Another Title IX backlash ascends

With Donald Trump re-elected to the presidency, it’s a deja-vu historical moment in which another Title IX backlash ascends to the oval office. Trump says he wants to eliminate the Department of Education, which enforces Title IX. He also says he will nominate former Small Business Administration chief Linda McMahon to be his Secretary of Education. If her conservative politics match those of Trump’s previous Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, Title IX will be under assault in the coming years even if the Education Department survives. McMahon, the co-founder of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), comes with little experience in education and […]

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Korean edition of 37 Words in print!

There must be one heckuva strong feminist movement going on in Korea, because publishers there have printed a Korean edition of my book 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination. Mind you, this is a U.S.-centric story about the U.S. educational system and U.S. laws and regulations and social movements. I never expected it to appear in print in other countries. But of course feminism and the movement against sexual harassment and violence have been international movements, not just local ones, since forever. In Korea, Wisdom House (love that name) licensed my book and published what […]

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A Title IX godfather inspires “dadflies”

Herb Dempsey is a Title IX “godfather” who has inspired other gadfly fathers — dubbed “dadflies” by Sports Illustrated — to fight for equity in education for at least 30 years. In honor of Fathers Day this month and to celebrate the 52nd birthday of Title IX on June 23, I’ve put together a video of Dempsey talking about one of his favorite topics — fairness. It’s also my way of honoring the many thousands of citizen-volunteers who have organized and advocated for equity under Title IX through the decades. Why do I call Dempsey a godfather of Title IX? […]

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Title IX rules finalized and evolving

The U.S. Department of Education finalized new Title IX rules that illustrate the ever-evolving ways our society tries to battle sex discrimination in education. It’s fair to say that we’ve made great progress in the last 52 years since Congress passed Title IX, and that these efforts remain a work in progress. For highlights of the changes, see below. But first, a brief recap: Under former President Trump, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos changed the Title IX regulations for the first time in more than 40 years. Key changes made it harder for students to get help for sexual harassment and […]

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Proposed Title IX transgender rules delayed

The U.S. Department of Education will delay its proposed Title IX transgender rules until after the 2024 elections, news outlets report. The proposed regulations would prevent broad bans against transgender students participating in athletics, a practice being considered in dozens of states in recent years. The Biden Administration earlier had separated the proposed athletics rules for transgender student participation from other proposed revisions to the Title IX regulations designed to undo some of the changes made by former President Trump and his Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. The Trump changes especially related to how schools respond to sexual assaults and harassment. […]

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National Women’s History Museum spotlights Title IX

An excellent new online resource from the National Women’s History Museum spotlights the early years of Title IX and the ongoing battle against sex discrimination in education. I am delighted that museum researches used and cited my book 37 Words as one of the sources for the new exhibit, Educational Equality & Title IX: A History of Women’s Access to Higher Education in the United States. (The top photo in this blog post is a screen shot of the exhibit’s home page.) Different sections explore the beginnings of women’s colleges, the initial push for Title IX, twists and turns and […]

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Title IX history going and coming

This month, October 2023, marks two milestones in Title IX history — one of a Title IX foremother going to her rest and one marking 10 years of today’s youth coming into the next chapter of Title IX advocacy. Margot Polivy, a crucial player in Title IX’s early years, died at the age of 85 on October 7. Along with another Title IX foremother, Margaret Dunkle, Polivy did more that almost anyone else to ensure that Title IX would provide fairer treatment for girls and women in school sports. Above is an excerpt of my video interview with her in […]

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Moving beyond Title IX’s first 50 years

On June 23 we will be moving beyond Title IX’s first 50 years into the next half-century. There’s so much left to accomplish. Knowing the history of Title IX’s successes and not-yet-successes can guide us as we move forward and help us cope when society moves backward in dealing with sex discrimination. This week I had the opportunity to make a little video about that. It’s just a short promotional piece, but feel free to share with anyone who doesn’t yet understand Title IX history: The Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, whose major conference has the wonderful nickname “Big Berks,” […]

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Title IX discussion questions available

If your class or book group would like to talk about the ideas and stories raised in my book 37 Words, I’ve got some Title IX discussion questions for you! And if you’d like me to Zoom in on the discussion, that could be arranged. Reach me through my contact page. 37 Words – Suggested Discussion Questions Chapter 1: Strong — 1969 Chapter 2: Complaints — 1970 Chapter 3: Congress – 1970-1972 Chapter 4: Implementation – 1972-1977 Chapter 5: Sexual Harassment – 1977-1980 Chapter 6: Enforcement – 1975-1979 Chapter 7: Backlash – 1980-1990 Chapter 8: Christine, Jackie, Rebecca, Nicole, Alida, LaShonda […]

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Talking Title IX in Maine

Join me for three events this week in the Pine Tree State, where I’ll be talking about Title IX in Maine. The Portland Press Herald published a Commentary by me with a preview of some of what I’ll say. (And in case you missed it, here’s an earlier version published March 24 by the Concord Monitor.) The rights of transgender students to play school sports is one big topic, of course — see the latest news below under “Elsewhere.” It helps to have an understanding of Title IX history to talk about this issue intelligently and compassionately. And we’ll also […]

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Talking Title IX in Concord, N.H.

I’m headed for the New Hampshire state capital to speak at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord on Tuesday, March 21 at 6:30 p.m. Meet me at 45 South Main Street to discuss Title IX in the Granite State and my book  37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press). Spoiler: New Hampshire colleges and universities still don’t comply with Title IX. But you already guessed that. Meanwhile, some state legislators tried three times in the past three years to ban transgender students from athletics, but they haven’t succeeded. Yet. That would be another violation of Title IX. […]

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A year of blogging: Title IX’s 50th

Twelve months ago I said I’d recognize Title IX’s 50th anniversary with a year of weekly blog posts here on 37 Words. I’ve focused each post on a particular Title IX topic in the news that week or on an upcoming event for my book 37 Words: Title IX and 50 Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination. I also provided a weekly curated summary of Title IX news stories, with links. There are four months left until the 50th anniversary year ends on June 23, 2023. But my year-long project of weekly posts is complete. After today, I won’t be summarizing […]

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Talking about Title IX in Iowa

I’ll be talking about Title IX and the last half-century of fighting sex discrimination in education at Iowa State University on Tuesday, February 7. The event is free, and you’re invited! If you’re anywhere in the vicinity of Ames, Iowa, meet me in the Durham Great Hall of the Memorial Union at 7 p.m. Afterward, I’ll be signing books in the South Ballroom. The kind folks at Iowa State named me the 2023 Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics. I’m the 35th woman to receive this honor, named after the first woman to chair the Republican National Committee. […]

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New tool from End Rape on Campus

The non-profit activist organization End Rape on Campus just released a new Campus Accountability Map and Tool. It’s a pilot digital interactive map where users can get information about specific colleges and universities — crowd-sourced information like sexual assault statistics at that school in 2018-2020, and whether the school is under investigation for Title IX violations. It lists the school’s policies around sexual harassment and assault, including how it conducts its investigations, its prevention efforts, the kinds of support offered to assault survivors, and how these are accessible to students with disabilities. At its launch, the map includes 750 of […]

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Prison classrooms neglect women

Prison classrooms aim to help rehabilitate convicts, but it seems they’re mainly designed to help men, a new study out of Texas found. Women behind bars get fewer choices for classes and for degrees and face other educational obstacles. When you think of Title IX, do you picture K-12 schools or college and university campuses? It covers these and so much more, including vocational, career, and technical education, as I discussed in last week’s blog post. If there’s a classroom, and it is connected to federal funding, Title IX applies. Including prisons. How do prison education programs get away with […]

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Sex discrimination affects climate change

What does sex discrimination in education have to do with the fight against climate change? Lots. In this slow week for Title IX news while students are on winter break, I’ll mention just one. Think about it — we need armies of electricians to combat the climate crisis. Many more than we have right now. They need to be installing solar panels and windmills and heat pumps and electric convection stoves instead of gas- and oil-using products. Building electric vehicles. Designing more energy-efficient electronics. And all of that a.s.a.p. if we’re to have any hope of slowing climate change. But […]

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Education moving toward restorative justice

In a sign of hope for the new year, journalists report that schools and colleges are moving toward incorporating restorative justice programs to manage conflict and rule-breaking. Sometimes these programs are called restorative practices instead of restorative justice because the students involved are not part of the criminal justice system. In fact, restorative practices are meant to offer an alternative to using police on campus or relying solely on potentially slow, re-traumatizing civil complaint systems. And here’s more good news: restorative practices seem to work. Check out these two articles: Cal Matters reports that some California colleges offer voluntary restorative […]

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Fair Play for Women proposed

Three U.S. Congresswomen and a senator proposed the Fair Play for Women Act to address ongoing inequities in school athletics 50 years after Title IX outlawed such discrimination. The legislation would make a number of significant changes. In a nutshell: It gives the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights a new enforcement tool besides the “nuclear option” of withholding all federal funds from a school that’s violating Title IX — a punishment so severe it’s never been used. The Fair Play for Women Act would allow the government to fine schools who discriminate in athletics. Elementary and high schools […]

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Schools ignore Title IX with impunity

Many schools ignore Title IX with impunity, a stellar investigation by USA Today found. In the final installment of its 2022 series of investigations for Title IX’s 50th anniversary, USA Today reported on its year-long study of letters and agreements between the federal Office for Civil Rights and universities in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. (An aside: USA Today deserves a Pulitzer for this series, imho.) Schools that practice sex discrimination have little to fear from the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which is charged with enforcing Title IX and other civil rights laws. Too many universities brashly […]

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Bill could fix flaw imposed by Supreme Court on Title IX

A federal bill could repair a flaw imposed by the Supreme Court on Title IX more than 20 years ago that makes it harder to address sexual harassment in education than in employment. Senators Bob Casey (D-PA) and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) introduced the SAFER Act with multiple co-signers and support from the likes of the National Women’s Law Center, Know Your IX, and other women’s advocates. The Students’ Access to Freedom and Educational Rights (SAFER) Act would bring management of sexual harassment under Title IX closer to management under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which covers […]

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Last stop: Talking about Title IX in Ohio

To close out my month-long book tour I’ll be signing books and talking about Title IX at two bookstores in Ohio on Friday, November 18. First up: Come say hello and get your signed copy of 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination at 12:00 noon Eastern Time at Gathering Volumes bookstore in Perrysburg, near Toledo. That evening, I’ll be speaking at Walls of Books in Parma, near Cleveland, at 7:00 p.m. We’ll also be raffling off a copy of 37 Words to celebrate the end of my book tour! Join us at 7783 W. Ridgewood […]

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Talking about Title IX in Atlanta

Georgia Institute of Technology President Angel Cabrera Izquierdo and I will be talking about Title IX in Atlanta in one of his “Conversations with Cabrera” on Tuesday, November 15 at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time. The event is free and open to the public. Come join us at Price Gilbert Memorial Library’s Scholars Event Theater, room 1280, 704 Cherry Street Northwest, Atlanta. Seating is limited, so register here. The event also will be webcast via Zoom. Register to receive the link. Elsewhere Brown University agreed to pay $1,135,000 for the legal fees of plaintiffs in a 2020 lawsuit claiming that the […]

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Talking about Title IX in Minneapolis-St. Paul

I’m on my way to the Twin Cities, where I’ll be talking about 37 Words and Title IX in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Join me for a free event open to all at SubText Books in St. Paul on Friday, November 11 at 7 p.m. I’m especially pleased that I’ll be in conversation with Title IX expert Mary Jo Kane, professor emerita in sport sociology and former director of the Tucker Center at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. It’s sure to be a fascinating hour! If you’re planning to attend the National Women’s Studies Association meeting in Minneapolis this weekend, […]

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Talking about Title IX in Missouri

This Thursday and Friday I’ll be talking about Title IX in Missouri, hosted by two wonderful book stores in St. Louis and Columbia, home of the University of Missouri main campus. One of the events will be live-streamed, so you can join us even if you’re not in the Show-Me State! First up on Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 p.m. is the fabulous Left Bank Books, located in one of the most happening neighborhoods in St. Louis, the Central West End. Register here and pre-order your copy of 37 Words to make sure it’s there for me to sign. If […]

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Talking about Title IX in Syracuse

I’ll be talking about Title IX in Syracuse on Monday, October 24 at 5 p.m. Eastern Time in Grewen Auditorium of Le Moyne College. The event is free and open to the public. Also that day, look for me on Bridge Street TV in an interview with 9WSYR. If you’re near Erie, Penn. come chat with me during a book signing at Werner Books the next day, Tuesday, October 25 at 12 noon Eastern. And on Friday, October 28 we’ll kick off a two-day conference on Title IX hosted by Northwestern University with our 9 a.m. (Central Time) panel on […]

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Y’all are welcome in Texas (virtually)

Y’all are welcome at the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Women in Law for an online conversation with me on Wednesday, October 19 at 1 p.m. Central Time as part of their “Ex Libris” authors series. It’s free, but you’ll need to register here. If you’re a lawyer, you can earn 1 hour of Continuing Legal Education credit if you join us online as we talk about Title IX and my book 37 Words. But everyone is welcome. So listen in, and bring your questions! And I’m about to hit the non-virtual, asphalt-and-concrete road on a book tour that will take […]

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Title IX showdown on abortion

A recent Supreme Court ruling clashed with existing laws, producing a Title IX showdown on abortion of sorts in schools, colleges, and universities. The U.S. Department of Education reminded educational institutions that Title IX protects students, faculty, and staff against discrimination based on pregnancy and related conditions, including the termination of pregnancy. Officials released the three-page fact sheet 100 days after the Supreme Court canceled the constitutional right to an abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in a ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Title IX has protected abortion as an integral part […]

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Video: athletes see the differences in treatment

Rather than read the case files of recent Title IX lawsuits, you can easily get the picture through this short video of athletes describing how they see differences in their schools’ treatment of girls’ and boys’ sports. In this case, it’s royal treatment for baseball and shabbier treatment for softball. It’s an age-old story, unfortunately. A half-century after Title IX outlawed this kind of discrimination, it’s all too common. Girls (and their parents) still have to sue to get school officials to fix it. And girls everywhere almost always win those suits. (Top photo: A screen shot of an athlete […]

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Book censorship attempts on the rise

Requests for book censorship are a bigger problem than ever before, the American Library Association announced as part of Banned Books Week, September 18-24, 2022. In 2021, 729 requests tried to ban 1,597 books. So far in 2022, 681 attempts tried to ban 1,651 books, on a pace to break the record for book censorship activity in the 20+ years that the American Library Association has been tracking it. This blog focuses on Title IX and its prohibition of sex discrimination in education. Attempts to ban books don’t fit neatly into that niche. But consider this: People and organizations that […]

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Comments on Title IX regulations hit record

People and organizations submitted a record number of comments on Title IX regulations proposed by the Biden Administration. The Department of Education will review 240,085 comments received by the September 12 deadline before taking its next steps to revise Title IX’s regulations. The surge in interest continues a trend in Title IX history. Before the Department of Education proposed the first Title IX regulations in 1974 to combat sex discrimination in education, notices of proposed regulations to implement laws might draw 10 comments, or maybe 400 for more controversial proposals. The draft Title IX regulations generated nearly 10,000 comments, an […]

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Time for Congress to enforce Title IX in sports?

Fifty years of failure to stop sex discrimination in school athletics means that it’s time for Congress to help enforce Title IX in sports, an influential think tank proposed. If schools with athletics programs want federal funding (which nearly all schools and colleges currently receive), they should be compelled to meet a new requirement, the Drake Group suggested. Their sports programs should be governed by an athletic conference or similar organization that mandates compliance with Title IX by its member schools before they can compete for post-season championships, says Andrew Zimbalist, president of the group’s board of directors. Only then […]

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Women’s Equality Day includes education

Women’s Equality Day on August 26 includes the struggle for equity in education, which handily illustrates how movements for various aspects of women’s rights are never really separate from each other. On that date in 1920, U.S. women won the right to vote, though racism limited access to voting mainly to white women for the following 44 years until Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Author and activist Betty Friedan surprised her feminist allies in 1970 by calling for a Women’s Strike for Equality, urging women to pour into the streets on August 26. And they did all […]

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Title IX policies aren’t understandable to students

Students lack familiarity with Title IX not just because they aren’t taught about it but because schools’ written Title IX policies aren’t understandable, a new study suggests. The bureaucratic, technical wording in those policies wasn’t written for them. Researchers asked 200 undergraduates to analyze one of five typical Title IX policies, the kind that a college might post on its website. The students found critical terms and concepts incomprehensible. So a student who had been sexually assaulted wouldn’t get an understandable definition of sexual assault or what their school considers proof of sexual assault for Title IX hearings, Laura Beth […]

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Title IX matters in “flyover states”

Title IX controversies historically draw the most attention if they come from elite coastal universities or Washington, D.C.’s halls of power, but sex discrimination matters just as much to schools in the so-called “flyover states.” In the 1970s women faculty and students in Kansas staged a sit-in demanding fairer policies for women in education. The movement against sexual violence activated students from the 1980s in Minnesota and Missouri to the 2010s in Ohio and Michigan and in every decade and state in between. The University of Nebraska recently launched an internal investigation of its compliance with Title IX after data […]

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Exceptional Title IX history happening right now

It’s summer and Title IX news is slower, yet one of the most important events in Title IX history is happening right now. And you can play a part. For only the second time, the federal government is going through the extensive process to change the regulations that govern how Title IX gets implemented — in other words, the legal rules for how schools prevent or manage sex discrimination in education. The first time this changed was under President Donald Trump, more than 40 years after President Gerald Ford’s administration adopted the original Title IX regulations. Many people see the […]

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37 Words coming to Korea

Good news — The publisher Wisdom House has licensed the rights to publish a translation of 37 Words in Korea! I’m surprised, I’ll admit. I figured that my history of Title IX and the struggle against sex discrimination in U.S. schools would be of interest only in the United States. I was wrong. Korea has a vibrant feminist movement. Not only will the book be coming to Korea, but this week Tel Aviv University in Israel held a conference on women in sports featuring a Zoom panel with me and others discussing Title IX. Apparently, some people in Israel feel […]

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The sounds of change on Title IX playlist

I asked the people who appear in my book 37 Words to share some of the songs they listened to during their struggles against sex discrimination in education, and put them in a Title IX playlist. These are some of the sounds of change during Title IX’s first fifty years. You’ll find the 37 Words playlist on Apple Music. If you’ve been a Title IX activist, post a comment telling us some of the background music during your part of history, and maybe we’ll make another playlist! From a U.S. Senate staffer who worked with Sen. Birch Bayh, the father […]

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Progress and setbacks during Pride month

What a wild 50th birthday week Title IX had, with progress and setbacks during Pride month. First, the progress: The U.S. Department of Education released proposed changes to Title IX regulations that would fix some of the damaging alterations imposed under the Trump administration. For the first time, the regulations also would clarify that Title IX protects against discrimination or retaliation based on sexual orientation and gender identity, including “sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, [and] pregnancy or related conditions.” As regulations instead of advisories from the Office for Civil Rights, these protections would have the force of law. The Department sidestepped […]

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National Women’s Law Center and Title IX

Two powerhouses for women’s rights celebrate their golden anniversaries in 2022: The National Women’s Law Center and Title IX share a birthday year! You know I love history, but their influence today, in the here and now, gives me hope for the future. The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) is one of 35 organizations in the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education and took an active role in publishing this month’s 58-page report on Title IX at 50. It covers progress and setbacks in nine areas of potential discrimination in education: sexual harassment; discipline based on sex and […]

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Celebrating activists from Title IX history

In honor of Title IX’s 50th anniversary on June 23, my blog posts this month will feature the voices of activists from Title IX history who I had the pleasure of interviewing for my book 37 Words. First up: the “godparents” of Title IX, Bernice Resnick Sandler and Vincent Macaluso. You can read my previous posts about them at links I’ll post below the videos. Listen to them talk about the origins of events that led to Title IX in the following video snippets from 2014 and 2015. Read more on my blog about Sandler here and here and, of […]

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Where are “protectors” of women’s sports now?

The self-designated “protectors” of women’s sports who loudly oppose allowing a few transgender girls and women to compete remain oddly silent about practices that unfairly give hundreds of women’s playing slots to cisgender men year after year after year. An excellent USA Today article this week exposed some of the ways that college athletics programs routinely shortchange women’s teams. Three big ones: counting men who practice with women’s teams as women, double-counting women athletes, and packing so many women onto a team that most never get a chance to play, instead of creating more teams for women. For example, I […]

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Potential big deal for Title IX lawsuits

A little-noticed legal ruling this week could be a big deal for Title IX lawsuits going forward. If I’m reading this right, colleges and universities could be held accountable not only for cases in which they were deliberately indifferent to reports of sexual harassment and assault after they happened. They could also be held accountable for inadequate management of campus sexual violence before the next attacks occur because their actions (or lack of them) increased the risk for more victims, violating Title IX. What does that look like in real life? The ruling from a three-judge Appeals Court panel gave […]

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Exhibit displays history of Title IX activism

Readers of my book 37 Words know that its story arcs follow the history of Title IX activism. If you’re anywhere near New York City between now and September 4, you can see a more visual representation of this in a new exhibit by the New York Historical Society, “Title IX: Activism On and Off the Field.” At a preview reception this week, I had the pleasure of meeting Title IX activists of all ages. Some I knew and had interviewed but never met, such as Rollin Haffer. She instigated the first Title IX lawsuit claiming sex discrimination in an […]

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Abortion controversy altered Title IX history

The leaked draft Supreme Court decision that could cancel abortion rights dominated headlines this week, but earlier abortion controversy altered Title IX history in ways that are worth remembering. Read more about this in my article in The Washington Post Made by History section today. Here’s a bit more detail to that story: When a 1984 Supreme Court decision in Grove City College v Bell narrowed the application of Title IX and other civil rights laws in education, enforcement stalled. Several colleges cut women’s sports teams because they no longer had to provide equal chances to play. The Office for Civil Rights dropped some investigations […]

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Confronting child sex trafficking on campus

Child sex trafficking isn’t the first thing most people think of when they consider sexual harassment and assault in higher education. But it’s more common than you may think. And perpetrators are almost all white, male academics, according to a study by Lori Handrahan, Ph.D. More than half held leadership positions on campus. It’s perhaps significant that the findings come from an independent scholar, meaning she currently holds no faculty position. Here’s her report in the Journal of Human Trafficking with more. You can see a concise summary of her findings that she posted on Medium. And here’s the awesome […]

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Title IX still a mystery to most

You don’t need to be Agatha Christie to wonder why Title IX is a mystery to most people. Congress passed this civil rights law a half-century ago. Activists demanding an education free of sex discrimination have generated headlines for 50 years. So why are people still clueless? A new poll found that 71% of children and 58% of parents know nothing about Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in education. You can’t access a right that you don’t know you have. If educational institutions and the government wanted people to know about it, they […]

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37 Words published, in top 100 lists

The New Press published 37 Words this week, and early copies have been arriving for the past week to those who pre-ordered the book. It’s in the top 100 books by sales in three categories on Amazon: federal education legislation; gender and the law, and educational law and legislation law. You can watch and hear me describe the book, and the people and movements that it contains, in a virtual discussion this week with Kenyora Parham, executive director of End Rape on Campus. I also had a stimulating public conversation at the Norwich Bookstore on my publication day with Kate […]

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It’s finally here — 37 Words the book

Seven years ago I decided to write a book about something that inspires me, which became 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination. At the time, I wasn’t sure how to do it, or even if I could do it. So the first thing I did was to start telling everyone that I was doing it. I psyched myself into believing in the project and publicly committed to it in order to make it harder to back out. It worked! The New Press formally releases 37 Words on Tuesday, April 12. Friends who have pre-ordered copies […]

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Title IX to cover queer, transgender people

Revisions to Title IX’s regulations that are expected to be proposed by the White House in April will affirm explicitly for the first time that Title IX’s protections cover queer and transgender people. The regulations’ prohibition of sex discrimination in education will include discrimination based on “sex stereotypes, sex-related characteristics (including intersex traits), pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identify,” the Washington Post reported. Backing up the supportive stance of the Biden Administration, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona posted a 2021 video conversation with his cousin Alex Cardona, a young transgender man, in which the Secretary says, “I […]

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Sending 37 Words to Congress

Readers are sending 37 Words to: Congress — House of Representatives: California: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Jackie Speier District of Columbia: Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton Minnesota: Rep. Ilhan Omar New York: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Rhode Island: Rep. David Cicilline Washington: Rep. Pramila Jayapal Congress — Senate: Massachusetts: Sen. Elizabeth Warren New Hampshire: Sen. Maggie Hassan New York: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand Washington: Sen. Patty Murray White House: Dr. Jill Biden You can too! After you order the book for yourself, send another copy of 37 Words to your elected representative (or someone else’s!). Then email me through my Contact page to […]

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Revisiting AIAW during March Madness

With the March Madness basketball tournaments in full swing, I can’t resist revisiting a fine article in the Washington Post about the NCAA’s dead sibling, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). This “Made by History” article is full of important women’s history. The NCAA used to manage men’s intercollegiate sports and the AIAW oversaw women’s sports. I often wonder what athletics would look like today if the NCAA hadn’t muscled the AIAW out of existence and took over its territory. While we’re at it, here’s an excerpt of my video interview with Margot Polivy, who was the legal […]

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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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