UNIT 2: Title IX

UNIT 2 NOTES:

1) The participation of women and girls in sports and other previously male-dominated fields in the 1980’s was due to Title IX, the women’s rights movements, increased media coverage of women’s sports, and the arrival of new opportunities for women after years of struggle.

-Title IX faced continued resistance and backlash mostly by the people of power and privilege who felt it necessary to question the legal ramifications.

2) The advancement of women’s sports continuously faces sexist barriers such as people trivializing women's sports, not taking women athletes seriously, objectifying female athletes, and womens sports programs often being underfunded.

-Other challenges to the advancement of women’s sports include women being underrepresented in positions of power such as coaching and women being offered limited access to Olympic events.

3) Title IX was designed to ensure that women athletes have equal access to scholarship programs, publicity, medical care, and adequate quality of facilities to name a few.

4) Womens access to positions of authority such as coaching and administration in the sport world is limited by women having fewer connections to elite programs, having little support for professional development, anticipating sexual harassment, and little emphasis on sensitivity to family responsibilities from the sport community.

-Women face less access and more discrimination from player controlled sports that are not covered by Title IX.

5) In order to promote equity in the realm of sports it is important for us to educate ourselves on past and current discriminatory practices.  It is also vital that individuals advocate for women's presence in coaching positions and for women to setup support organizations that encourage and empower women to succeed in misogynistic sporting environments.  All of these ideas take lots of time and energy to implement but slow progress doesn’t mean no progress.

6) It is often difficult for elite athletes to discuss gender inequality issues to the mainstream media.  Many women fear they will be targeted as a “man-hater” and even when empowerment and feminism is discussed, it often references heterosexuality and attractiveness.

7) It is important to not forget that gender equity effects men in  opening up opportunities for men to participate in sports and events that have been deemed too “feminine”.  Unfortunately, any sport that is referred to as feminine has become a negative and form of demasculating men that deviate from the strong man heterosexual model of a sports hero.

-High profile sports like football base much of their organization off of a traditional sexist way of thinking that prevents women’s participation.  This fact prevents people of other genders from feeling welcome in male-center and celebrated communities.

-Understanding of gender ideology is crucial to moving the presence of women in sports forward.  Gender is a spectrum and it affects how we interact and communicate with others and ourselves.

8) Mainstream understanding of gender is limited to the gender binary of two categories; men and women.  These categories are perceived as opposites and there is little room for anyone that refuses to be labeled in the binary.

9) There is a view of women in sports as invaders in a historical traditions of valuing men as epic and heroic heros.  Center type of femininity such as the “tom boy” stereotype are considered acceptible but only when women can be sexualized as well.

-Bodybuilding is sport that until the 1970’s wasn’t welcoming to women.  Women showing strength matching that of men (or women that are stronger than men) are deemed unworthy of attractiveness or worth and are criticized for not being “feminine” enough.  

-Double standards exist for men and women in the sporting world which unfortunately emphasises a narrow minded perspective of gender abilities.

-Any other sexuality besides heterosexuality is looked down upon in the sport world.  To be “out” as a person in sports can affect one's social standing or even physical safety.

10) Perhaps with a new understanding and analysis of masculinity, sexuality, class, race, and gender, society can push forward through gender constraints in order to provide equal opportunity to every individual who chooses to play a sport.

Scholarly Research Analysis Protocol

Instructions: While reading the assigned text, answer the questions below in the space provided.  

Please use direct excerpts from the text whenever possible in your responses.

What structural features define this text as falling within the genre of scholarly/ academic writing? (Create a bulleted list.)

-The text uses examples of qualitative interviews and in order to communicate evidence of belief amongst the university community.

-The study uses other forms of data such as university press releases and archival records in order to understand the effects of Title IX in a university setting.

What is the argument statement of this text?  (Write one sentence.)

Understanding that this is a meaning they

make of Title IX is important because such understanding

provides us with insight into the challenges of turning policy

into practice, as well as how educational organizations might

better go about implementing changesin policies and practices

related to gender equity.

Identify the jargon of this text. [Jargon is specialized terminology characteristic of a particular discipline or area of theory.]  (Use bullets.)

-athletes

-gender stereotypes

-college/university

-data set

-gender equity

-masculine skills and values

-male privilege

-social construction

-feminism

What are five statements that the author uses to support the argument statement? Use only direct excerpts; frame them with quotation marks, and note the page number.

1) “This is an exploratory qualitative case study of a campus community’s reaction to the university’s decision to drop several men’s athletic teams”. (116)

2) “In discussing social constructionism, Berger & Luckmann (1966) contended that this perspective assumes that “all meaningful human activity is constructed through dialogue, discourse, and social practices”. (116

3) “That is, feminist constructionism can be used to challenge patriarchy and sexism by interrogating gender ideologies and practices such as Title IX and intercollegiate sport”. (116)

4) “Social constructionism allows feminist researchers to take account of both individuals/agency and structure/social control, to explore how cultural ideologies and practices(e.g.,sport, gender) are socially constructed and reproduced—but also negotiated and reconstructed as individuals both act (individually and collectively) and “make sense of” the worlds they inhabit (in this case study, the world of intercollegiate sport in the postTitle IX era, specifically; Birrell, 2000; Freysinger et al., in press)”. (116)

5) “It is important to note all but one of the individuals did state that they were absolutely in favor of increased opportunities for women, but the increase in opportunities should not come at the expense of men’s opportunities”. (122)

What values or views were represented in the message? (Write no more than three sentences.)

The values and views of the message of this study include the importance of understanding, analyzing, and critiquing social change in order to successful progress as a society.  When communities experience affirmative action in the form of things like Title IX the backlash is often strong and influenced by social construction, patriarchy, and capitalism.

Learning Module:

Step 1:

“no person”, “excluded”, “subjected to discrimination”

I choose these words from Title IX because I believe they outline the importance of the overlying message.  The Title was taken as a necessary step to improve the status of women’s sports but by saying “person”, the title is much more open to gender than it appears.  I think the more the paradigm changes, the more people will view gender on a spectrum which will hopefully allow more insight into peoples understanding of individual identities.

Step 2:

-Billy Jean King describes being lucky in her childhood having parents (a man and a woman) that were supportive of her talent in sports despite her gender.  

-Her personal assistant outed her to the public and overnight she lost many of her sponsorships.  This experience made her have to work even harder for the deals that she wanted.

-Beating Bobby Riggs in a tennis match (although he was much older than her) was a huge moment in her career and even more importantly represented women’s strength in sports as a whole.

Step 3:

The article “Supreme Court Decision Protects Remedies for Gender Discrimination in Public Schools” from the Title IX website and the explains that the National Women’s Law Center supports a recent appeal that helps to ensure the right of women and young girls to challenge and call out discrimination in education.  The case in the article referred to the Fitzgerald’s family who’s daughter was regularly being bullied on the school bus by a young boy.  The family complained but there were no results and the school didn’t seem to take issue with it.  Under Title IX, the Fitzgerald’s case in reference a statute that inhibits discrimination against women in federally funded schools.  A case like this highlights the importance of Title IX and laws like it that help to ensure women’s safety in the public and educational sphere.

(http://www.titleix.info/Resources/News-Articles/Supreme-Court-Decision-protects-Remedies-For-Gender-Discrimination-in-Public-Schools.aspx)

Step 4:

After reading this piece, I’m reevaluating what is was like to play a sport in my high school as a young woman.  I was a tennis player but at the time the women’s tennis team didn’t even have their own court.  In retrospect, the men’s football and soccer team were the most highly funded sports in the school.  It is pretty mind blowing to read a piece like this and be able to truly see the discrimination between men and women’s sports in the public school system around the country.

Step 5: This bill of rights is one I wish I had the opportunity to read in elementary school.  I think it is so important for young girls to feel true empowerment from a young age, to realize their agency and change the world for the better.  I specifically appreciate the idea of loving your body and having confidence in oneself.  So much of the world of misogyny is based in a belief that women are less than but the only way that sort of belief could possibly be successful is if women believe they are less than.  A list like this outlines some of the most important aspects of living an independent, safe, and feminist life.

Step 6:

ARTICLE 1:

NPR’s article “40 Years On, Title IX Still Shapes Female Athletes” by Tom Goldman explores the positive effects of Title IX and explains how important the law has been in changing female athletes lives for the better.  Goldman provides examples of women feeling empowered and being capable of anything with the help of Title IX.  Goldman gives an example of Brandy Chastain helping the American women’s soccer team to win the 1999 Rose Bowl and how her young son if able to see her as strong woman as he grows up.  He also gives the example of an older man like Herb Dempsey being a huge supporter of women's rights as an example of positive change within the greater American social strata.  These examples are baby steps towards equal right in America and help to inspire other young woman to feel empowered and able.

http://www.npr.org/2012/06/22/155529815/40-years-on-title-ix-still-shapes-female-athletes

ARTICLE 2:

The Forbes piece “The 40th Anniversary of Title IX: The 21st Century Issue of College Coaches' Salaries by Alicia Jessop addresses the positive and negatives changes that have occurred with the arrival of Title IX and points out that one of the most pressing issues the law brought about is the wage gap between male and female coaches.  The article provides a chart comparing salaries between men and women coaches of the same sport at several American colleges and universities and the disparity is staggering with men sometimes making up to eight times as much as women in sports like football and basketball.  A handful of men's coaches make over $1 million dollars and not a single female coach makes even close to that kind of money.  Jessop explains that sometimes individuals attempt to justify the pay differences by citing that men’s football is so popular that it’s scrutinized more by the media and that that popularity can often provide revenue for schools.  The reality is that men’s and women’s coaches have very similar responsibilities and jobs overall.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/aliciajessop/2012/06/23/the-40th-anniversary-of-title-ix-the-21st-century-issue-of-college-coaches-salaries/

ARTICLE 3:

Sports Illustrated’s article “Title IX Provided Women With Opportunity On and Off the Playing Field” highlights the importance of Title IX to a new generation of girls who are now able to grow up in a world where playing women playing sports has become more of a norm.  The piece also explains the normalcy of sports in women’s lives contributes to their agency, the ability to lead, and self confidence because sports and education have many positive attributes in encouraging participants to value themselves, others, and the world in order to function as a valuable member of society.  Before Title IX was instated, 1 in 27 women at the colleges played a sport.  In 1974, the numbers grew exponentially with 1.3 million women actively playing collegiate sports.  It’s important to note that Title IX never directly address sports but it is amazing how positively it has affects the female sporting world at large.

http://www.si.com/more-sports/2012/06/21/title-ix-legacy-impact

Step 7:

When it comes to sports, there is quite a thick glass ceiling that still exists.  The slideshow we watched showed great examples of empowered women over the years that have done all that they can, considering the discrimination of the times, to make the most out of their talents and carriers despite the sexism, racism, and classism holding them back.  Eri Yoshida, lla Borders, and the others in the piece had so many moments in their careers where they were held back but they instead drove forward to prove people wrong and thus were paving the way for women to come in each of those fields.

The sad thing to admit is that the paradigm isn’t changing fast enough.  Someone like Ila Borders ended up giving up by 2000 because she realized she didn’t stand a chance being involved with a major league farm team.  The reality is that there is still a whole lot of work to be done but the more society encourages women to participate in sports, the sooner the gender equity gap will become smaller.

Step 8:

Nell was smart and pretty, the ultimate combination, the high school dreamgirl.  She was blonde, a little taller than most of the girls in her class and had a sweet disposition which made making friends easy.  The tone of her voice said “I’m nice and I don’t like confrontation”.  She was the last person anyone would expect would try out for the boys football team.

It was the very start to autumn, and football tryouts were in full swing, the smell of sweaty t-shirts and the sound of coaches yelling was unavoidable.  Nell showed up to the tryout in a big t-shirt, shorts, hairback in a ponytail, and ready to compete.  She saw some boys she knew who hi-fived her saying “Whoa, so cool you are trying out!”  “What’re you doing here?” she heard from across the field. “The cheerleading tryout are in the gym”.  It was the coach.  She said, “I’m here to try out for the team and I have every right to”.  With that, she grabbed a football and yelled to her friend Dan, “go long!”  The ball soared down the field and the coach looked stunned.  She was given the opportunity to try out for the team.

It is too often that women are discouraged from participating in sports or various other activities based on assumptions and stereotypes surrounding sex and gender.  Many younger generations of men are seeing the faults of hegemonic masculinity and have become allies to women in achieving equality.  Uniting people as humans with a goal of equity while understanding systematic discrimination against women and other marginalized peoples will help the common goal towards peace and understanding on a global level.