Earlier this year, the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism teamed up with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland to assess the level of Title IX compliance at the high school level when it comes to sports.

            Their four-month study raises concern for the 3.4 million high school girls playing sports in the 23,882 public high schools across the United States.* This is what they found:

• It’s mostly up to teens and their parents to report violations of the law. State and federal governments don’t actively police Title IX. 
• But students and their parents don’t know much about the law. Many don’t even know it exists! Schools aren’t required to offer education about Title IX and sports.
• Reporting Title IX violations can have grave consequences for teens and their parents. It means standing up to coaches, teachers and principals who have a lot of power over a student’s academic and athletic life.
• Seeking Title IX relief is cumbersome and plays out over a long period of time. The study showed that, on average, two years elapses between reporting a violation and getting to a resolution. Girls who suffer unequal treatment often graduate before they see results.

            What’s really sad is that girls — and even parents — are conditioned to accept unequal treatment. 

            “Most of these athletes just presume that there must be a reason that they’re getting second-class treatment,” said three-time Olympic gold medalist Nancy Hogshead-Makar of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group. “It’s everywhere they look. They see that men are getting more than women everywhere. In high school, in junior high school, in college, men are getting more.”

Access doesn’t equal equality

            There’s no question that girls’ participation has increased exponentially since Title IX was enacted in 1972. That year, just 1 in 27 girls participated in high school sports, according to the Women’s Sports Foundation. Today, about two in five do.** 

            But that doesn’t mean that treatment of female athletes has advanced at the same rate. In many cases, girls might still have less-equipped locker rooms, or no locker rooms at all. Their uniforms might not be as nice as the boys uniforms. They might play on neglected and dangerous fields, if they have their own fields at all. Their coaches might not be as experienced as the boys coaches, and their practice times might be scheduled around the prime time the boys get. They might get less publicity in their school’s athletics reporting.

Why the silence?

            So why don’t more people speak out? I don’t know about you, but I remember my son’s high school baseball years. If you saw something you thought was wrong — like the coach’s son getting more playing time than anyone else’s son! — you didn’t want to say anything, because you didn’t want to jeopardize any chance your child did have of playing.

            Plus, the high school years are stressful enough for parents, without adding in a Title IX dispute, and possibly a lawsuit. That’s what a group of parents found when they brought a lawsuit against the Stillwater, Oklahoma, school district for the unequal treatment of their softball-playing daughters.***

            “It’s been quite an emotional toll. I think we’ve all lost sleep over it,” said Angela Morgan, a plaintiff in the case.

Step up to the plate

            So, here we are, beginning the next 50 years of Title IX, and in many ways, girls are no better off than they were.

            “We still estimate that the majority of schools are likely out of compliance with the law,” said Sarah Axelson, vice president of advocacy at the Women’s Sports Foundation.

            Let’s hope that going forward, more brave families are willing to step forward to erase the continuing disparities female athletes face in their high school years. More importantly, let’s hope that state and federal entities step up their enforcement efforts.

                                                ___________________

* Jacob Richman and Alexandra Gopin, “Title IX at 50: Girls are still fighting for equality in high school sports,” Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland (April 22, 2022). All quotes in this post come from the press release reporting the results of the survey.

** “50 years of Title IX: We’re Not Done Yet” (May 2022)

*** The lawsuit was settled in September 2021. Details are provided in Michelle Charles, “Stillwater superintendent meets with softball parents after Title IX suit settled,” Stillwater News Press (September 8, 2021).