Setting the Record Straight on Title IX

Title IX, as written, is intended to prevent discrimination on the basis of gender, not to encourage it. This means that enforcing the law through proportionality measures — i.e. gender quotas — absolutely contradicts the idea of eliminating prejudice based on gender because they inevitably deny students opportunities to participate in sports. When schools implement rigid number systems based on what the activists call “enforcing gender equity,” male athletes disproportionally lose out.

Is that what equality of opportunity should look like? No.

Unfortunately, Dave McKenna at the Washington City Paper gets it wrong when he writes that Title IX is the “the 1972 measure that calls for schools to have an equivalent number of athletic offerings for boys and girls.”

What is more, he heavily quotes Neena Chaudhry from the National Women’s Law Center. She says:

“DCPS needs to increase sports opportunities for girls not just because it’s the law, but because sports are good for girls. There are so many studies that show that participation in sports helps with health, with academic outcomes, with a whole host of life skills. It’s the right thing to do.”

The problem with this line of thinking is that it doesn’t take into account what girls actually want. Rather, this top down approach just assumes that all girls want to participate in sports in equal numbers alongside men, and therefore, imposing a gender quota system will get them to play sports. Instead, to comply with Title IX, schools should ask students to fill out interest surveys to see what passions and skills students of both genders want to pursue. Out of those responses will come the decisions as to where and how to add opportunities for males and females, and not just in sports.

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