Often, when people think about what changed the foundations of this nation, they think of the civil rights movement and the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 Not many people think about a piece of legislation passed in 1972 that prohibits participation, denies benefits and discriminates based on sex in any educational program receiving federal financial aid. This foundational piece of our history is called Title IX and has been under the microscope for nearly four decades, and to be honest, it shouldn't be as controversial a topic as it is. [NT1] When people think of Title IX, they often associate it with collegiate athletics. People think this way because they are not aware that this includes academics, support services, clubs and so on. As a society, we unfortunately get glued to ESPN and forget that there is more to life than who beat the New York Yankees or which NFL superstar got arrested. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Women's Sports Foundation revealed in a Q&A article that despite ongoing claims and disputes brought to court by individuals and parents, more and more people are becoming more and more accepting of this law, which means a major change in society's view of women in sports (“Title IX”). We as a society should not need this law, although important, to ensure gender equality. Instead, we should consider men and women as equals. Title IX has expanded beyond athletic fields and courts, beyond what society thinks it only deals with, and is now a major issue in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Since its implementation, women have gained power and passion to change society's view of their sex at all levels. Let's take a look at the latest presidential election. The United States of America almost had, for the first time in history, a female vice president in Sarah Palin. Even more, look who runs the State of North Carolina: Beverly Perdue. I found out from the Women's Sports Foundation website that to be Title IX compliant, a school must pass two parts of a three-part analysis. The first part is to provide sports participation spaces significantly proportionate to total student enrollment. The second part is that federally funded institutions must show an ongoing commitment to expanding the athletic opportunities of the underrepresented sex, and finally, the third part of the compliance analysis must accommodate the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex (" Title IX"). I myself have been involved in athletics as a student equipment manager for about a decade now. I am also majoring in Sports Management with a concentration in Athletic Administration at Western Carolina University. I know how Title IX works in an athletics department from my curriculum. To put the analysis into layman's terms, I'll use Western Carolina University as an example. There are a total of 287 athletes, 111 women and 176 men. This corresponds to 39% and 61% respectively. Student body enrollment is 9,429; 56% are women and 44% men. Western would not meet this criterion (proportionality test) because the percentages are outside the three percent “give or take” range. Expanding sports opportunities for the underrepresented sexual pole is commonly referred to as a temporary solutionfor compliance because a school can only use it for a certain period before having to move to another hub. Western uses this prong as well as the third prong, the third including athletic surveys in the admissions application. When a student applies for admission, they must list the sports they would be interested in playing. This satisfies the third prong of the compliance test. For a long time, Title IX was applied only in educational and related programs. When lawmakers realized that athletic departments are also part of the educational institution, that's when the water really started to boil. One of the most significant examples in history of protesting Title IX athletic changes is the story of Chris Ernst and the Yale University women's rowing team.[NT2] A member of the 1982 Olympic rowing team, Mary Mazzio produced in 1999, “A Hero for Daisy”. Figure 1 is a vivid image of what the girls did in the Yale CEO's office. According to Mazzio's film and Ernst's account, it was 1976 when the real events took place, but the legend lives on: Nineteen young female rowers wrote "Title IX" on their chests and backs and walked into the Yale athletic director's office and they stripped to the waist, revealing the phrase as Ernst read a statement. Before this protest, women had to return after a grueling practice, sometimes cold and wet, and take cold showers. After the protest, the CEO put showers in the women's locker room and the whole story was all over the news... all over the country (“Hero”). [NT3] The main theme behind this film is that girls no longer wanted to be treated as inferior to men and wanted to have proper showers and changing rooms. I saw scenes of women having to get on the bus back to campus with frozen hair and the showers were so inadequate. Many team members also fell ill because they were unable to properly care for themselves. [NT4] Quite simply, women were tired of being treated like losers compared to men and decided to stand up for what they believed was right. In my opinion, these women have changed sport and undoubtedly society too. The result of Chris Ernst's actions undoubtedly made national headlines. Of all the national broadcasting agencies that put this film on the air, it was ESPN. Media is the largest form of information transportation known to humanity. At both Penn State University, Marie Hardin, an associate professor in the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism, and Erin Whiteside, a student pursuing a doctorate in the College of Communications, wrote an article in the Newspaper Research Journal titled "Sports Reporters Divided Over Concerns for Title IX.” The article shows in a series of graphs that although most sports journalists are familiar with Title IX, their beliefs about the law and homosexual athletes vary by gender and amount of circulation. (Hardin 1) Figure 2 provides clear gender-specific views of Title IX and sports: As you can see from this graph, there is a higher percentage of men who think Title IX has hurt men's sports than those who don't think Title IX has hurt men's sports. Women take the opposite view, reporting that they think Title IX hasn't hurt men's sports. Again with the second question, more men think Title IX is fine as is, and a large majority of women surveyed still think it should be changed. It's a classic example of gender bias; People in this camp tend to votefor one's gender, regardless of what is ethically right in the eyes of society. The media is just as bad, if not the worst, at being honest when it comes to publishing stories about women's athletics. Hardin and Whiteside's article states: “Studies have consistently found that women are positioned as less interesting and capable by both quantity and quality of coverage. Furthermore, the lack of dedicated news coverage of girls' and women's sports does not reflect their participation rates, and editors have cited “lack of interest” to justify these decisions” (Hardin 2). Unfortunately, people read more stories about the successes of male athletes than female athletes. Here's a classic example: Look at how many articles have been written about Shaun White, a professional snowboarder who only recently made headlines with a spectacular performance at the Winter X Games, and Jamie Anderson, the female equivalent - with a not-so-spectacular performance. I said Jamie Anderson, and people probably had no idea who I was referring to because they didn't see her name in so many articles explaining how good a snowboarder she was. I wouldn't say it's a general lack of interest in sports among women; I think that unfortunately sports journalism can be accused of being biased. This bias in sports journalism is an institutional norm; “Individuals who choose to resist those institutional norms by supporting women's sports, for example, may be ostracized” (Hardin 4). So if I choose to be a sportswriter and I choose to go against the grain of coverage and write about people like Jamie Anderson, I would be considered an outcast. An outcast for doing what I believe is the right thing to do, promoting women's achievement in athletics. At least that's the mentality of sports journalism most of the time. Title IX is a law that seeks to turn the tables on that popular notion. I know one woman in particular has used Title IX to her advantage and changed the way sports journalism views women. It was Chris Ernst, and when his exposé made headlines, you can bet it had an impact on society. The general public might think, “Title IX sure seems biased against women.” They would be right; Title IX is aimed more at providing athletic opportunities for women. Steven Rhoads in his article “Sports, Sex and Title IX” points out that this law is supposedly anti-discriminatory, when in reality it is exactly the opposite. Title IX does not mention that for institutions to comply with the law, certain programs dedicated to male participation must be cut, particularly uncompensated sports. Let's take wrestling for example. Each of the three weight classes has a certain number of participants; call it twenty for easy math. This brings the grand total to sixty wrestlers. Since wrestling at most schools is not considered a huge ticket seller, it is often dropped due to Title IX requirements. That means sixty young people can't pursue a passion because of a law that seeks to get more women involved in sports. Rhoads also points out that, based on the focus of the compliance analysis, it is difficult to determine what women are interested in. Furthermore, he explains that the psychology behind women in sports is very different from that of men in sports. Males have a natural tendency to expend their testosterone-generated aggression and competitiveness through sports. Males also make more friends through involvement in sports. Even a bench warmer on a football team feels like he belongsof the team simply by cheering and being there for his team. Females, on the other hand, when they feel they will be cut or see potential for arguments, leave the team (Rhoads). So, returning to the pole of interest, could it be argued that we are wasting time trying to understand athletic opportunities for women by polling about when they might leave a team at the first sign of trouble? Have you ever wondered how the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) schools fare compared to Title IX? These are schools where football and men's basketball scores make headlines more often than academic research. According to “Part,” “Charles Kennedy is a senior political science teacher at Penn State – York. He is a former Peace Corps volunteer, director of the Governor's Action Center of Pennsylvania, and assistant to the Secretary of State of West Virginia” (“Part”). Kennedy devised a playoff system explained in his "Part" article to determine compliance using factors other than the commonly used three-pronged test. Its variables come from a 2004 Chronicle of Higher Education gender equity study: attendance, scholarships, coach salaries and operating expenses. The participation test is quite simple; the number of female student-athletes should be proportionate to the percentage of women in the student body. The scholarship variable is regulated by the Office for Civil Rights and mandates that “universities must award scholarship.”the same proportions of aid to female athletes as there are women participating in college sports. The proportion must be within one percentage point” (“Part” 52). Two variables not included in Title IX are coaching salaries and operating expenses. I believe that coaches' salaries should be proportionate and fair because it makes female coaches equally equal to male coaches. Although operating expenses are not covered by Title IX, they are of concern under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act because EADA dictates how much of the athletic budget must be set aside for women's teams (“BCS” 53). In Kennedy's analysis, the Title IX BCS Champion was Ohio University, which beat Stanford University 3-1 with individual attendance statistics* (-10.7: 0.0), scholarship (2.55:1.96), coaching salaries (40.9:38.0) and finally operating expenses salaries (41.7:39.2). A Naval Research Laboratory official, Debra Rolison, protested Title IX by holding nationwide debates on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. [NT5] In an interview by Toni Feder[NT6] , Rolison believes that these departments should maintain a balance between male and female doctoral positions. According to a report released by the Congressional Subcommittee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, if we want to have more educated graduating classes coming out of our universities and colleges, we must open the door to the recruitment and acceptance of women in the educational workforce. (Feder). [NT7]Julie Walters is an assistant professor of political science at Oakland University and Connie L. McNeely is a faculty member in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University. Together they wrote an article that addresses gender equality even in STEM fields. They shed light on how little Title IX has been discussed in academia, when in reality academics are probably the more important topic to discuss than athletics. Women are less likely to go into STEM fields because “while both males and females are equally engaged in academic careers, women's higher turnover has been highly correlated with.