Title IX : 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.
BUT DOES TITLE IX TRULY CREATE EQUALITY IN ATHLETICS?
Title IX is a federal law that is part of the Education Amendments Act that was enacted in 1972. This law was put in place to eliminate gender discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding. The most common place we hear about Title IX is with regards to athletic participation and athletic funding. For the purposes of this blog, I will be focusing on how Title IX applies to the collegiate setting.
The Office of Civil Rights has published a list of regulations and interpretations of Title IX on what is supposed to be equal for male and female athletic programs:
1. Equipment and supplies
2. Scheduling of games and practice times
3. Travel and Per Diem allowances
4. Tutoring
5. Coaching
6. Locker rooms, practice, and competitive facilities
7. Medical and training facilities and services
8. Housing and dining facilities and services
9. Publicity
10. Support Services
11. Recruitment of student athletes (budget)
Some people may look at this list and say oh yeah, that makes sense, all of those things are pretty equal for male and female athletes. But if you take a closer look, some items on this seem to have fallen by the wayside. One specific point on this list is item 9. Publicity. If you turn on the television during the fall, you will most certainly see some sort of college football being broadcast. Networks such as ESPN work with the NCAA and it's schools to broadcast as many of the college football games as possible. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday there are multiple games broadcast on major television networks. But where are the female equivalent sporting events? Volleyball and soccer are two female sports that compete in the fall. But you will rarely see one of those games broadcast on a major television network until the final NCAA tournament at the conclusion of the season. Does this truly fill the publicity equality standard?
The main issue here is that the NCAA is a nonprofit organization that does not receive federal funding. The NCAA makes its money through sponsorship and television rights. Therefore the NCAA is not subject to follow the rules of Title IX. However, it makes the member institutions, the colleges and universities themselves, follow the rules and regulations of Title IX. I believe this is a common misconception across the country. One example of the NCAA not handing out the same benefits between male and female athletics is with regards to the NCAA Basketball Tournament. For the men, each tournament victory nets the school's conference a large sum of money. In 2015, each victory equated to about $260,000 to be paid to the conference. For conferences such as the ACC and Big 10, the men's NCAA tournament provides millions of dollars to the conference. But what does a Women's NCAA tournament victory provide? $0. That's right, the NCAA does not pay the winning team's conference any money for winning a tournament game. Now, the men's tournament sells more expensive tickets and has more viewers on television, but do the women truly not deserve anything? Since the money is going to the conference, women's athletic programs will most certainly still benefit from the male team's performance in the long run, but this tells the females that it does not matter how well they do in the tournament because they won't provide and monetary benefits anyways. So does Title IX truly create equality in this situation?
The video above states that female athletes made up 43% of collegiate athletes in 2001. Is that equal? That number still holds true. In 2014, the NCAA reported that female athletes accounted for 43% of the athletic opportunities at member institutions. This is alarming because females make up around 57% of the college student population. There are more females in colleges and universities, but still fewer female collegiate athletes. So I ask again, is Title IX truly creating equality?
There are many skeptics of Title IX. Some people are looking past pure participation numbers and into if the services and opportunities for females are equal. Writes Linda Flanagan and Susan H. Greenburg stated for The Atlantic in 2012 " As Title IX prepare to celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, we believe that many women of our generation are ready to move beyond the comforting the comforting fiction that equality of opportunity, and rough parity with boys, is enough for female athletes. It is time to stop celebrating the raw numbers and to start figuring out how to improve the quality of women's athletic experiences." These skeptics have pointed out that female athletic often over-report female participation in college athletics. Males who practice with female teams (such as basketball managers) can be included in the count of female athletes even though they would never truly compete for the teams. Rowing, which is a common sport to add for female athletics due to Title IX regulations often reports teams of over 100 participants even though fewer than 25 actually compete in competition. Rowing has been added to offset large participation numbers in males sports such as football which can have 120 athletes.
It is clear to me that the NCAA and its member institutions are truly creating equal opportunities for female collegiate athletes. Here are a few questions for you to consider:
What from the list of interpretation also jumps out to you as unequal?
Was there anything in this blog you were unfamiliar with?
What can we do, as advocates, as fans, to help ensure true equality?
Would it be beneficial to forget about pure equal numbers to ensure there are true equal benefits?
