Paperback coming of Title IX history
The New Press will release a trade paperback version of 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination.
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:…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
Running for president, long before Hillary
History turns a page this week when Hillary Clinton becomes the first female candidate for U.S. President to be nominated by a major political party. In the spirit of this blog's weaving of historical and contemporary threads, you might enjoy…
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…