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From 1974 to 1982, the Women’s Athletic Department was
housed in a green trailer outside the Women’s Gym. In the
’60s, girls played basketball in skirts with six players on
the court ““ three forwards and three defenders ““ the
latter not even allowed to cross midcourt. Title IX has helped
women’s sports come a long way, and women’s athletics
need Title IX to protect them from the indignation a culture
predisposed to men’s programs would otherwise force on
them.
Regardless of what the historically gender-biased American
culture would have you believe, women have every bit as much right
to be based in the J.D. Morgan Center as they are now, or to play
full-court basketball, as the men do. But without Title IX, such
basic inequalities would have continued indefinitely, and in some
places might even be reinstated today. The insulting conditions and
regulations that women’s sports had to face never would have
been pushed on mens’ programs in the first place.
As a result of Title IX, women’s participation in
athletics has increased four-fold since it’s inception in
1972. But a lawsuit filed by the National Wrestling Coaches
Association which could end up in the Supreme Court threatens the
relative equality Title IX has brought to the athletic field.
The NWCA, backed by three colleges, claims Title IX has
inadvertently hurt small men’s programs while trying to
increase women’s opportunities in sports. The claim results
from the various men’s programs which have been cut around
the country, particularly wrestling, gymnastics, swimming and
volleyball, in order to bring schools in compliance with budgetary
quotas required under Title IX.
While the current system is far from perfect, it is the best
available option given the limited funds athletic departments have
to deal with. Cutting Title IX would undoubtedly result in an
unfair allocation of funds directed toward men’s programs.
Some critics have proposed exempting football from quota
considerations to save these other men’s sports, but under
Title IX, this would mean cutting numerous women’s sports to
equalize the women’s side of the currently balanced
ratio.
In an ideal world, no sports would need to be cut. There would
be adequate funding to preserve all of the men’s sports while
adding women’s sports to provide everyone with an equal
opportunity to participate. But the reality is that athletic
departments are facing a zero-sum game. Budgets aren’t
expanding, and the newly added women’s sports don’t
bring in money to the school like men’s football and
basketball. This simply means cuts have to be made from smaller
men’s programs.
Until women’s sports are followed with the same fervor as
men’s, creating profit possibilities and increasing the
athletic department’s budget, men’s sports will have to
face cutbacks to accommodate for the gender equity Title IX
demands. There is hope for this profit potential as evidenced by
the successes of the Women’s National Basketball League, the
Women’s World Cup, and tennis stars like the Williams
sisters. But we’re not there yet.
Athletes, regardless of their gender, deserve the opportunity to
take the court. Men’s sports with a relatively small fan base
are paying the price under Title IX right now, but they’re
affording the long term gender equity this society so desperately
needs.