By Ellen J. Staurowsky, Ed.D.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 has been described as one of the greatest achievements of the women’s movement (Winslow, 2010). Credited with addressing mass levels of discrimination in U.S. schools based on sex-based stereotypes that limited the prospects of both female and male students, Title IX has reshaped the contours of educational systems receiving federal financial assistance since its passage.
As a measure of Title IX’s influence on the culture, it has assumed an iconic status. Whole generations of female athletes and coaches are defined as being born pre- and post-Title IX. As a form of cultural shorthand, Title IX is a recognized term associated with equity and fairness. While Title IX applies to all areas of education, its application to intercollegiate and interscholastic varsity sport programs has remained an area of considerable contention over time.
For all of the awareness that exists about Title IX in the public mind, research from a 2005 study of educators found that less than half were familiar with what Title IX covers and a very small percentage of parents and students understand what their rights are under Title IX (Zittleman, as reported in Nash, Klein, & Bitters, 2007). Similarly, the Mellman Group (2007) reported that 80% of adults polled strongly supported Title IX while nearly 60% indicated that they did not know what steps to take to have the law enforced. In a recent national study designed to assess Title IX literacy among nearly 1100 college coaches, 82% reported that they had received no formal education about Title IX as part of the preparation for their job and well over two-thirds did not understand the basic requirements of Title IX (Staurowsky & Weight, 2010).
In Getting in the Game: Title IX and the Women’s Sports Revolution, University of Pittsburgh law professor Deborah Brake offers an important contribution to the scholarship on Title IX that will help to fill that void. Born out of her own experience litigating Title IX cases for the National Women’s Law Center in the 1990s and work in the area of feminist legal theory, the book offers a carefully researched introduction to the law’s origins while examining both its successes and potential shortcomings.
The framework for this analysis draws from three schools of thought – liberal feminism, radical feminism, and postmodern feminism – or what Brake refers to as the law of “many feminisms”. Offering a framework to appreciate the value of pragmatic feminism, Brake presents Title IX’s legacy as one that has been monumentally effective in challenging routine and blatant sex discrimination in educational athletic programs while resilient enough to accommodate difference. Through legislative history and case examples, Brake effectively and adeptly guides readers through a nuanced appreciation for the flexibility Title IX and its enforcement scheme has provided school administrators in meeting the societal imperative at its core and the legal requirements of compliance.
In the first two chapters, readers are reminded again, or introduced for the first time, to the operating logics dealing with equality of access and opportunity that result in the maintenance of a sex segregated athletic system and the creation of avenues to integrate that system under certain circumstances and conditions. Brake argues that while the perpetuation of a sex segregated system yields inevitable issues associated with “separate but equal”, the alternatives of employing a strict meritocracy in athletics would likely relegate athletic participation for females to lower tiers and fewer opportunities to break the very stereotypes that led to the creation of such a system in the first place. In turn, she explores the mechanisms that allow females to compete on male teams where no comparable opportunity is available for females otherwise and issues that arise when males seek to compete on female teams.
She further explores the premises associated with the contact sport exemption under Title IX, which identifies certain male sports (football, lacrosse, and wrestling as examples) as being off limits to female athletes because of the physical nature of the sports themselves. Brake notes that female athletes have gained access to participating on teams otherwise identified in the contact exemption through the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
In chapters 3, 4, and 5, Brake examines the three-part test of Title IX compliance in the area of participation, pointing out that the structure of the test reflects a consciousness that participation does not occur in a vacuum but is the result of a culture that has historically been ambivalent and outright resistant to the notion of female athletic excellence. She begins with an explanation of the three-part test and moves on to consider not only the numerous ways that schools have sought to comply with the three-part test (adding sports, roster management, the practice of leveling down) but also questions that arise around what is considered a sport, specifically in terms of the sport of cheerleading. Using critical race theory, Brake also offers insight and perspective regarding the fact that interests of African-American female athletes have not yet been fully served under Title IX. In Chapter 6, equal opportunity in program areas, such as athletic scholarships, is discussed. The remaining two chapters deal with topics that affect female athlete health and safety, including pregnancy and sexual harassment while protections afforded to coaches under retaliation rulings are considered here as well.
In his endorsement of Getting in the Game, University of Southern California sport sociologist Michael Messner notes that it is a “clearheaded demystification of the debates over gender equity in U.S. school and college sports”. So true. Getting in the Game is highly recommended as a sophisticated and compelling examination of Title IX’s impact on the society, the challenges that lie ahead, and most importantly, potential avenues to rethink what it means to have sport programs within educational settings that will bring out the best in both our female and male students.
Staurowsky is Professor & Graduate Chair of the Department of Sport Management & Media at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. She can be reached at staurows@ithaca.edu.
References
Nash, M. A., Klein, S.S., & Bitters, B. (2007). The role of government in advancing gender equity in education. In S. Kelin (Ed.)., Handbook for achieving gender equity through education (pp. 63-101). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Staurowsky, E. J., & Weight, E. (2010, April). Achieving Title IX dividends through empowering NCAA coaches and administrators. Unpublished paper presented at the NCAA Gender Equity Issues Forum, Chicago, IL. Winslow, B. (2010, March). The impact of Title IX. History Now: The Historian’s Perspective. http://www.gilderlehrman.org/historynow/03_2010/historian4.php
