Rename this book — beyond 37 Words

If you wanted to rename this book — 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination — to a title that is easier to find via online search engines, what would you choose? For the upcoming trade paperback edition of my history of Title IX, my publisher (The New Press) is satisfied with the subtitle but wants something other than “37 Words” before the colon.

Send me your ideas by email or through my Contact page, please! If your idea is chosen, I’ll send you a personal thank-you.

Elsewhere

We’re seeing the Constitution — and soon the Department of Education — dismantled before our eyes as the Trump Administration violates laws and its hand-picked Supreme Court grants supreme authority to the President. It’s impossible to keep up with all the crises in this little blog, but here are a few developments that caught my eye.

As I mentioned, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump and his secretary of eduction, former wrestling promoter Linda McMahon, can cut the Education Department budget as much as they want and fire as many employees as they wish while lawsuits wend their ways through the courts. This will do permanent damage regardless of how those suits are decided, including decimating the Office for Civil Rights that enforces Title IX.

The State of California rejected the Trump Administration’s demands that they ban transgender students from girls’ and women’s sports. That struggle will play out over quite some time, as the Trump Administration sued. Meanwhile, the University of Pennsylvania agreed to everything that Trump demanded.

Trump’s forces show an inconsistent record in who they choose to attack on this issue; see this article on how they played up attacks on Columbia University while trying to keep their actions at San Jose State University out of news coverage.

For a more comprehensive summary of how Title IX has helped girls and women, and how Trump Administration actions have hurt Title IX, see this fact sheet released by the National Women’s Law Center on June 23, Title IX’s 53rd anniversary.

Besides Trump

The $2.8 billion legal settlement that was going to give the money mainly to men’s football and basketball players for use of names, images, and likenesses is delayed because women athletes challenged the legality and fairness of it under Title IX.

Individuals and athletes still are turning to Title IX for remedies for alleged injustice. In Providence, R.I. a former Athletic Department psychologist sued Providence College, saying she was fired after flagging gender discrimination against women and disparate treatment of black athletes.

When Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Tex. eliminated three athletic teams, women athletes sued for sex discrimination. Former swimmers at California Polytechnic University hired legal help after the school eliminated the women’s swimming and diving team and sent a letter to the school’s administrators warning that the cut violates Title IX.

That’s it from me for now. Now, about that book title…