Congress mandates surveys on sexual violence

Once again the federal Education Department is stepping in to do something that all colleges should have done but many haven’t — surveys about sexual violence on campus. Hooray for the feds. Under a provision tucked into a 3,000-page Congressional bill to fund the federal government for six months, the Education Department will develop an online survey to measure students’ experiences with sexual harassment and assault, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported. Any college receiving federal funds will be required to conduct the campus-climate survey every two years, and the Education Department will publish aggregate results. The legislation also calls […]

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Burnout troubling Title IX coordinators

Regulations imposed by former President Donald Trump and his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos worsened an already high level of burnout among Title IX coordinators in schools, districts, and higher education. One of the 2020 rules from DeVos required live hearings, which made the investigation and resolution of sex discrimination complaints more like courtrooms than civil proceedings. That increased the workload and slowed the whole process down. TNG, a consulting company, expected this might slow down a Title IX case by two to four weeks but they’re seeing delays of two or more months, a recent report noted. In some schools, […]

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Men get rehired, women get rejected

There’s a double standard in college sports that treats coaches differently depending on whether they discriminated under Title IX or were the ones discriminated against — men get rehired, and women get rejected for other top coaching jobs. But the latest example of that suggests that there may be a crack or even a tectonic shift in that double standard, perhaps due to Title IX activism of the past decade that fed into the #metoo movement. In the past week, Grambling (La.) State University hired Art Briles, the disgraced former football coach for Baylor University, to be offensive coordinator. Baylor […]

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Castro crossed Fresno’s Title IX champion

Years before California State Universities Chancellor Joseph I. Castro resigned following allegations of mishandling sexual misconduct complaints while president of Fresno State, there was another Title IX situation in which he seemingly chose to protect the institution without considering the complainant. Diane Milutinovich, who is the longest, strongest champion of Title IX at Fresno State and a major character in my book 37 Words, had filed several Title IX complaints against the school over the years. The federal Office for Civil Rights (OCR) was monitoring Fresno State to make sure it finished the steps it promised to stop discriminating against […]

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Title IX cases highlight institutional betrayal

Big names in academia gave shameful public lessons recently on what institutional betrayal looks like. At Harvard University, 38 faculty members signed an open letter challenging the university’s decision to bar anthropologist John Comaroff from teaching or taking on new advisees after two investigations supported reports of his sexual and professional misconduct. The signers included famous academics and public figures. But then 73 Harvard faculty released a letter blasting their colleagues for rushing to defend the alleged abuser without knowing all the facts, thus publicly betraying student victims in a way that could pressure other victims not to report misconduct. After […]

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Transgender athletes caught between inclusion and competition

Today’s debates about transgender athletes competing in elite sports remind me of the early days of Title IX when feminists and everyone else in society were trying to figure out how to include women of any kind in school sports. What’s the fairest way? Some argued for not following “the male model” of athletics, with its long reputation for cheating, winning at all costs, and exploiting young athletes. Inclusion is more important than competition, they argued, favoring the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women’s slogan “every girl in a sport and a sport for every girl” so that all girls […]

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37 Words for 47 weeks

Tuesday, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, also was World Read Aloud Day and the second day of National Library Lovers Month. That’s a hodgepodge, I admit. But it’s perhaps a fitting way to introduce the first of a series of weekly blog posts honoring this 50th year of Title IX, the revolutionary law that prohibits sex discrimination in education and is the subject of my book 37 Words. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my blog “37 Words” and you’ll get a weekly note in your email inbox with a hodgepodge of my takes on a variety of […]

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Looks like a book, feels like a book

The uncorrected page proofs of 37 Words arrived, and for the first time it all looks like a book and feels like a book! Until now, it’s felt more like a brain dump from me to Word and then a bunch of people playing around with that. I know the trend these days moves authors to post on social media every little step in the process of releasing a book. The cover reveal. And the page proofs. And a grand opening of a box of the first copies when they arrive. I’ve tried to limit my book posts to the […]

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Now you can preorder 37 Words!

I’m thrilled to announce that now you can preorder 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press, 2022). Order now and you’ll be one of the first to receive the book when it ships on March 8, 2022. On the publisher’s site you’ll find several options for purchasing. I encourage you to support an independent bookstore by preordering through Bookshop.org. This book is my seven-year labor of love to give the full history of Title IX, published in time for the law’s 50th anniversary in June 2022. The federal legislation more formally known as […]

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New book explores Sexual Justice

Probably the most important book in 2021 related to Title IX looks at how we get to sexual justice both for survivors of sexual assault and for the people accused of assaulting them. This Tuesday, August 24, at 7:30 p.m. ET you can hear author Alexandra Brodsky at a virtual book launch discussing Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash. The New Yorker magazine published an adapted excerpt from the book: “Meeting ‘the other side’: Conversations with men accused of sexual assault.” Check it out. Brodsky co-founded the national student activist organization Know Your IX […]

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In search of institutional courage

Jennifer Freyd has done more than just about anyone else to inspire institutional courage instead of institutional betrayal, especially in regard to the handling of sexual violence complaints on college campuses. This week her former institution, the University of Oregon, ended its cowardly defense of sexist pay practices by agreeing to a settlement in her 2017 lawsuit over pay disparities. A professor emerit of psychology at the university, Freyd (pronounced “fried”) found that she was underpaid because the university rewarded behavior more common in men on the faculty. Namely, men were more likely than women to seek offers of employment […]

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Nearing 50th anniversary of Title IX, struggles persist

Conflicts around sex discrimination in education remain prominent in a big year ahead approaching the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Congress passed the law known as Title IX on June 23, 1972. If you’re wondering why society still is arguing over discrimination in education based on sex, you’re not alone. Half a century should be enough to learn how to treat people fairly. But pervasive prejudices and discrimination embedded in our systems resist change. And they’re so common they may seem “normal.” Can you say, institutionalized sexism? How else to explain the immense gaps that persist? In college athletics alone, […]

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What’s not being said matters for transgender athletes

Listen to what’s not being said in debates about transgender student athletes. It matters. Legislation in at least 25 states introduced by conservatives so far have banned transgender athletes from competition in eight states. This month, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona suggested he’d move to counter the state bills because transgender girls have a “right to compete” under Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education. This week, his Office for Civil Rights released guidance saying Title IX prohibits discrimination against transgender students. Conservatives, for their part, argue that they’re defending “fairness and equality for women” in athletics. Multiple other times in Title […]

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And the winner is…

My book has a name. I’m grateful to everyone who made suggestions. The publisher’s team and I settled on a title that will be somewhat familiar to readers of this blog. The new title is 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination. A lot has happened in the three months since I invited you to help me name the book. Big changes. The book now is in production. And I moved from San Francisco to New Hampshire, where I’m already enjoying the summer weather and swimming in ponds and lakes whenever I can. All of that […]

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Name this book

I’m in the final edits of my manuscript that tells the story of 50 years of Title IX, the law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education. I’m searching for a new title; what should I name this book? As a place-holder, I’ve been calling it Uppity Women: Title IX and the Ongoing Fight for a Fair Education. The book follows three main people over decades to tell Title IX’s broader story — Bernice Sandler, Pamela Price, and Diane Milutinovich — as well as some of the Title IX activists who emerged in the past 10 years to push […]

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Title IX history coming out

Title IX turns 48 years old today. Part of its history is still in the closet. People who face intersectional discrimination make up the bulk of movements against discrimination — in the grass roots, the grass tips, the leadership, you name it. I don’t know if there are statistics on that, but think about it. Women are more than half of people of color, of people with disabilities, of immigrants, etc. Some of the most visible leaders of the transgender rights movement have been trans women of color. Lesbians always played an outsized role not only in struggles against sex […]

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A champion among Title IX books

One of the first things I did when I started researching the history of Title IX for my book was to read any Title IX books that came before. I believe I’ve read them all. The best written and most accurate one surprised me. It’s not the one I would have predicted that I’d like the best because it wasn’t written for adults. Karen Blumenthal’s Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the law that changed the future of girls in America (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2005) is 152 pages full of great photos, anecdotes, data, context, and […]

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A blogging holiday begins

I’m blogging less and less as I focus more on writing the manuscript for Uppity Women: Title IX and the Ongoing Fight for a Fair Education. I’ve already declared digital holidays from Instagram and Facebook. So, let’s make it official: I’m taking a blogging holiday at least until I finish a first draft of the book manuscript. I just returned from a two-week writing residency at the gorgeous Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes Station, Calif. Lucky me, I shared the Refuge with two fantastic people and writers, Jesus Mena and Davia Nelson. Jesus is writing a historical novel about the […]

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How to write history as a non-historian

Writing a non-fiction book isn’t a specific skill that we’re taught. It’s not an innate talent. How does one learn to write a book? In my case, by doing. I spent most of my career as a journalist, and those skills gave me a strong foundation to begin. But there are pitfalls to beware of when tackling something new that may require different skills. Uppity Women, my second non-fiction book, is something new to me – narrative history, not just journalism. Professional historians get specialized training that I don’t have. How, then, do I make sure that I get it right? A […]

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Intersectional identities influence Title IX

Title IX has helped millions of people — especially girls and women — deal with sex discrimination in education. You know who it hasn’t helped as much? Girls and women of color or who are ethnic minorities, disabled, immigrants, old, queer, transgender, poor, or have other intersecting identities that increase the likelihood they will be discriminated against. In this recent video interview with Andrea L. Pino-Silva, co-founder of End Rape on Campus, we talked about some of the ways that intersectionality manifests in education, in Title IX activism, and in our lives: Since Prof. Kimberle Crenshaw championed the concept of […]

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It’s not okay, but we’re getting there

He ran from behind me and body slammed the woman in front of me. The boy looked to be about eight or nine years old, white, with the restless energy of a bored kid. Seemingly trying to amuse himself as his family strolled onto the campus of Yale University, he wanted something to do, and he wanted attention. The woman said nothing. Ahead, the father saw none of this, more intent on the camera and a paper map in his hand. The boy ran back, 10 paces behind me, and launched himself again. He zoomed by within inches to my […]

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It’s a deal! The New Press signs for Uppity Women

Uppity Women has found a home. The New Press will publish my forthcoming book on the history of Title IX and today’s movement against sex discrimination in education. I’m honored to be in the company of authors like Tressie McMillan Cottom, Arlie Russell Hochschild, Martin Duberman, Studs Terkel, and Howard Zinn at The New Press. I’m delighted that Uppity Women will be in the same catalogue as Strangers in Their Own Land, What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape, and “People’s History” books on numerous topics (like poverty, LGBT history, the American revolution, art history, and so many […]

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Djerassi residency, LitCamp ahead

It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of writing my book-in-progress, tentatively titled Uppity Women and the Ongoing Fight for a Fair Education. I’m still doing some interviews to fill in gaps in the amazing story of Title IX from its inception to today. But I’ll be taking more time to focus on writing, seeking reader feedback, and rewriting. Starting Wednesday, March 27, 2019 I’ll be spending a month at the Djerassi Resident Artists Program in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Calif. I’m so excited to be invited to join other writers and artists there for four weeks of […]

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Bayh fathered Title IX, inspired by Marvella

Former Senator Birch Bayh, the father of Title IX, died on March 14, 2019, marking the end of an era. His life shows us how people can break free from prejudices of their generation yet simultaneously remain trapped by them. It’s a humbling truth we all share, like it or not. Bayh is the last of the major players in Title IX’s creation to leave this earth. Rep. Edith Green, the mother and primary author of Title IX, died in 1987 without even a mention of Title IX in her obituary (though, to be fair, Title IX was decimated at […]

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Exploring intersectional activism under Title IX

I’ll be on the East Coast this summer, kicking off with a presentation on “Intersectional Activism Under Title IX” at the annual meeting of the National Coalition of Independent Scholars June 21-23 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. From its inception to today, activists pushing to realize Title IX’s potential included women of color, LGBTQ people, financially vulnerable women, and people with disabilities, all of whom faced multiple barriers to equity in education. Much of the published history, though, centers on affluent white cisgender women. Using theories of intersectionality to examine Title IX history unearths buried stories highlighting the importance […]

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Title IX’s godmother is gone. We are her legacy.

Bernice Sandler didn’t know what to say when Rosa Parks sat down next to her. It was one of the few times in her life when Sandler found herself tongue-tied. She was near the back of a crowded audience at a panel discussion in the late 1980s. Every seat was full when the elderly Parks entered. The woman next to Sandler called out, “Mrs. Parks! Mrs. Parks! Take my seat, please.” Sandler couldn’t even begin to tell Parks how much her brave and dedicated work in the civil rights movement and the anti-sexual violence movement had meant to Sandler and […]

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Speak your mind on DeVos and Title IX

We’re at a pivotal moment in Title IX history. Not since 1975 has the Department of Education changed the regulations governing Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. The Trump Administration now is going all-out to see that its definition of sex discrimination becomes the law of the land and to limit how schools are allowed to respond to it. Women’s advocates are fighting back, but Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave the public only until Jan. 29, 2019 to submit comments for or against her new Title IX rules. Groups like Know Your IX, End Rape on […]

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Weaponizing Title IX serves politics

What happens on campus with Title IX spills over into broader society and vice versa. It’s always been thus in a general way but lately we’ve seen different groups weaponizing Title IX to fight off-campus battles. Social change movements always have influenced Title IX’s use on campus. The civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the LGBT rights movement, and the movement against sexual violence contributed to Title IX’s creation and helped give women and men the self-agency to use Title IX as a tool for progress. Title IX’s application then changed not only campus life but society outside of academia. […]

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Fresno’s robust Title IX history documented

I want to understand Title IX‘s history not only at elite East Coast universities and in the Washington, D.C. halls of power (where much of its story gets told) but in other settings too. When you think of Title IX’s 46-year-history, Fresno, Calif. may not be the first place to come to mind, yet its extensive and robust Title IX history illustrates the evolution of the law’s application and feminism in the U.S. heartland. Feminism shapes Title IX (and vice versa) in all corners of the United States, in all income brackets, and in diverse populations. I could have picked […]

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Nameless sisterhood surrounds Title IX

If you’ve ever felt that you’re part of a nameless sisterhood, take a moment to appreciate Arvonne Fraser. As smart as they come, energetic, socially astute and politically savvy, Fraser was a doer and an organizer. She got things done. But she came out of a much more sexist era than today. Fraser blossomed in the feminist resurgence of the 1970s to become a strong organizer for women’s causes, including Title IX. Had she been born closer to today, Fraser likely would have been a Congresswoman or governor instead of the de facto campaign manager for her politician husband. Arvonne Fraser […]

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Title IX advocates sue federal government

It looks like a coalition of advocates for Title IX may get to take the Trump Administration to court. (Video: Lawyers and a student survivor of sexual assault explain their case at a press conference.) A federal magistrate judge at a hearing in San Francisco seemed inclined to let a lawsuit proceed against the U.S. Department of Education’s Title IX policy but she asked lawyers for both sides to submit more arguments before she decides. The government had moved to dismiss the suit and plaintiffs opposed that motion, which the judge will decide. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley vigorously questioned attorneys […]

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Feds dismissing civil rights complaints

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) says it gets too many complaints about discrimination, creating an “unreasonable burden” on the Office. It recently changed procedures to make it harder for people to file complaints and is now disregarding hundreds already received. It also scrapped the option to appeal decisions made by OCR in cases that it does take on. Civil rights advocates are not happy, to say the least. As the late, great Yogi Berra might say, it’s like déjà vu all over again. This isn’t the first time that OCR has tried systematically ignoring many of […]

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A closer look at Title IX in Fresno

I’m jazzed to announce that I’ll be speaking about Title IX history particularly in the context of Fresno, Calif. at the annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association on Saturday, August 4, at Santa Clara (Calif.) University. I’ll be part of a session entitled “Memories of Political and Cultural Protest” with two other speakers who will focus on campus protests in Paris in 1968 and campus anti-war activism in California’s Silicon Valley from 1965 to 1980. My talk ties the past to the present with the title, “Uppity Women, Nasty Women: From Title IX to […]

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So long, Shakespeare; adios, Aziz Ansari

One of the byproducts of immersing myself into researching Title IX is an altered personal tolerance for sex discrimination. More and more, I don’t. Tolerate it, that is. And that means letting go of some formerly cherished cultural reference points and practices. In this time of upheaval between the sexes, a lot of people may be experiencing something similar. This isn’t a new phenomenon. People — and our society — change as we not only get our eyes opened to injustices but begin to empathize with those who suffer under them. The latter is more “woke” than the former. This […]

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Get ready for more Title IX fireworks

Happy 2018! In the new year, the backlash against Title IX will make more headlines as the Trump Administration continues to change regulations dealing with sex discrimination in education. Advocates for girls and women will push back and eventually move society two steps forward for every step back. We’ve seen this before, many times. Let’s take a look at the challenges that Title IX faced and overcame at this point in previous decades. It’s been a wild ride toward equity in education. The fun isn’t done. This timeline leaves out a lot, yet you can see patterns and progress: 1968 […]

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Most Basic Title IX Step Skipped

Schools, colleges, universities, and other educational institutions or programs have had 42 years to designate a Title IX coordinator at each of their institutions, as required by law. How can it be that some still don’t take this most basic step to comply with Title IX — even in the home district of Title IX’s author, the late Rep. Edith Green of Portland, Ore.? It’s been nearly a year since the board of Portland Public Schools ordered employees to figure out why the district allegedly let a male employee get away with years of sexual misconduct and assault, and fix […]

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New Knot in Civil Rights Tug-of-War

The U.S. Department of Education recently inverted a strategy it tried in 1975 to cut back on its work enforcing civil rights laws, including Title IX. Public outcry from  organizations for minorities, women, and the disabled — plus a supportive court ruling — forced federal officials to back off in 1975. Will it today? Historically, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has used two approaches to enforce civil rights — investigating individual complaints of discrimination, and broader “compliance reviews” of an educational institution as a whole. Compliance reviews may be scheduled any time, or can arise from complaints. In […]

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Title IX critics huddle up for special treatment

When I read complaints that Title IX enforcement goes too far in dealing with sexual assault on campus, I think of football. Not because this topic is a political football being tossed around in the court of public opinion, though there’s that. In the history of Title IX, today’s complainers of government “overreach” in dealing with sexual assaults have a lot in common with college football teams and other men’s sports, but especially football. What they want, it seems, is for people to realize that they’re special, and that they deserve special rules. The government more than once has bent over backwards […]

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Happy birthday, Title IX! (from some of us)

Title IX is 45 years old this month! Imagine having your logic, your morality, and even your right to exist constantly being questioned for 45 years — essentially, what most women encounter in overt or subtle ways in our sexist society. You’d be tired of this nonsense by now, right? That’s what Title IX has faced since Congress passed it and President Nixon signed it on June 23, 1972. Fortunately, enough people understand the need to prohibit sex discrimination in education and have benefited from Title IX, giving this law the strength to persist. Compare the muscles and skills of today’s female […]

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Framing Title IX controversies: New or old?

The media and anti-Title IX pundits are fond of framing controversies around campus sexual assaults as a relatively “new” phenomenon that started in 2011. Too often that leaves out the 45-year history of schools and colleges unfairly ignoring, obstinately defying, and only reluctantly complying with Title IX’s mandate to fight sex discrimination in education. A case in point: The Chronicle of Higher Education, which probably has the best and most extensive Title IX coverage of any media outlet over the years, published a lengthy and very interesting article (available to subscribers), “One Letter Changed Colleges’ Response to Rape Cases.” The article described events since the Office for Civil […]

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Office for Civil Rights helped, hindered Title IX

Republican and Democratic Administrations have different track records for Office of Civil Rights enforcement of Title IX. (The OCR is part of the Executive Branch.) Three videos in this blog — with former OCR officials Martin Gerry, Cindy Brown, and Deborah Ashford — give a taste of that divide from the 1970s under the Nixon, Ford, and Carter Administrations. After Title IX became law in 1972, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) had to write regulations to implement the law. That’s standard procedure, usually accomplished in a matter of months for many laws, but the Nixon and Ford […]

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