Joseph I. Castro, 2013 (Wikimedia Commons) 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Prof. Jennifer J. Freyd 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,…
Margaret Dunkle, then chair of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, lights candles for Title IX's third birthday celebration on Capitol Hill in 1975 with Rep. Shirley Chisholm (D-NY), Rep. Mike Blouin (D-IA), Rep. Ron Dellums (D-CA),…
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…
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…
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?…
GSA board at Kent Place School, Summit N.J. in 2005. Photo by Lauren Stokes. (Courtesy Wikimedia Commons/philthecow) Title IX turns 48 years old today. Part of its history is still in the closet. People who face intersectional discrimination make up…
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…
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:…
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…
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,…
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…
Note to readers: This post is not about Title IX or my forthcoming book. It's a love letter of sorts to the Djerassi Resident Artists Program for giving me a month of space and time in which other forms of…
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. Sherry Boschert at the Djerassi Residency, April 2019 (Photo by Fred Tangerman)…