The Wall Street Journal, June 22, 2000 

Title IX Levels Playing Field For Funding Women's Sports 

By ELIZABETH CROWLEY, Staff Reporter 

When Karen Kennedy blew out her knee playing field hockey more than a quarter of a century ago, rules at her Danvers, Mass., high school prohibited the trainers from treating a female athlete. A surgeon didn't want to operate, because the scar would look ugly when she wore a bathing suit.

Today, the women's basketball games Ms. Kennedy coaches at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., draw a crowd, and players have access to three trainers. As assistant director of athletics and a physical-education teacher, she has seen females come closer to parity with males on the playing fields of this elite boarding school. Ms. Kennedy credits Title IX, a provision of a 1972 federal law that revolutionized school sports by prohibiting gender discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funds. She cites this law for building the confidence of the young Andover women for whom gender has never been a barrier to athletic opportunity. "You can see the impact of Title IX in the way they see themselves," she says.

Today, more women participate in sports than ever. During the 1971-72 season, fewer than 30,000 women participated in college varsity sports, and less than 15% of college varsity athletes were female. By the 1998-99 season, nearly 146,000 women played, and 41% of college varsity athletes were women, according to figures from the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

But some people say the law goes too far. A lot of schools are faced with having to reduce funds for men's sports in order to finance those for women. While many men's football and basketball programs survive the cuts, smaller sports such as wrestling, gymnastics and even baseball are sometimes eliminated. Since 1982, 52 colleges have axed Division I wrestling programs.

J. Robinson, the wrestling coach at the University of Minnesota and co-founder of Simply Common Sense, a group that objects to cuts in men's sports driven by Title IX, charges the legislation hurts male athletes. "How much carnage on the men's side do we have to have?" he asks.

For Charlie Hickey, former head coach of the Providence College men's baseball team, Title IX wasn't about expanding athletic opportunity. His 1999 Big East Championship team was eliminated at the end of the 1999 season because school officials feared they were vulnerable to a Title IX lawsuit. "It was close to being a death in the family," he said. "I had recruited and brought 28 kids to play ball, and that was not going to be."

But most Americans support Title IX, even when it means cuts in men's athletic programs. According to this month's Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, four of five Americans support Title IX in theory, and three-quarters are willing to follow through with cuts in the resources devoted to men's sports. Support is greatest among women, but a solid majority of men are supporters, too. Backing for Title IX surfaces among every demographic group.

Personal connections could drive this support, suggests David Iannelli, an associate of Robert Teeter who conducts the poll with Peter Hart. "Having a daughter or knowing a young woman who's involved in athletics makes Title IX a very personal thing," he says. Proponents cite developmental benefits as well as athletic ones. Studies show girls who participate in sports have higher grades and achievement-test scores and lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexual activity. They also have lower dropout rates and are more likely to go to college.

On the field, Title IX has brought women a long way in pursuit of equivalent athletic opportunity. "In one generation we have gone from a young girl like me hoping that there is a team, to young girls today who hope that they make the team," says Mary Jo Kane, director of Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sports at the University of Minnesota.

Ms. Kane believes Title IX was catalyst for recent women's athletic successes, such as that of the Women's National Basketball Association, four gold-medal women's teams at the 1998 Summer Olympics, and the U.S. soccer team that won the 1999 Women's World Cup. Many of today's elite female athletes hope to become, for the next generation of girls, the female role models that they themselves lacked. "I never had women to watch growing up. I looked at huge guys I could never emulate," says Julie Foudy, co-captain of the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team. "Now girls are watching women do great feats in front of full crowds, and they see someone they can emulate."

Americans believe that, for all their progress, women have a long way to go in athletics. Less than a quarter of those polled believe women count as much as men when it comes to receiving funding for athletic programs. "This is an issue in their minds. There is a commitment on the part of the American public to an even playing field for men and women," Mr. Iannelli says. In terms of coaches' salaries, scholarships, equipment, and travel expenses, women's teams still trail men's by a large margin.

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