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| GENDER PARITY IN SPORTS The pros and cons of Title IX May 19, 1997 |
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Is there a way to create opportunities for women without taking them away from men? How can a grandfather support girls' sports? Have any colleges or universities ever been denied federal funding because of Title IX? What impact does the ruling have on high school sports? Aren't men just more interested in sports than women? VIEWER COMMENTS
NewsHour Backgrounders
March 28, 1997:
A debate about March Madness-- the National Collegiate Athletic Association's championships tournaments for men and women.
February 7, 1997:
Women's professional basketball is starting to bring in the money and the fans.
July 30, 1996:
Athletes of both sexes train for the Olympics.
Browse the NewsHour's index of Sports stories.
Outside Links
The Women's Sports Foundation's stand on Title IX.
Brown University
Jean Rooney of Quincy, MO, asks: What impact does the ruling have on high school sports? Does it require parity on this level also? For instance does the public school system have to spend the same amount on its girl's swim team as it would for a boy's swim team?
Mark Nickel of Brown University responds:
Federal guidelines do not make distinctions between high schools and colleges, although nearly all of the attention has been on collegiate-level sports. Title IX prohibits gender-based discrimination at any educational institution that receives any kind of federal funding.
Generally speaking, Title IX is not about equal funding but about equal access. It does not require funding to be equal dollar-for-dollar; rather, it allows resources to be allocated based on the requirements of teams, within reason. Suppose your boys' and girls' swimming teams have equal access to coaching, equal pool time and so forth and suppose they are required to compete in 10 meets. If the girls' league requires teams to travel greater distances to find suitable competition, their team would require a larger budget for travel, perhaps for meals. Title IX would have no problem if the school system spent more money on the girls' team for that reason.
Donna de Verona of ABC Sports resonds:
The law mandates that there can't be discrimination, and the high schools have been as slow to respond to Title IX as colleges. The law requires that the schools offer, if they have a boys team, either a girls team or combined team.
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