The Foundation for Global Sports Development delivers and supports initiatives that promote fair play, education, and the benefits of abuse-free sport for youth.
White Law PLLC was founded to provide more personalized representation to clients facing legal dilemmas. Whether you have an issue that is complex or relatively straightforward, any legal matter can have a significant impact on your life. Our team of experienced lawyers based in Okemos, Michigan, strive to deliver outstanding legal services that exceed your expectations. We utilize our extensive legal knowledge and the latest in technology to bring you effective and proven solutions to your legal issues.
Title IX at 50: How 37 words changed the world for women
Title IX at 50: How 37 words changed the world for womenThe law ushered in a gender revolution that still continues today, a half-century later. The number of girls and women who play organized sports has ballooned. The law has also helped propel more women to get college degrees, provided them some protection against sexual harassment and ASSAULT, and aided them in advancing to corner offices and boardrooms. Like any revolution, Title IX has generated its share of controversy, from its application to sexual ASSAULT on college campuses to the debate around including transgender individuals in its protections. In some instances, men’s sports opportunities have declined to make room for women. Yet the fight for women’s basic rights isn’t over. Many women believe the law hasn’t gone far enough in correcting inequities – on athletic fields, in classrooms, or in corporate suites. “It’s still too early, in my view, to be congratulating ourselves,” says Marissa Pollick, a lawyer and lecturer at the University of Michigan and a Title IX consultant. It’s a story Carol Hutchins likes to tell. She’s sharing it again now, sitting in her office at the University of Michigan, surrounded by awards that hint at her status as one of the most successful college coaches – male or female – in the United States. It’s about her click moment in 1976. Ms. Hutchins was a freshman varsity basketball player at MICHIGAN STATE University, living her dream of playing college sports at a time when few women were student-athletes. On that winter day, her team got a fortuitous break: Instead of practicing where they normally did, in the intramural building with its leaky roof and warped floor, the women were working out in Jenison Field House – the big gymnasium where the men’s basketball team played. They were getting ready for a rare double-header in which both the men’s and women’s teams were hosting major out-of-town rivals. The dramatic rise in the number of girls and women participating in sports is the most often cited impact. But the changes extend way beyond that. The law has helped propel more women to get college degrees, provided them some protection against sexual harassment and and aided them in advancing to corner offices and boardrooms. Girls can take auto shop today, in part because of the cultural changes wrought by Title IX, and getting pregnant no longer means getting kicked out of school or losing a job. Still, like any revolution, Title IX has generated its share of controversy. Why would they look the other way?” She gathered together plaintiffs, with the support of legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon and attorneys at the New Haven Law Collective. They filed a lawsuit in 1977 using an untested argument: By failing to effectively address complaints of sexual ASSAULT and harassment, Yale was violating Title IX. Only one of the plaintiffs’ claims advanced to trial. The rest were dismissed. We’re not living in a world where sexual harassment doesn’t happen anymore. But we are living in a world where it’s not accepted as part of life in universities.” Although schools now have reporting mechanisms in place, rape on college campuses still happens. In a 2020 study by the Association of American Universities, 20.4% of female students, 20.3% of transgender and nonbinary students, and 5.1% of male students said they had experienced rape or sexual ASSAULT. It is only in the past decade that schools have established robust systems for students to report sexual harassment under Title IX, according to Courtney Bullard, founder of Institutional Compliance Solutions, a Title IX consulting firm. “I would argue that if you were to ask someone in 2010 who their Title IX coordinator is, they would have no idea what that even meant,” she says. “So much of the progress that happened with raising awareness, encouraging reporting, believing survivors when they come forward – that’s really happened in the last 10 or 12 years.” While Dr. Olivarius was bringing her pioneering lawsuit in New Haven to expand the use of Title IX, Ms. Hutchins was frustrated with the. way the law was being applied in her domain – gymnasiums. True, she had seen tangible benefits from Title IX in her final years in high school and was grateful for the spot she now had on the basketball team at MICHIGAN STATE University in East Lansing. But she was noticing that not all was equal on campus. She saw male athletes getting more funding for uniforms, facilities, coaching, locker rooms, and food and lodging for away games.
Download View in BrowserThe Foundation for Global Sports Development delivers and supports initiatives that promote fair play, education, and the benefits of abuse-free sport for youth.
White Law PLLC was founded to provide more personalized representation to clients facing legal dilemmas. Whether you have an issue that is complex or relatively straightforward, any legal matter can have a significant impact on your life. Our team of experienced lawyers based in Okemos, Michigan, strive to deliver outstanding legal services that exceed your expectations. We utilize our extensive legal knowledge and the latest in technology to bring you effective and proven solutions to your legal issues.