINK when they named the miani team S.O.L. ?)
This is the errAmerika mentality. Just because they had looney leftist radio station shows did not mean people will listen.
Title IX had its chance, it is a failure by its now being a burden rather than an opportunity. It should be scrapped.
also people LIKE TO WATCH FOOTBALL.
Nobody cares about the other sports.
Now that cheerleading is classified as a competitive sport, cheerleading should be de-coupled from football and basketball. Let the cheerleaders schedule their own tournaments and see how many people show up besides bare legged men in long trench coats taking an inordinate number of photographs.
saying negative things about womens basketball is going to be a hate crime for more people than don imus.
You vill like zee vimen’s beskeetbahl or ve have vays of makeeng you lie ze vimen’s beskeetbahl!
es zee LAW!!!!!
Here in Minnesota, where High School Hockey is big, big, big, the Boy’s high school hockey tournamnet was held in the Excel Energy Center, where the pro hockey team, the Wild, plays. The arena is packed.
The firl’s tournament was held at a different site, the crowds (more correctly, lack of crowds) didn’t justify the expense of renting the big arena. Lawyers and the courts got involved, complaining about the in-equality, and you can guess what happened next.
200 people watching hockey games in an arena that holds 15,000. Nincompoops.
Since when is money raised by parents to buy equipment and uniforms subject to Title IX treatment? My son plays baseball for our high school. His games draw about 50 spectators, mostly parents, friends and relatives. The football team drew over 9,500 spectators to a recent game and took in over $45,000. This money was used by the district to support all athletics including the baseball team.
Simply put,if this author got her wish, all high scholl athletics would suffer.
Liberals are hell bent on destroying this country
How long before the fans who attends boys’ sports competitions will be legally required to attend girls’ events so the girls have the opportunity to compete before as many fans as the boys??
Isn’t anything less discrimination?
Most of the time, the only fans at a girls sporting event are the parents, even if there is no admission charged.
Yes! I agree. Although I like Pam Ward and I think she does her homework and is really trying to do a good job, I prefer someone who has actually played the game and is really passionate about it.
What I hate are those screechy women, the “Hollys” and “Erins,” who do the sideline commentaries. Their voices break glass. Scares the dogs off the couch!
and nobody thinks this is going to hurt morale of the girls? the fact people have to be forced to watch their play?
These liberals are teaching the wrong lesson about success and failure.
you can’t force other people into making a success.
Sometimes when you build it, people DON’t come to see it.
When field hockey picks up the tab for all the other sports uniforms and equipment as most HS football programs do, we’ll talk.
In many cases, football pays for the other sports. Our litle town in Ohio gets 2,000 folks in for each home game. At $10 a pop, that adds up.
On the other hand, the Girls Soccer Team, gets about 30-50 per home game.
IOW your points are not needed.
a “fairness doctrine” in sports is required which will call girls sports to be elevated equal to boys (which are evil) football.
oh wait that is what Title IX did...
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Everything the left touches, it destroys.
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