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 with athletics programs would have to report data publicly, as higher education institutions have done since passage of the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act in the mid-1990s. This will give students and parents the numbers they need to fight discrimination against girls’ sports.
• The bill creates a private right of action for a school or student to sue an athletics department in state or federal court.
• Every year, educational institutions would have to train school and athletics department staff, Title IX officers, and athletes on their rights under Title IX.
• It would require that plans to remedy Title IX violations be made public, increasing transparency.
• And for the first time it would prohibit sex discrimination by intercollegiate athletic associations like the NCAA.

The proposed legislation follows quickly on the heels of two other Congressional proposals to strengthen Title IX: the Students’ Access to Freedom and Educational Rights (SAFER) Act and the Clarifying Civil Rights Remedies Act of 2022, which I described in this blog post. All three of these bills are necessary for Title IX to be fully a success.

With a new Congress convening on January 3, all of these bills will need to be re-introduced in order to be considered. But it’s encouraging to see all this recent attention to fixing Title IX’s failures. And taken together, they provide a pretty good summary of some important obstacles to ending sex discrimination in education.

Elsewhere

The Office for Civil Rights is investigating the Grandbury, Texas School District allegedly for removing LGBTQ-related books, following a complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Norfolk (Va.) State University settled lawsuits by two football players who said they were hazed and sexually assaulted by other team members. Ohio State University, which already has paid more than $60 million to settle lawsuits by hundreds of men who say they were sexually abused as students by a university doctor, now is asking the Supreme Court to block more lawsuits by other survivors. A Washington State University police officer allegedly had sex with students and harassed staff while on duty, and administrators mishandled complaints.

On the up side

Here’s a feel-good story about the broader impact of a student’s fight against dress codes for female athletes at Albany (N.Y.) High School. Tangential to athletics in education, Congress passed a bill headed for President Biden’s signature that will require equal pay and benefits regardless of gender for athletes representing the United States in international competitions. Also tangential to education: The funding package recently approved by Congress includes $10 million for Violence Against Women Act state partnerships and $52 million to expand safe housing options for sexual and domestic violence survivors, according to Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH).

Where you’ll find me

Tuesday, February 7, 2023, 7:00 p.m. CT — I’m honored to be speaking at Iowa State University, giving the 35th Mary Louise Smith Chair Lecture hosted by the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics. I’ll meet with students in the late afternoon and speak at 7:00 p.m. in the Durham Great Hall of the Memorial Union. 

Tuesday, March 21, 6:30 p.m. ET — Meet me at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, N.H., the capitol of the Granite State. We’ll talk politics and education and, of course, Title IX.

Sunday, March 26, 3-5 p.m. — As part of the Be The Change series, I’ll be speaking at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass. with special guests from Know Your IX and the Women’s Sports Foundation. Each group will receive a donation equivalent to 20% of book sales during the event. I hope you can join us if you’re in the area! If not, please consider supporting these organizations.

*** Would you like to set up an in-person or Zoom session with me for your organization or book club? Reach me through my Contact page.***

You can sit in on my 50-minute conversation about Title IX and 37 Words with Georgia Institute of Technology President Angel Cabrera, part of his “Conversations with Cabrera” series:

More online talks: Check out a video of my 25-minute talk at wonderful Left Bank Books in St. Louis. You can watch my six-minute interview on the Bridge Street morning show on WSYR-TV, the ABC affiliate in Syracuse, N.Y. Or, watch the video of an October 19, 2022 online conversation about Title IX and 37 Words hosted by the University of Texas at Austin’s Center for Women in Law; find it here. 

The Nation magazine published an excerpt from my chapter 5, which introduces Title IX’s application in the movement against sexual violence. I published an article in the Washington Post’s Made by History section, this one on “The true mother of Title IX. And why it matters now more than ever.” The Christian Science Monitor included 37 Words in two articles — a cover story on “Title IX at 50” and a sidebar examining the racial gap among women athletes in colleges. Read about the Supreme Court’s history of curtailing Title IX and other civil rights laws in my article in The Washington Post Made by History section. The Washington Monthly gave 37 Words a fine review — check it out. See other previous appearances and media coverage of 37 Words listed here.

Here are links to order your copy of my book 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press, 2022).

#TitleIX #37Words #TitleIX50th