Equality vs. Athletics

Equality vs. Athletics

In 1929, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. This was a breakthrough for America and an enormous step towards equal opportunities for women everywhere. Being given the right to vote created a sense of long awaited and greatly deserved equality with men. Even though women were given the right to vote, over 70 years ago, the government still has to make a law to ensure that equal treatment is given. Title IX was instated in 1972 to provide women with the same athletic opportunities as men in universities across the United States. While Title IX has helped advance female athletics, there are arguments that it has discriminated against male athletics. Attorney Curt Levey makes a drastically bias argument against Title IX in his article, Title IX’s Dark Side: Sports Gender Quotas. The argument focuses on the pressures of upper level schools complying with Title IX’s proportionality rule, the lack of female interest in intercollegiate athletics, and the bitter cutting of several men’s teams since Title IX was established. Levey, along with many others opposed to Title IX, seem to think the law is slowly destroying male athletics, which was not what it was intended for and definitely is not the case. Title IX was created in order to provide women with equal opportunities in intercollegiate athletics, and that is exactly what it has done so far and what it will continue to do.

Levey’s first problem with Title IX and its attempt to increase women’s athletic opportunities, found in paragraph four, is directed towards the proportionality rule (Levey 626). The proportionality rule is one of three options schools are given to comply with Title IX. This requires high schools, colleges, and u...

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...een sitting on the bench for years, and now it’s time for men to “take one for the team.”

Work Cited

Bestwick, Dick. “Title IX’s proportionality rule is patently unfair to men.” Athens

Banner-Herald. 2 Feb. 2003. 16 Apr. 2003. <http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/020303/let_20030203018.shtml>

Levey, Curt. Title IX’s Dark Side: Sports Gender Quotas. Good Reasons with

Contemporary Arguments. Needham Heights: Pearson, 2001.626-627. Rpt. in The

Humanist.

The National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education. Title IX at Thirty: Report Card of Gender Equity. June 2002.

The National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education. Title IX Athletics Policies:

Issues and Data for Education Decision Makers. Aug 27. 2002.

The Secretary of Education’s Commission on Opportunity in Athletics. “Open to All”

Title IX at Thirty. Feb 28. 2003.