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,” posted my video along with other videos for fascinating new books on women’s history. See them all here.
Elsewhere
Pop quiz: Which two sectors of U.S. society have the highest rates of sexual harassment? I’ll give the answer at the end of this post.
A new legal strategy in college sexual assault cases may be emerging, some Title IX experts said in an Inside Higher Education article. In the past decade it’s become common for students who are accused of sexual assault in a Title IX complaint to file a retaliatory counter-complaint against the victim. Often, that’s meant to intimidate the original complainant, and is one of the many reasons that victims are reluctant to speak up in the first place. But one of them did in a unique way — she sued the alleged perpetrator of sexual violence, who had filed a counter-complaint against her, for abusing the Title IX process.
In other legal news, a federal three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed that Title IX protects students against harassment based on perceived sexual orientation, and reinstated a lawsuit against the University of Arizona.
If you haven’t seen it yet, there are loads of interesting data and overviews in the Office for Civil Rights’ 2022 annual report. OCR is severely understaffed (read 37 Words to understand why), and activists are pushing to increase OCR’s budget, according to the fine reporters who produce the Politico Weekly Education newsletter.
And now for the pop quiz answer: If you guessed that the incidence of sexual harassment is highest in the military, give yourself a prize! And after the military — the sciences. Scientific American reports that Sexual Harassment Still Pervades Science, and offers important perspective and solutions from the likes of Jennifer Freyd, founder of the Center for Institutional Courage.
Happy 51st birthday, Title IX!
