Title IX, just like many constitutional laws, is something that impacts collegiettes’ daily lives all over the country. With this said, however, most college students could not tell you what Title IX is or the things it protects us from. Because of its rising relevance and attention it has received in the media, it is important to get your facts straight and understand something that has the power to potentially change your University.
Title X has been around since 1972 when President Nixon signed the United States Education Amendments, which included Title IX. Since then it has been renamed to the Equal Opportunity Education Act and it states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. In essence, this means that Title IX is a law that tries to make education a place of equal opportunity, specifically throughout genders.”
The first initial and largest affect Title IX has had on college students and high school students, for that matter, is how it has affected sports. Because of it and after many years of arguing on how to implement it, Title IX has effectively made all sports teams have an equal number of male and women teams. For the most part, this seems and quite frankly is fairly easy. If there is a male soccer team then consequently there has to be a women’s soccer team, simple enough. Easy enough until you account for sports such as football, which is obviously more male-dominated. In cases like this, another sport must be offered to adhere to the other gender, for example adding a gymnastics team or softball team.
Sports is not the only area that this law influences college students and thanks to a couple brave women, it has been used heavily the last couple of years to combat campus violence, particularly sexual assault. This may at first seem like a stretch for the Title, once you realize that when you have someone who has experienced on-campus violence or sexual assault, having their predator still on campus isn’t really an “equal opportunity” for learning, it starts to make sense. This idea is further explained in the documentary and movement The Hunting Ground where it was began.
The purpose of The Hunting Ground is to educate, combat and be a voice in regards to sexual assault on college campuses. The story is of three girls travelling across the country collecting stories and data on sexual assault on college campuses. They connected the dots and really put to light how often it is happening and that it is happening everywhere. They found out first hand just how common it was and were able to meet with women explaining how Title IX could help them. Their main findings supported just how prevalent sexual assault on college campuses is and how little many schools did to protect against it due to wanting to protect their image and statistics. This was specifically true in the case of student athletes. They also found that on each specific campus there seemed to be main places that people would be attacked and unfortunately, Greek Row was almost always one of them. Through this project and documentary, they have been able to bring Supreme Court Cases against colleges; one example is UCLA, and win, forcing colleges to clean up their act on how they handle these cases.
Overall, Title IX is an example of politics and lawmakers getting something right and positively using a law that was started to combat gender discrimination and make it into something so much more. Title IX will continue to be an “ally” to sexual assault survivors and women everywhere, especially if used correctly. For more information on the Hunting Ground or this issue make sure to check out the website: http://www.thehuntinggroundfilm.com.