e-mail us who we are home

Thirty Years Later: Title IX Still Controversial
by Matt Sedensky

Equal Opportunity Coaching
by Allison Steele

The New Female Athlete
by Margarita Bertsos

Overtraining and Undereating
by Falasten Abdeljabbar

Playing Like a Girl
by Sasha Stumacher

Women's Tennis: The Marketing Model
by Daniel Mitha

Who Gets The Ball?
by Anne-Marie Harold

Selling Skin
by Suzanne Rozdeba

SlamJam and the Future
by Mike Gorman

Playing out Identity
by Maya Jex





Thirty Years Later: Title IX Still Controversial
By Matt Sedensky
Produced for the Web by Debra Hirschfield

As a high school gymnast in the drab, dreary days of women's sports in the early '70s, Chris Ernst had to arm wrestle boys for time to practice in the school gym.


    Yale University Crew Team
And three years later, as a rower at Yale, Ernst sat, dripping with sweat and shivering in the cold, as her crew team waited for showers and locker rooms to become available to them. When Ernst grew too tired of such blatant inequities, she rallied her teammates in a dramatic protest. Nineteen women rowers marched into Yale’s athletic office, read a statement, and stripped to the waist, exposing the words "Title IX" emblazoned in blue ink on each woman’s back and breasts. The landmark legislation, which deemed the bias Ernst faced illegal, had been passed three years earlier.

Nearly 30 years and two Olympic appearances later, Ernst admits Title IX is a bit more effective. She says the huge gains women have made in sports are abundantly clear. But also clear is the growing opposition to unintended interpretation of the legislation, leading to cut teams and crushed dreams for some men.

"My mom never went to one of my games because she was ashamed."

Joan Martin, senior associate director of athletics at Monm
outh University in New Jersey, says pre-Title IX women like herself know full well what the legislation has done.

"I was talented, but my talent was not appreciated or approved of by most," she reminisced. "It didn’t matter that in neighborhood pick-up games I was selected before my brothers. Society dictated that I should watch, and that they should compete."

Deprived of her own participation in athletics, Martin joined Monmouth as a women’s basketball coach in 1969. "When I
first came here," she said, "we had a couple of different women’s teams, but they all used the same uniforms." Martin said female athletes all shared a common locker room and their use of facilities was scheduled around any male usage, even intramural sports.

"Some of the best athletes that we ever had come here came during that period, but no one would ever have known it," Martin said.

"When I took part in athletics it was not considered a normal thing. You were a tomboy; there was something wrong with you," she said. "My mom never went to one of my games because she was ashamed. But now, it’s an accepted thing."

Washington State Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles has been active in many aspects of Title IX since the year after its passage. "We haven’t after all these years reached full compliance," she admits. "But on the whole there’s been a lot of progress made."

NEXT: A VICTORY FOR WOMEN'S SPORTS




>> PAGE 1: Thirty Years Later: Title IX Still Controversial

PAGE 2: A Victory for Women's Sports >>

PAGE 3: Changing Society's Game Face >>

PAGE 4: Hits, But No Homeruns >>

PAGE 5: Men Call Time-Out >>

PAGE 6: Sidelines with a New Look >>

PAGE 7: Huddling for Reform >>


U.S. Department of Education Report
Read about the history, achievements and future of Title IX.

NCAA Title IX Resource Center
Download a gender equity manual and related documents. Link to more resources.

Women's Sports Foundation
Access dozens of articles about gender equity and obtain official foundation positions.

A Hero for Daisy
Read reviews of the documentary based on two-time Olympian Chris Ernst.

Yale Daily News
In 1972, Title IX's passage opened new doors for female athletes. Twenty-five years later, the question remains: Has the playing field been leveled?









                                                           Home | About Us | Contact Us
                                                          Photos from the Image Bank