Title 9 Debate

Title IX Debate

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of gender, 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.” This statement is the well known Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, or more recently known as, the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act (October 29, 2002) (Title IX). This regulation basically asserts that no matter what sex you may be, male or female, can not interfere with ones participation in any activity offered by a school, with particular emphasis on athletic activities. Even at this present junction, schools are disobedient to this warrented law.

Within four years of its implementation, the number of female athletes in the United States increased by six hundred percent, to include over two million participants. "As laws go, it has been a success. In 1972, one in twenty-seven high school girls participated in sports. That number has now risen more than tenfold, to one in two and a half” (Goldberg). With the increase in number of women athletes, the schools worked to expand the athletic programs and started to offer a more diverse range of sports. But even with the more opportunities women have to play sports, it does not mean that they are still getting treated equal. On some high school teams, girls are still having to tolerate out-of-date, used uniforms, most of which are left over from the men’s teams. Some schools use money as an excuse; they argue about how the school does not have enough money to go out and buy all new uniforms for the team, then schools turn around and “BAM”, the men’s basketball team has new, personalized basketball shoes or the football team gets a whole new team set of matching warm-up suits. In some places uniforms are the last thing schools worry about, their main concern is actually making a specific female sport varsity level. “The athletic department has been saying for years that there just isn’t enough money for the women’s soccer team to become varsity, even though they keep coming up with the money for other things” (Playing).

“Title IX is ridiculous. Its goal is for female/male athletic ratios to be fairly even to the enrollment ratios. The problem is women are not raised to be athletic. Girls who play sports early are considered tomboys and are generally steered toward dolls and playing house. Because of this, there just aren't as many female athletes, and that is screwing men who play lower tier sports out of the opportunity to play.” (Thoughts). This is how a majority of people feel about female athletics, and it is these kinds of ignorant ideas that upset me the most about this topic. There is no need to stereotype females into the kind that are portrayed on television. Just because most girls are known to wear dresses and make-up, and do not like taking apart in physical activity does not mean that there are not girls out there