what has title IX done for you?
Unpublished post, originally written 11/03/08 for my now defunct state of sex education blog on gURL.
Ever thought about whether or not there should be girls’ sports offered at school? Or if you should be able to walk down the halls at school free from sexual harassment? Or even if you should be allowed to attend school at all if you are pregnant or a teen mom? If you haven’t had to think about those things you can thank something called Title IX.
Tile IX is a law that passed in 1972. It requires gender equality for boys and girls in any educational program that receives money from the federal government.
It can be hard to imagine life before Title IX. But 36 years ago, things were pretty different. For example, before Title IX:
- It was perfectly legal to spend all of a school’s money on boys’ sports without putting a penny into girls’ programs.
- Sexual harassment at school was not a crime.
- Schools were actually allowed to kick a girl out for getting pregnant or having a baby.
As the New York Times reports:
“Pregnant girls were put on “medical suspension” until after their babies were born, then banned from returning to their original high schools afterward. Hundreds of other girls were sent, often under threat of court order, to shelters, where the old Board of Education maintained special schools.”
It’s not like Title IX completely eliminated sexism. In a world where, up to 80% of high school girls still report being victims of sexual harassment, female athletes can hope for only a fraction of the college scholarship money that male athlete qualify for, and women still only earn 2/3 of what men do, we can’t pretend that the fight for equality is over.
However, when we think back to how life was for girls before Title IX, we sure can see some of the powerful changes that have been made!
Do you feel like girls and boys are treated equally at your school? If not where do you see the inequality?
