Literature Review: Title IX Issue of Gender Equality Essay Example

110,000 (Sklover, 1997) The importance of this area of research is the problem of sexism in sports, so even as female participation surges there is still not equality.

First off in the first article A Look at Title IX and Women’s Participation in Sport by Jessica Miller, Myra Heinrich, and Robin Baker, she does a study to see how after the title IX law was implemented how women’s sport participation grew. This study was conducted at a NCAA division II school and was examining the women’s interest in athletics in comparison to men. In the first study of women only it was found that 116 women undergraduates completed interests in the athletics, sports, and physical fitness survey and it was shown that very few women surveyed participation in club or intercollegiate activities. The most often reason for non-participation is time constraints. In the second study 108 men and women undergraduates completed the same survey and as a result it was shown that men had a significantly higher level of interest in sport than women. Since the passage of title IX in 1972, its known that women’s participation in sport has increased significantly but it’s still found in a recent study of NCAA division I-A athletic program that participation by women is only 29% compared to 71% by men. (Grant,1995) This clearly shows that equity hasn’t been achieved at colleges and universities due to the OCR (office of civil rights) guidelines, it can be argued an institution is in compliance with Title IX by meeting the needs of the underrepresented sex. The NCAA is aware of this issue so they have stepped up efforts to meet requirements

and now many universities survey women to see their level of interest in sport.

Next in Proper Seasons by Erik Brady title IX is an issue in the Michigan High School Athletic Association. In Michigan high school they play girls basketball in the fall and volleyball in the winter. Since the state association is federally funded it has to follow title IX compliance and girls’ sports being sponsored in non-traditional seasons can be out of compliance. This case was brought to the court and the girl’s parents decided to sue Michigan high school athletic association in 1998. These parents are alleging that among other things that “playing sports out of season makes it more difficult for girls to be seen by college recruiters. “(Brady, 2002) In December 2001 U.S district Judge Richard A Enslen ruled that the state scheduling policies violated title IX compliance issues. As a result of this case the MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association) made a 23-page proposal that moved 3 girls’ sports golf, tennis, and swimming to the traditional seasons and moving some boys’ sports to accommodate this. The plaintiffs still weren’t happy with this proposal because it still left basketball and volleyball out of season because these sports are the focal point of the suit. 'The Michigan case makes the point that the issue of when sports seasons are played is an important one,' says Neena Chaudhry, senior counsel for the National Women's Law Center. 'It's a wake-up call to other states.' (Erik Brady, 2002)

Another article that describes the issue we face today in title IX is Sports, sex, and Title IX by Steven Rhoads. This article is a telling

us the science behind sports and sex and the reasoning behind title IX. As explained in the introduction paragraph title IX needs to fall under a certain quota. These quotas have devastated some men’s Intercollegiate sports such as wrestling, which has been a sport for nearly 100 years and is fourth in revenue production in NCAA championships. … “Scores of collegiate wrestling teams have been discontinued to satisfy Title IX strictures.” (Steven Rhoads, 2004) This article also showed how men’s sports were effected due to the Brown University football team being so large. To fix this problem brown started to begin new women’s teams and cut bench players of the football team, also due to the women’s teams having 93 slots available for athletes. “Male students interested in minor sports were told they could try out only if they could recruit two women who would try out for other teams.” (Steven Rhoads, 2004) “This was also a disadvantage to brown because the athletic director had to turn down willing athletes who would not travel and who would cost the university little to nothing to stay in dorms so you won’t screw up the numbers.” Along with the problem of the male teams being removed and student athletes who had committed to a sport since childhood are being cut, and new teams are being created for women. In some cases, these women are getting to play with full scholarships having no experience. These problems have caused title IX reformers to shape this law accordingly. “The objective of the Title IX reformers was not to eliminate the law or to return to an era when girls and

women rarely participated in athletics. Rather, the reforms sought to provide athletic opportunities for both sexes based on actual interest.” (Steven Rhoads, 2004) This was put in place due to the overwhelming interest in sports by men rather than women, so this law requires that colleges provide athletic opportunities based on interest not on male to female enrollment. “These recommendations suggested that institutions 'conduct continuous interest surveys on a regular basis as a way of ... allowing schools to accurately predict and reflect men's and women's interest in athletics over time.' (Steven Rhoads, 2004) This reform opposes against traditional Title IX advocates because “women represent 56 percent of the national collegiate student body but only 42 percent of intercollegiate activities.” (Steven Rhoads, 2004) Current advocates believe 'interest surveys may prevent future progress in providing opportunities for women because offering opportunities regardless of interest may encourage participation even where none currently exists.' (Steven Rhoads,2004) Again this could be fought by reformers saying the opposite.

To continue talking about Rhoads article Sports, sex, and Title IX he talks about the primary interests in sports. “There are two primary ways that interest in sports can be measured: One is to look at rates of participation in athletics and the other is to measure how often sports competitions are viewed or followed.” (Steven Rhoads, 2004) Not a surprise, but one of the biggest differences found during psychological tests is sports. “Young men are much greater sports fans than young women; in one study, Loyola Marymount professor Lawrence Wenner found that 20 percent of men but only 4 to 5 percent of women are avid sports fans.” (?) It’s found that

women get more attached to the emotional connection like watching personal profiles of athletes rather men find emotion in the competition. NBC sports once said: “Men will sit through the Olympics for almost anything, as long as they get to see some winners and losers.... Women tend to approach this differently. They want to know who the athletes are, how they got there, what sacrifices they've made. They want an attachment, a rooting interest.” Title IX consulting firm and head of Good Sports Inc., Valerie Bonnette says “women aren’t born less interested in sports. Society conditions them.” In Eleanor Maccoby’s book “The Two Sexes, she explains that 'boys' friendships tend to be less intimate than those of girls' because they are activity-dependent. Men bond with other men through activity, especially competition and sports, and uniquely value the nonverbal friendship that develops with a male teammate or even with a competitor.” Its shown that most men will stay on a team even without playing time but women tend to quit once they realize they won’t play. “They decide that, with no scholarship and no playing time, they are better off doing other things. In other words, women offered the same type of opportunity as their male counterparts will often choose to pursue other interests.” (Steven Rhoads, 2014) Sports help men connect with other men which makes them able to ride the bench but women on the other hand would need motivation and enthusiasm from the coaching staff to stay motivated and have encouragement. These are the reasons that there has been obsessive attention put towards title IX reform.

The next article I’m going to talk about is

Sports Illustrated Revised article Media Coverage of the Female Athlete Before, During, and After Title IX by Mary Jo Kane. This article begins to talk about how sport has historically been looked at as gender specific and females were restricted from certain activities that is until Title IX was implemented. “For example, more than 1.8 million young women participate in interscholastic sports compared with 300,000 before the passage of Title IX.” (Hogan,1988) Along with this there was a major shift in social acceptance of female athletes and it was time to look into the media coverage of women’s sports. “Reid and Soley (1979) examined Sports Illustrated from 1956 to 1976 and discovered that the coverage given to women ranged from 3.2% to 6.8% of all articles and accounted for less than 5% of all covers.” (Mary Jo Kane,1988, pg. 89) Because Sports Illustrated is a “men’s magazine” it’s not surprising that men’s exposure is way higher than women’s.

Continuing about Mary Jo Kane’s article, there is an analysis of 1,228 issues of sports illustrated between 1964 and 1987 and examining content in the media to draw for inferences about the society’s values towards in this case Title IX. These times were chosen because they represent 3 important time periods basing the title IX law 1964-71 before, 1972-1979 during, and 1980-87 which is after. The first issue being looked at was whether there would be a significant increase in total women’s features during and after Title IX as opposed to before but results indicated there was not a significant difference. “It should be noted that the total number of feature articles cited above is somewhat misleading. Several

feature articles covering women's sport could be labeled “issue' articles. They did not focus on a particular female athlete or sport but instead on some important issue within women's athletics.” (Mary Jo Kane, 1988, pg.93) Next the second question in this study was if the proportion of coverage given to female athlete’s vs non athletes across the timeline. “Findings revealed that between 1964 and 1987 significantly more articles were written about female athletic roles (299) than non-athletic roles (115) …. However, the emphasis on the amount of coverage given to female athlete’s vs non athletes shifted significantly, and this shift appeared to be closely related to the passage of Title IX” (Mary Jo Kane, 1988, pg.94) The last question being asked was the amount of coverage given to female athletes within sex-appropriate vs sex-inappropriate sports. This pattern remained constant during all three time periods that “overall, significantly more articles were written about females associated with sex-appropriate sports (232) than those with sex inappropriate sports (67).” (Mary Jo Kane,1988, pg.94) Overall it was found in this study of Sports Illustrated articles in respect to media coverage given to females before and after title IX there has been both “change and inflexibility”. “Although results indicated there was no significant increase in the total amount of coverage given to females during and after Title IX in contrast to be- fore, there was a dramatic shift in the emphasis given to females in athletic versus nonathletic roles.” (Mary Jo Kane, 1988, pg.94) Along with this change it can be argued that the social atmosphere surrounding women’s athletics when Title IX was born contributed a big attitude shift towards the

media.

Lastly in the Sports Illustrated Article Ladies’ Day by Jon Wertheim, Mark Bechtel, and Stephen Cannella which talks about the Title IX issues women face when trying to make sports a full time job. “Thanks largely to Title IX, one in 2.5 girls plays a varsity sport today, a long way from the one in 27 who did in 1970. But we're still far removed from the day when more than a handful of women can make sports a full-time job.” (Wertheim, L. J., Bechtel, M., & Cannella, S. 2004) Even the best of the best chart a career and compete at a level most people can barely fathom like the Olympics or World Cup, but then these athletes are out of the public eye. “Four of the five major women's professional leagues christened since 1996 have folded, most recently the Women's United Soccer Association, which racked up tens of millions of dollars of debt in its three seasons.” (Wertheim, L. J., Bechtel, M., & Cannella, S. 2004) The last standing of these women’s leagues is the WNBA. The current problem with women’s sports funding is the fans, colleges and high school’s investments is impressive because there isn’t much of a fan base bringing in money but due to the federal funding from Title IX they’re able to keep these sports.

Overall in conclusion after analyzing these articles it’s found that since the implementation of Title IX there has been improvements of equality towards women but It hasn’t been perfect or easy. This law is going to keep growing as time goes on but it’s definitely heading in a better way for women. These articles have

many different views on ways Title IX has been used first off how many women are interested in sports and the opportunities that they are given. They show a few examples of the legal issues in court like Michigan High School Athletic Association moving sports seasons from to not the traditional season to Brown University cutting benched football players to meet the percentage quota for Title IX equality at the University. The articles also showed the reasoning behind why men are more motivated/ need sports well women play them for an overall different reasoning. Men need sports because they enjoy the competitive environment and it’s a way of making friends, well women get more attached to the emotional relationship. It was found that since the implementation of the Title IX law there has been a big attitude shift towards women’s sports even though there isn’t a huge fan base.