Posted on a Friday afternoon so we wouldn't notice, the Education Department last week issued a "clarification" of Title IX that will make it a whole lot easier for colleges to skip out on their obligation to offer women the same coaching, courts, rinks and swim pools as the guys. The NY Times reports that "under the new clarification, colleges can demonstrate that they are satisfying the demand for women's sports by taking an online survey showing that female students have no unmet sports interests." Non responses could be interpreted as lack of interest under the ruling, even if the e-mails were trashed as spam. There's also the chicken and egg thing operating here. How are women to develop interest in particular sports if the sports aren't even offered?
Ms. Musings points us to Women's Hoops Blog which has the backstory on all this, including Bush Co's aborted attempt to push the same ruling through two years ago. Title IX, enacted in 1972 and barring sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funding, has been responsible for the surge in schoolgirl athletics and has boosted women's participation in college sports by 400 percent according to the National Women's Law Center.
Women comprise 57 percent of college students nationwide.
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