PAGE
3: Changing Society's Game Face
While
Kohl-Welles admits this is in part due to the changing face
of society, the senator, who has taught gender equity at
the University of Washington, says much of the growth in
women’s sports came as a result of Title IX.
McCune agrees. "It would never have happened without the
law," she said. Eric LeSher, president of Iowans Against
Quotas, a grassroots organization of fans, coaches, and
sports officials, disagrees.
"Can you credit Title IX for the boom in women’s sports?"
he asked. "No. It may have hastened it, it would have happened
without Title IX. It moved up the timetable for females
but they would have inevitably taken to the athletic fields
anyways."
| "Can
you credit Title IX for the boom in women’s sports?" |
"The
law’s effect cannot be isolated from the effects of other
legal and social changes that have aimed to increase gender
equity," reads a December 2000 U.S. General Accounting Office
report entitled, Gender Equity in Higher Education.
"Other laws, together with changing social views, likely
played a role in shaping the trends we observed." The report
adds: "There is no reliable method for separating Title
IX’s effect from the effect of other factors."
Clearly,
the increased participation of women in sports parallels
broader societal changes.
In 1973, 43 percent of female high school graduates were
enrolled in college. Today, that number has increased by
more than 20 percentage points. In 1972, women accounted
for one percent of dental degrees, seven percent of law
degrees, and nine percent of medical degrees. By 1994, women
accounted for about 40 percent of the degrees in each of
those three fields. And those numbers continue to grow:
According to data from the American Bar Association, women
are expected to be the majority of first-year law students
this fall.
And while there’s growth in women’s participation in everything
from college debate teams to post-doctoral degree programs,
some say there will never be as many women as men participating
in sports because women are just not as interested.
"The fact is that there is a different level of interest,"
said LeSher, pointing to participation rates in intramural
sports, which attract far more men than women. "People are
participating in intramurals for the pure love of the sport,
and it’s very evident that men have more interest than women."
A 1994 study of Division I-A schools shows 78 percent of
participants in intramural sports are men. But Kohl-Welles
says there’s more to it than just that.
"If women have not had the opportunity, then they don’t
view it as possible," she says, likening the situation to
discrimination of ethnic minorities. "When there’s outreach
done, then their numbers increase."
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