Essay on the adoption of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

Perhaps the most profound influence on physical education over the past quarter century was the adoption of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

The major provision of Title IX was that no person would be denied access to participation based on sex in any educational program receiving federal financial assistance.

Nearly every school in America receives some form of federal assistance, so all Physical education and sport programs came under the aegis of Title IX.

In physical education, the most important specific influences of Title IX were (1) co-educational classes, (2) assignment of teachers based on skill rather than on gender, (3) grouping based on ability rather than gender, and (4) equal access for boys and girls to the entire physical- education curriculum.

Physical education does not have a particularly admirable history in terms of discrimination based on gender. Girls have been systematically denied access to learning and participating in most sports. Women teachers have not been able to teach those activities for which they are best prepared.

Facilities and equipment have not been shared equally. Thus, overcoming these traditional forms of discrimination has not been easy for many professionals who had become accustomed to them.

In 1992 Title IX was 20 years old. Clearly, some important gains have been made, particularly in the areas of more school and intercollegiate sport opportunities for girls and women, more equity in interschool and intercollegiate budgets, and the like.

In other areas, the results have been disappointing, particularly in the reduced number of female coaches, the inability to secure fair representation in athletic administration positions, and continued under representation in officiating, training, and media positions.

In Physical education, the effects of Title IX are very unclear. There has been an alarming education in the percentage of female teachers in high-school physical education.

In our own research we found female secondary physical educators to be marginalized by male colleagues in their own departments and we found girls to get less opportunity in physical education and to like it less than do boys.

The co-educational provisions of Title IX are routinely ignored in some schools. On the other hand, there are physical-educational provisions of Title IX are routinely ignored in some schools.

On the other hand, there are physical-education programs where girls and boys learn and participate together, where all activities are available regardless of gender, and where teaching assignments are made on the basis of competence and interest rather than gender.

Title IX has both legal and moral implications. The legal implications are fairly clear and, if enforced, would make important differences. The moral implications are, in the long run, more profound. It is one thing to do something for example, to make traditional single-sex classes such as swimming open to boys and girls because there is a legal mandate to do so.

It is another thing to do it because it is viewed as the right thing to do. The activity undertaken reluctantly, with a great deal of lingering prejudice, is counterproductive to the intent of the legislation.

The same activity, done positively, promotes individual and social development. We have come a long way in terms of meeting the letter to the law, but perhaps have not yet met the spirit of Title IX.