In the past 38 years since the passage of Title IX legislation girls' sports participation has grown to more than 3 million participants per year at the high school level (National Federation of State High School Associations) but questions remain.
* How much progress has been made, and what additional progress needs to be made?
* What expertise needs to be provided to female athletes to support their sport experience?
* How can this audience be effectively reached?
A 2006 Girl Scouts of the USA report, The New Normal? What Girls Say About Healthy Living addressed issues facing girls today regarding obesity and active living. The report cited CDC statistics reporting that since 1980 obesity rates have tripled for children ages 6-11 and doubled for children ages 12-19. Today approximately 9 million children over the age of six are obese. Over the past 25 years the percentage of overweight girls has more than doubled with low income and minority girls at highest risk.
Effects of childhood obesity are multi-fold:
* Increased risk of becoming overweight adults
* Increased chance of diseases such as Type II diabetes, hypertension, cancer, cholesterol abnormalities, and orthopedic problems
* Increased chance of psychological problems including depression
* Increased feelings of stigmatization including teasing and low self-esteem
An active child is more likely to be more fit, but girls in 1972 were far behind boys in participation in sports. Title IX is education legislation passed that year which provided protection for equity in educational opportunities including sport. The language of Title IX states:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program receiving Federal financial assistance.
When Title IX was passed, just under 300,000 girls participated in high school sports; today more than 3 million girls participate (NFHS). Most popular sports for girls in the US in 2008-09 were Track & Field (Outdoor), Basketball, Volleyball and Softball (Fast Pitch) followed by Soccer, Cross Country, Tennis and Swimming & Diving. Competitive Spirit Squad was the tenth most popular sport.
Competitive Spirit Squads are included as a sport listing by NFHS. There is a distinction between Competitive Spirit Squads and Cheerleading that is important to note: a Competitive Spirit Squad would have a trained coach, regularly scheduled practices, and a competition schedule in which there is scoring. A cheer squad that simply serves as sideline pep squad is not a Competitive Cheer Squad. (NOTE: A July 21, 2010 ruling by U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill established that competitive cheer is NOT an official sport that schools can use to meet gender equity requirements. The complaint was filed in Connecticut against Quinnipiac University in Case 3:09-cv-00621-SRU.)
According to NFHS's 2008-09 Participation Report, North Carolina was 13th in the country in girls' sports participation with just under 80,000 participants reported. Sports ranked in order of popularity in the state are Competitive Spirit Squad, Track & Field (Outdoor), Softball (Fast Pitch), Volleyball, Basketball and Swimming & Diving followed by Cross Country, Tennis, Soccer and Indoor Track & Field.
Despite the significant increase in participation numbers overall, understanding of Title IX and its impact is still unclear. No institution has lost federal funding due to Title IX violations although lawsuits and complaints have been filed. Critics of Title IX claim that the law forces men's boys' sports to be cut. In today's tough economic climate, many schools are being forced to evaluate which sport programs they offer, and understanding of Title IX is critical in that process.
According to information retrieved from Women's Sports Foundation (WSF), the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported in 2003-04 that girls comprised about 49% of the high school population. Girls receive about 41% of the athletic opportunities (NFHS). Girls also fall short in allocation of operating and recruitment budgets, equipment, facilities and publicity (National Women's Law Center). Therefore girls receive 1.3 million fewer participation opportunities than boys at the high school level.
At the college level, men received about $135 million more in athletic scholarships than females in 2002-03. Ongoing annual research by Linda Carpenter and Vivian Acosta reports a relatively stagnant number of female coaches and administrators in athletics in the past several years.
What can be done in communities to ensure that Title IX is being understood and acknowledged? Assessing current services and implementing change strategies are essential to evaluating where your community/school stands. Athletes should be informed of gender equity issues and be encouraged to be advocates.
Information is available through local, state and national sources. Each school must have a Title IX Coordinator who should serve as a primary resource. Organizations like National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators (NACWAA) provide education to professionals while non-profits like NAGWS and Women's Sports Foundation provide advocacy and programming at the grassroots and professional levels.
In this session, participants viewed one chapter of an educational DVD created by NAGWS in partnership with WBGU-PBS in Bowling Green, OH. This 14-chapter DVD, Title IX: Implications for Women in Sport and Education, provides the viewer with more than three hours of voices and perspectives on gender equity, impact of Title IX, governance of women's sports and pre-Title IX experiences. Experts in sport/education, law and government provide the viewer with invaluable insight into the history of Title IX and its impact on women in sport. Guided discovery questions are provided in each chapter for further exploration of the chapter topic.
It is important for coaches, administrators, parents and athletes to understand Title FX and its implications so they can do their jobs well. Community and school leaders can dramatically impact the quality of their services by continually evaluating their athletic programs and establishing strategies to ensure that their populations are being appropriately served as required by law. Take steps to be informed today.
NOTE: The DVD 'Title IX: Implications for Women in Sport and Education' is available for purchase through the AAHPERD Online Store (www.aahperd.org/shop) or on Amazon (www.amazon.com).
References
Acosta, R V. & Carpenter, L.J. (2010). Women in Intercollegiate Sport, A Longitudinal National Study Thirty Three Year Update. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www.acosta-carpenter.org.
National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations (NFSHA). 2008-2009 Sports Participation Statistics. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://www.nfhs.org/ Participation/SportSearch.aspx .
National Association for Girls and Women in Sport (NAGWS). Title IX: Implications for Women in Sport and Education. (Reston, VA, AAHPERD, 2009).
National Women's Law Center, The Battle for Gender Equity in Athletics in Elementary and Secondary Schools (2008). Note: The 2010 report is available at https://www. nwlc.org .
Schoenberg, J., Salmond, K, & Fleshman, P. The New Normal? What Girls Say About Healthy Living. (New York, NY, Girl Scouts of the USA, 2006).
Women's Sports Foundation (2008). Gender Equity in High Schools and College Athletics: Most Recent Participation & Budget Statistics. Retrieved on March 24, 2010 from https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org .
