NCAA sexism clouds basketball records

During Women’s History Month and March Madness 2024, NCAA sexism clouds the all-time record-breaking greatness we’re witnessing in intercollegiate basketball. It’s a pity. The NCAA’s actions distract from the achievements of University of Iowa basketball great Caitlin Clark, who this month scored more points than any other collegiate basketball player ever, woman or man. And in the process, the NCAA disrespected the highest-scoring women’s basketball player before Clark, Lynette Woodard. That’s a pity, though I can’t say it’s a surprise. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has a long history of trying to block and minimize women’s sports that continues […]

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Ross Yoon Agency represents Uppity Women

I’m pleased to announce that Gail Ross of the Ross Yoon Agency is representing me and my book, a narrative history of Title IX. I’m working with Ross and her colleagues in the Washington, D.C.-based agency to finalize the book proposal for presentation to publishers. Everything is on track for me to finish writing the book and have it published well before the 50th anniversary of Title IX in 2022. The tentative title: Uppity Women and the Ongoing Fight for a Fair Education. In the four years that I’ve been conducting research and interviews for the book, I’ve mostly blogged about Title IX news and historical context here on […]

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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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Scientists say Title IX isn’t enough

Title IX doesn’t always work. It won’t save a student from being deported if she’s an undocumented immigrant. Title IX has never given women a fair share of athletics funding or coaching jobs. As a legal tool, Title IX isn’t much help to students, staff, or faculty who feel too vulnerable to complain about sex discrimination. A new report highlights its weaknesses in stopping sexual harassment in academic sciences. While this civil rights law produced many, many important changes in society, it’s worth noting its weak spots as we celebrate the 46th anniversary of Title IX on June 23. Title […]

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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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Survivors face backlash

Advocating political and cultural change engenders backlash. Student survivors of sexual assault successfully pushed many educational institutions to do their Title IX duties in the last decade despite ongoing, painful pushback. They worry for the student survivors of gun violence who now command the media spotlight but face attacks from opponents of gun control. “Young people are really, really powerful and really savvy,” says Sage Carson, manager of the non-profit organization Know Your IX. “These amazingly powerful organizations such as End Rape on Campus and Know Your IX were started by young people because they know how to work with […]

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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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Men complain things to me

Writer Rebecca Solnit brilliantly described the commonplace phenomenon of mansplaining in her book Men Explain Things To Me. There’s a similar phenomenon — menplaining? dudespouting? — in which men co-opt women’s grievances to complain that they’re the victims of sexism when some advance in women’s rights constrains male advantages. Title IX‘s current battles and its history are full of menplaining in the courts. Male student athletes sued in the 1990s and 2000s. They complained of sex bias in the Title IX regulations  because they forced — forced! mind you — athletic directors to cut some men’s teams when budgets got tight. […]

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Systemic sexism cracking under #MeToo

We’re in a #metoo cultural moment that’s removing blinders about systemic sexism. Let’s look at how we got here and explore what comes next. If we do that honestly, feelings come up — anger, embarrassment, shame, regret. There’s probably not one of us who doesn’t wish we had understood things better earlier, hadn’t gone along with some of the sexist confines of our culture, had behaved differently in particular situations, or had been heard by others sooner. This goes for both men and women. It’s important to recognize these feelings, and equally important to channel them into positive action. Anyone […]

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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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Nevertheless, she persisted

Part of the fun of researching Title IX history is seeing the chain of women’s activism linking so many “foremother” feminists in politics with bad-ass female public servants of today, backed by the wider women’s movement. Progress is never simple; they lobbied, persuaded, bargained, defied, and often had to trust that their efforts would cumulate into unstoppable momentum toward equity. “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the media in February, 2017 after he used an arcane Senate rule to cut off Sen. Elizabeth Warren mid-speech. Warren had been reading a 1986 letter by Coretta Scott […]

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When schools ignore Title IX, children suffer

Title IX issues that start in colleges and universities inevitably make their way to K-12 schools, opening society’s eyes to the pervasiveness of the problem at all ages. A year-long investigation by Associated Press reporters provides the latest example — a “hidden horror” of 17,000 sexual assaults by students against other students in grades K-12 over a four-year period. Too often in these cases, students and their parents must rely on Title IX to amplify their cries for help. Student sexual assaults have been the top headline-grabbing Title IX complaint in higher education over the past 6 years or so. The […]

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Pawing through the papers of Title IX history

Here’s the thing about Title IX: Everybody I interview has a Title IX story. Some of the stories contradict each other. There are those that present clear pictures of the past, and others are a little blurry around the edges. Title IX is, after all, 45 years old — still young, but old enough for people to question their memories about it, or to question the memories of others. And old enough that some of the people involved in the beginning are, unfortunately, no longer with us. Part of my job as a journalist and historian is to question the […]

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Facades change, but Title IX foundation remains

An aging federal building in Portland, Ore. that was rehabilitated to model modern environmental ethics honors a woman, coincidentally named Edith Green, who is best known for rehabbing federal laws to treat women ethically. Rep. Edith Louise Starrett Green (D-OR), a former teacher, birthed Title IX in 1971-1972 as chair of the Subcommittee on Education of the House Education and Labor Committee, giving girls and women equal opportunities in education. During her 10 terms from 1955 to 1974, Congress also felt her influence in the Equal Pay Act of 1963, a 1971 bill that outlawed sex discrimination in training doctors, nurses, […]

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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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Title IX case bridged Black, women’s movements

Pamela Price entered Yale University in 1974 as a Black nationalist with an Angela Davis-style afro. She’d never heard of Title IX and wasn’t attracted to any of the women’s organizations on campus. She put her heart and energies into the Black community and working for civil rights. By the time she graduated in 1978, though, Price was one of a handful of women at the heart of a pivotal legal case that established for the first time that Title IX covers sexual harassment — Alexander v. Yale. Her involvement bridged the Black rights and women’s rights movements on campus. Thus began a chain […]

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Senators should ask DeVos about Title IX

The U.S. Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee has at least another week to consider what it will ask Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos since it delayed her nomination hearing from Jan. 11th to next Wednesday, Jan. 18. My suggestion: Ask her about Title IX. Does she understand that it’s a civil law operating under civil procedures, not criminal ones? Does she agree that Title IX is important for elementary and secondary schools as well as higher educational institutions? Is she aware that it’s about so much more than the hot-button issues of sports or sexual assault or transgender bathrooms? For the […]

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Fake news generates fake history

Pop quiz: Who said, “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” Go ahead, google it. You’ll find lots of sources all over the Web and social media agreeing that the quote came from poet and writer Maya Angelou. But they’re all wrong. The modern crisis of fake news has a corollary in fake history, which is why I find myself returning to original (“primary”) sources as I research the history of Title IX. It’s difficult to discern the fakeness of the quote above by online searching because it’s been repeated so often that it dominates search results. Eventually, another source […]

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Title IX advocates say Black Lives Matter

A professional association of Title IX administrators recently proclaimed solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Meanwhile, a federal lawsuit in Minnesota claims that protecting transgender students’ rights amounts to discrimination against girls under Title IX. The intersections between discrimination based on sex, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, age, disability, etc. — and how these intersections are used to try to achieve political goals — have always been part of Title IX history. Perhaps never more so than today. The statement released by the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) generated a standing ovation when first read at its […]

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Journalists ignore women’s sports

I saw ghosts in October. I could sense that female athletes were out there being sportsy and all, but in my local newspaper mostly they were invisible. I decided, on an irritated whim, to monitor the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of women’s sports for one month and write a Letter to the Editor each day, a horrifying exercise that left me cursing the Chronicle. Jump to the Oct. 31 letter below for a recap and the curse. Or follow along in these excerpts: Oct. 1: 10 pages, 22 stories, 13 photos. Women = 2 sentences. Nothing on the two exciting WNBA […]

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Ten reasons to vote, for Title IX

Title IX itself isn’t on the ballot Nov. 8, but it might as well be. The gains made for sexual and gender fairness through Title IX were created by politicians, courts, and activists, and can be undone by them, too. Now that we’ve had several generations of women grow up and grow stronger under Title IX, I tend to think that we’ll never  go back to the days when “normal” meant only men got to make the decisions and to define what’s fair. We’ve still got a long way to go to reach equity in so many parts of our […]

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Women got Ford to fund Title IX

A good idea doesn’t go very far, very fast without financing. In the early years of Title IX, key funds came through a new cohort of women hired or promoted by the Ford Foundation. Uppity women on the Foundation’s staff pressured senior management in the early 1970s to diversify its white-male bastion of decision-makers and to direct more of its funding to issues pertinent to women and people of color. The same process was happening in all parts of society thanks to civil rights movements and the second-wave women’s movement. Ford’s response included giving Terry Saario and  Mariam Chamberlain the power in 1972 to […]

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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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Lobbyists, Congressional staff influenced Title IX

[Videos feature Judy Norrell, former lobbyist for the League of Women Voters, and Barbara Dixon, former staff person for Sen. Birch Bayh.] Title IX wasn’t just an act of Congress, nor did it come simply from the demands of women’s activist organizations. There’s plenty of overlap between insiders and outsiders in Washington, D.C. and varying degrees of insider- or outsider-ness depending on the person and the situation. Women were small in number compared with men working in the nation’s capitol in the 1970s, which made it easier, in some ways, to find each other and collaborate as both insiders and outsiders. Female […]

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhpqXfl6340&feature=youtu.be

National Lawyers Guild honors Title IX shero

Like many of today’s undergraduates who have spoken up about sexual assaults and harassment on college campuses, a sense of outrage drove Pamela Price  to complain to Yale University officials after a male faculty member offered her an A grade in exchange for sex. Implying, of course, that he’d lower her grade if she didn’t submit. Her final grade: C. But that was in 1976, and the grade wasn’t the end of the story. Price and her allies filed the first legal complaint against sexual harassment under Title IX. Their years-long legal battle — known initially as Alexander v. Yale before the court reduced it to […]

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Women’s rights, minority rights inseparable

VIDEO: Francelia Gleaves (now McKindra) not only was one of the first people to work at length on Title IX issues in the 1970s, she was one of the few African Americans doing this work. To her, minority rights and women’s rights were inseparable, though not everyone felt that way, she says in this 2015 interview. A lot was happening on both fronts at that time. White America still was slow to adjust to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which, by the way, failed to prohibit discrimination based on sex in some of its provisions, hence the need for Title […]

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Hunting Ground documentary in crosshairs of history

The San Francisco Chronicle published my op-ed article about women finding their voices to speak out against sexual assault and harassment on campuses. It’s online now; look for it in print on Thursday, Nov. 19. This Sunday, Nov. 22, CNN will televise the documentary The Hunting Ground about the handling of sexual assaults at colleges and universities. You can watch or record it at 5 p.m. Pacific time (8 p.m. Eastern), followed by a discussion panel featuring the filmmakers and others. Director Kirby Dick and Producer Amy Ziering (creators of the Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary The Invisible War) took some heat […]

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Fomenting a feminist utopia can be fun

It’s one thing to change the course of history. It’s even rarer to know that’s what you’re doing, and perhaps rarer still to have fun doing it. While researching the people behind Title IX from its inception to today, I’ve vicariously enjoyed the camaraderie and sisterhood expressed along the way, from the “foremothers” of Title IX in the 1970s to the editors and contributors involved in the new book The Feminist Utopia Project (The Feminist Press 2015). Feminists involved in the women’s movement in the 1960s and 1970s worked on many projects and goals, some of which succeeded and some of which […]

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