Experts reflect on Title IX's successes, challenges 35 years after law enacted
Tara VanDerveer, heach coach of Stanford women's basketball, and David Black of the Department of Education were panelists at the conference "Title IX Today, Title IX Tomorrow."
BY CHELSEA ANNE YOUNG
"We have come a very long way, but we also have a very long way to go," Tara VanDerveer, head coach of Stanford women's basketball, said Saturday during a national conference on Title IX.
This year marks the 35th anniversary of the passage of the federal law prohibiting sexual discrimination in federally funded educational programs. Close to 20 panelists, including coaches and scholars, participated in the April 28 event, "Title IX Today, Title IX Tomorrow," presented by the Stanford Center on Ethics at the Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center.
VanDerveer gave a personal account of how Title IX had affected her life. "From the very beginning, I just was crazy about this game of basketball," she recalled. Unfortunately for VanDerveer, who grew up before Title IX, her school, like many others, had no girls' basketball team. After a disastrous attempt at cheerleading, VanDerveer gave up hope of becoming a high school athlete. "The only way to go for me was I could be the mascot," she said.
Although she continued to nurture her passion secretly, reading every single basketball-related book in her high school's library, VanDerveer felt ashamed of her unconventional interest. "I loved it so much, but it was so painful," she remembered.
In college, VanDerveer became the starting guard for Indiana University, where she graduated in 1975. The team had little support, monetary or otherwise, from the university. Without a scholarship, VanDerveer had to work as a waitress in her spare time to pay her way. "We never even challenged the idea that the men had everything," she said. "You never got mad enough to challenge anything."
Since then, she has coached at Stanford for 22 years, served as the head coach of the 1996 Olympic Women's Basketball Team, which claimed the gold medal, and been inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame.
During that time, she has watched Title IX reshape the landscape of women's basketball. She says that girls now automatically assume that if they have the talent and the dedication they will find a way to play the game. "Now little girls can really dream," she said.
Title IX critiquedDick Gould, the John L. Hinds Director of Tennis at Stanford who coached men's tennis at the university for 38 years, spoke of the days before Title IX, when he was the coach of the men's team and his current wife, Anne Gould, was a member of the Varsity Women's Tennis Team.
"The women's team had no budget whatsoever," he said. They used balls that had been discarded by the men's team and practiced only twice a week. If a woman earned her way to the national championship, she would have to pay her own travel fare with little or no help from the university. While the men's team offered eight full scholarships, the women's team had none. The men's program was made up of a freshman, junior varsity and varsity team, whereas the women's program was no more than a "glorified PE class," Gould said.
In the 35 years since Title IX, Gould has seen incredible changes. "I am so proud of this university for the role it took in Title IX," he said. But he also provided the audience with another perspective of the landmark law: that of male athletes who have seen opportunities shrink as a result of its regulations.
He expressed discontent with the current implementation of the law. "There is not equal opportunity for men in my sport of tennis," Gould said. Although surveys show that men have a much higher interest in playing tennis at the college level, the Stanford men's team offers only four and a half scholarships, whereas the Stanford women's team offers eight. "Believe me, I'd settle for six and six," he said.
Further, Gould said that lack of funds has obliged him to turn away talented players who would have liked to walk on to the team. On the other hand, he said, "Women coaches are told to add as many bodies as possible to make the numbers meet."
With all three of his daughters having participated in Division I sports, Gould emphasized his support of Title IX but also encouraged the audience to reconsider its implementation. "I think the NCAA made some knee-jerk reactions to Title IX, and they should revisit that," he said.
Views on enforcementAlthough all of the panelists expressed support for women's athletics programs, there was much disagreement over how Title IX should be enforced.
Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota, addressed the issue of how to maintain equal funding levels without cutting men's programs. "Football is both the problem and the solution," Kane asserted. Because of immense roster sizes, recruiting budgets, coaches' salaries and miscellaneous expenses, football teams tend to consume large proportions of the men's athletics budget, leaving little funding for less glorified men's sports like gymnastics, lacrosse and tennis.
"[Schools] bleed money on football programs," Kane said. "If schools can figure out how to pay $4 million-plus to a football coach, they can figure out how to add a women's team and not drop a men's team."
Eric Pearson, executive director of the College Sports Council, disagreed, maintaining that because college football earns such high revenues, it deserves more money and other men's programs should not be penalized as a result. He took issue with proportionality—the idea that funding should be divided between males and females according to their representation in the student body. "It is discrimination based on gender, only it's discrimination against male athletes," he said.
Other panelists included Sandy Barbour, director of athletics at the University of California-Berkeley; David Black, deputy assistant secretary for enforcement in the Office of Civil Rights; and Bob Bowslby, the Jaquish and Kenninger Director of Athletics at Stanford.
Law Professor Deborah Rhode, director of the Center on Ethics, hopes that some form of publication or policy recommendation can be put together based on the proceedings of the conference.
"The 35th anniversary of Title IX marks an appropriate moment for looking back while looking forward—for celebrating our progress while exploring our challenges," Rhode said in opening remarks.
Since Title IX's enactment, female participation in collegiate sports has increased a thousandfold, according to Rhode, but gender inequality still exists. "The challenge now is to make good on the promise of equal opportunity that Title IX embodies," she said.
Following the conference, tennis legend Billie Jean King discussed women in sports and gender equity with LaDoris Cordell, vice provost for campus relations, during an Aurora Forum in Maples Pavilion. That event was presented by the Aurora Forum and the Center on Ethics.
Chelsea Anne Young is an intern at the Stanford News Service.