Text 12281, 96 rader
Skriven 2005-04-27 16:37:50 av Alan Hess
Ärende: Maybe girls prefer other activities?
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Why can't colleges provide other activities for women, while providing sports
for men and the lower number of women that do want to play?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-op.chapman27apr27,1,569325.story?
coll=bal-pe-opinion
Colleges won't reverse gains in women's sports


By Steve Chapman

April 27, 2005

CHICAGO - Title IX, the 1972 federal law mandating equal opportunity for
females in high school and college sports, has helped spur huge changes. But
its supporters have trouble believing their eyes. Despite the enormous gains
for female athletes, they act as though the gains could be erased overnight.

They are currently outraged by a new Bush administration guideline that offers
colleges a new way to show they are not discriminating - by asking all female
students if they are interested in participating in athletics. If the number
who say yes isn't enough to justify adding teams, a school would not have to do
so.

The reaction was swift and harsh. Donna Lopiano, head of the Women's Sports
Foundation, called it "incredibly bad policy that will disenfranchise
generations of female athletes." The National Women's Law Center said the
change "threatens to reverse the enormous progress women and girls have made in
sports since the enactment of Title IX."

Some of the criticism was aimed at the survey method, which was derided as a
perfunctory e-mail survey that is sure to get few responses, thus "proving" a
lack of interest. In fact, the U.S. Education Department stressed that schools
would have to survey all female students, "administer the census in a manner
that is designed to generate high response rates" and contact students who
don't respond to give them another chance. Only then could nonresponses be
taken to indicate a lack of interest.

It's not clear, though, that any method would do. Feminists resent the notion
of matching athletic opportunities to interest. Ms. Lopiano complains that
"girls who want to play would have to prove they are interested."

But why is it unfair for a school to put off creating a team until it finds out
if anyone actually wants to play? The measure is merely an attempt to clarify
the rules so that colleges know how to abide by the law.

Title IX allows schools to comply by meeting a simple quota - showing that if
women make up 50 percent of the student body, they make up 50 percent of all
the varsity athletes. That's the clearest and safest path. But the law lets
schools deviate if they can show they are "fully and effectively accommodating
the interests and abilities" of female students.

For a college to gauge whether it's accommodating the interests of women, it
has to find out what those interests are. The Education Department has offered
them a clear way to meet this standard without running afoul of the government.
But opponents fear such a survey would show that college women do not have
exactly the same preferences as men, which is anathema to those who think sex
discrimination explains everything.

In high school, girls outnumber boys in nearly every extracurricular activity
except sports. One type of interest may preclude another. There has been a vast
increase in athletic participation by females since 1972, but it has yet to
match that of males, even in arenas where discrimination can't explain the gap.

College intramural sports, which are open to all, attract far more males than
females. At the University of California, Los Angeles, 69 percent of the
intramural players are men. Women attending all-female schools are less likely
to participate in intercollegiate athletics than men at comparable
coeducational schools.

To get women and men to take part in anything close to equal numbers in varsity
sports, schools have to do things such as create scholarships and do extensive
recruiting to fill female crew teams, even though it's hardly a sport in great
demand. At the same time, many limit rosters in men's baseball and other
sports, even for nonscholarship "walk-on" players.

Feminist groups complain that though women are a majority of college students,
they account for only 41 percent of varsity athletes, as though disparity
proves discrimination. In fact, it may show only that colleges know better than
outside critics what female students want.

After all, these institutions can ill afford to alienate a group that makes up
their chief clientele: Nationally, 56 percent of all undergraduates are female.
A school that shortchanges women in any way is a school that is inviting its
own demise.

Feminists act as though we live in a world in which institutions of higher
education are itching to relegate women to second-class status. But thanks in
part to Title IX, that world is gone, and it's not coming back.

Steve Chapman is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, a Tribune Publishing
newspaper. His column appears Mondays and Wednesdays in The Sun.

Copyright + 2005, The Baltimore Sun

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