Copyright 2002 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution  

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
June 23, 2002 Sunday Home Edition
SECTION: News; Pg. 11A

LENGTH: 960 words

HEADLINE: Women have gone far under Title IX ;
Ban on sex bias in schools still controversial

BYLINE: ANDREW MOLLISON

SOURCE: Cox Washington Bureau

BODY:
Washington --- Thirty years after President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law, its friends and foes see progress in securing women's educational rights but anticipate new challenges to the anti-discrimination law.

Called Title IX because it was the ninth in an election year package of amendments to federal education laws, the law prohibits sex discrimination in schools and colleges that accept federal funds for any purpose, including federally subsidized student loans.

When the package became law on June 23, 1972, after being pushed through the House by Rep. Edith Green (D-Ore.) and through the Senate by Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.), many supporters considered it placeholder legislation.

They thought it would be superseded by the Equal Rights Amendment, a much broader constitutional mandate for gender equity that had been sent to the states by Congress earlier that year. But the ERA was never ratified by the necessary number of states.

Now Title IX is seen as a major force in the field of education. This month the National Coalition for Women and Girls issued a 30th-anniversary "Report Card on Gender Equity" in an attempt to sum up the law's effects.

"Our report card shows that women are moving along in many areas, certainly in higher education and math and science," said Nancy Zirkin, co-chairwoman of the Washington-based coalition.

"But there has been little progress in preparation for careers in nontraditional fields," she said. "And we have to be vigilant to keep the clock from being rolled back to the time when women's sports meant cheerleading and women's education meant home ec."

Education Department officials have repeatedly denied that the department's Office of Civil Rights is poised to rip up and rewrite the regulations that underpin enforcement of Title IX.

Waiting to hear from Bush

But others are skeptical.

For one thing, the platform adopted at the 2000 Republican convention, which nominated George W. Bush for president, supported "a reasonable approach" to the portion of Title IX regulations that cover high school and college sports.

For another, the administration has sought public comment on whether it should change the portion of Title IX regulations that could be affected by a provision in the new, bipartisan No Child Left Behind Act. That law encourages public school systems to take advantage of their existing right to offer single-sex schools or classes in some circumstances.

"We've been waiting for this administration to make a statement on the validity of the existing policies and interpretations that have given Title IX its life and meaning," said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Law Center for Women. The Washington-based legal advocacy group has encouraged and closely monitored enforcement of Title IX for nearly 30 years.

For the opposite reason, the administration's discretion also bothers Christine Stolba of the Independent Women's Forum, which disagrees with the rulings by six different appeals courts that Title IX regulations do not impose quotas.

She says some schools and colleges eliminate wrestling and other traditionally male sports in order to bring men's participation in sports down to the level of women.

"The Bush administration hasn't done anything yet except respond to the [wrestling coaches'] lawsuit," Stolba said. "I wish they'd speak out."

Wrestling coaches sued the federal government in January, challenging the legality of methods used to adopt Title IX regulations in 1979 and to explain the regulations through guidelines issued periodically since then. Without discussing the substance of Title IX, the administration's lawyers have asked a court to dismiss the suit on the grounds that the six-year period for challenging the regulations expired in 1985.

In assessing the real world effects of Title IX, the coalition co-chaired by Zirkin concluded that "Title IX is a key to achieving [Bush's] goal to 'leave no child behind.' "

"But despite the progress, barriers remain, and more must be done to make Title IX the vehicle for equity it was intended to be," the coalition stated in "Title IX at 30: Report Card on Gender Equity."

The report card awarded no A's or F's.

The highest grade, B, was in the area of access to higher education. Women students outnumber men, though men still dominate administrative jobs and higher-level faculty jobs.

Career education received the lowest grade, D.

'It's not an easy fix'

Before Title IX, preparation for jobs that don't require a college education was, by policy, segregated by gender. Boys took shop and girls took home economics or typing. Today many career and technical courses still consist almost entirely of boys studying for higher-paying jobs as plumbers or auto mechanics and girls studying for lower-paying jobs as cosmetologists or health aides.

"Consistent sex segregation in vocational programs and few resources targeted at opening doors in nontraditional areas" are to blame, says the report card.

"It's not an easy fix," said Mathew Pasquale, director of career, technical and community education in the Alexandria, Va., public schools.

"We do what we can so that young women and young men will have a broader understanding of all the actual careers that are open to them," Pasquale said. But each year, he ends up with only one or two females in a Cisco networking classroom and one or two males in cosmetology.

Ashley Purdy, a 17-year-old senior at Alexandria's only high school, said that after she decided to take a "hands-on" course, she ended up enrolling in a TV production class rather than auto mechanics because "I thought it would be more fun to learn how to make movies than how to fix cars."

GRAPHIC: Photo: "We've been waiting for this administration to make a statement" on Title IX, says Marcia Greenberger, National Law Center for Women co-president. / RICK McKAY / Washington Bureau; Graphic: CHANGES IN 30 YEARS UNDER TITLE IX
 
* High school graduates --- In 1970, 51 percent of women and 53 percent of men graduated from high school. By 2000, that rose to 84 percent for both women and men.
 
* Higher education --- Women earned 44 percent of bachelor's degrees and 16 percent of doctorates in 1971-72. That rose to 56 percent of bachelor's degrees and 42 percent of doctorates by 1997-98.
 
* Athletics --- Girls were 7.4 percent of athletes in high school and 15 percent in college in 1971-72. That rose to 41.5 percent in high school and 42 percent in college by 2000-01.
 
* Faculty --- Women were 9 percent of full professors and 19 percent of assistant professors in 1970. That rose to 21 percent of full professors and 45 percent of assistant professors by 1999. Women were 68 percent of public school teachers and about 20 percent of principals in 1970. That rose to about 73 percent of the teachers and 33 percent of the principals this year.
 
* Career and technical education --- Among girls graduating from high school in 1982, 48 percent had taken a course in consumer and homemaking education, and 8 percent had taken a course in trade and industry. Among 1998 graduates, that fell to 32 percent with a course in consumer and homemaking education and rose to 18 percent with a course in trade and industry.
Sources: National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education; Education and Labor departments; Census Bureau.

LOAD-DATE: June 23, 2002