Title IX Concerns from the mid 1990's

Although the presentation was made 15 years ago in 1994, Sharlene A. Peter’s transcribed article, Emerging Issues and Opportunities, explored obstacles for females in intercollegiate athletics that are still applicable today. Peter wanted to address what the impact of Title IX on collegiate sports would hold for the near future. In the piece, Peter looks towards the year 2000 as the year she thought the effects of Title IX would be in full force.

Her purpose was to educate athletics administrators on the upcoming concerns and emerging issues as a result of Title IX. These included, the dilemma of cost, equal pay, gender coaching, peer harassment, rising participation, advancement of minority women, women in the media, women in athletic administration, women official, and women athletic trainers.

In 2009, many of the issues listed above have progressed tremendously, but many institutions still struggle with gender equity in all facets of intercollegiate athletics. Whether it be number of sports, number of participants, number of scholarships, proportionate funding or equal salaries, higher education institutions still struggle with equality in men’s and women’s sports.

In an effort to comply with Title IX many institutions have made moves by adding female team sports, however, some institutions have chosen to cut men’s sports to level out the participation of men and women rather than pay to add more female sports. This leads us to one of the most intriguing portions of the article where Peter discusses the victims of male cut sports claiming reverse discrimination.

This so-called discrimination is particularly a perceived reality to non-revenue generating sports such as wrestling, swimming and gymnastics. However, institutions were protected, even in the courts by student-athletes or coaches filing these claims. Eight male members of the University of Illinois’ s swim team filed suit when the men’s swim program was cut, however, the court ruled in favor of the university saying “the cuts in Illinois sports program were intended to protect the University’s female athletes, not discriminate against men.” (p. 5)

From there the article tackles equal pay where several instances occur where a female coach is not paid as much as her male counterpart. In court cases where disputes like this occurred, courts made statements to universities to institute policies that justify such a discrepancy. “Athletic administrators should pay special attention to wording used in job descriptions of various sport coaches. If the job descriptions are the same, the institution should pay the coaches comparably, or have a seniority, merit or other system in place to show that discrepancy in salary is not based on gender.” (p. 7)

Another interesting finding by Peter’s study was the increase in opportunities for women in coaching, and in some cases administration. While the numbers were up across the board on opportunities to coach and coaching jobs for women, when many higher education institutions elected to combine the men’s and women’s athletic departments as a result of the implementation of Title IX, the number of female administrators and coaches were not as high.

Among other concerns listed from findings by the Women’s Sports Foundation included: non-proportional funding and attention for female sports in the realms of media coverage, operating budgets and scholarships to name a few. (p. 10) Other voiced concerns included the lack of female minorities in coaching and administrative positions, lack of numbers and proper respect among females in the sports media, lack of women officials and athletic trainers.

The end of the article tackles other issues that the author admits are not related to gender equity or Title IX. The article would have been best suited to stick to the gender equity and Title IX subjects, instead the issues of lawsuits, regulation on player agents, physically disabled issues, and medical issues seem to be out of place and not given proper time.

This article should be read by those who want to compare the issues of gender equity as it stood in the mid 1990’s or as a comparison to see how many of the concerns in the article are still prevalent in the present day.

-- by Kyle Robarts

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Peter, S. A. (Director) (1994, November 17). Emerging Issues and Opportunities Prospective Analysis. the 40th NOLPE Annual Convention, Viewpoints (Opinion/Position Papers, Essays, etc.), Hyatt Islandia, San Diego, CA.

Link to article via ERIC