Two Reasons Title IX Activists are Worried

Their scam is unraveling.

The first problem staring them in the face is money.

Title IX got women's athletics a bigger slice of the budget pie, and that was fine and dandy. Women's athletics used to get little or nothing and Title IX forced schools to budget equitably.

However, athletics budgets are being cut, and the activists don't want the cuts to impact women's athletics. Read more here.

The idea of cutting sports programs worries Nancy Hogshead-Makar because it could impact women's athletics. She said the dominant culture in college sports regards the financial survival of football and men's basketball as an imperative. Women's programs that were facilitated by Title IX, which helped pave the way for sports equality for women in education, are viewed as baggage.

"What they're really saying is that really only men's football and basketball spending is sustainable if they cut other sports," said Hogshead-Makar, director of the Legal Advocacy Center for Women in Sports. "Undoubtedly Title IX will be seen as the cause of all the costs.

"This makes it very difficult for women to participate in athletics."

It sounds like Nancy's saying "In good times, let's share and share alike. In bad times, any sacrifices must come from the men's side."

The second problem women's athletics is about to face is one they championed for years - proportionality. This double-edged sword could actually result in women's sports cuts!

It looks like the pendulum is about to swing back and, in a few years, female undergrad numbers won't nearly be what they are today. Many schools have been forced to cut men's programs to meet proportionality. We'd rather see men's programs restored, but how many will, instead, cut women's programs?

For example, Tidewater Community College is 61% female. I'll let you mathletes calculate the percentage of male students. This past fall, male enrollments jumped by over sixteen (16) percent. Read more here.

“This is the first time in a very, very long time that male growth outpaced female growth,” said Deborah M. DiCroce, Tidewater’s president. “I think that there is no way to separate what we’re looking at here from the realities of the economy. This is clearly the reversal of a trend we’ve seen for years.”

Money and proportionality are going to be keeping the gals at the WSF awake at night. Welcome to our world...