Introduction
This research tackles Title IX and its scope in America It has discussed the impact this Law has impacted on the American people and the benefits that have come along with the Law. Still, however, there are some shortcomings that the research cannot fail to reflect.
Title IX
Title IX is a federal law in the United States of America that forbids discrimination upon the issue of gender in all institutions all those institutions which get financial assistance from federal funds should not be involved in any form of discrimination whether in form of employment recruitment or any other benefit subject to American people.
Title IX was amended in 1972 after the Title XV education enactment in 1972. Title IX was put in front of the women’s rights movement after it had slowed down since the women’s right to vote had been passed in 1920 (Suggs 2005).
It’s also worthwhile to note that the original statute did not mention sports yet Title IX has been known to have impacted upon athletics (Carpenter & Vivian, 2005). The Title IX wording is characterized by clarity and conciseness focusing on the easy implementation of the Law being the pivoting part of the clarifications.
However, Title IX has been seen as a threat to man’s Athletic and the efforts to limit the influence it brings about has been attempted. This was done first by senator John tower’s amendment (Carpenter & Vivian, 2004).
Under the Jimmy Carter administration, there was a policy interpretation of title IX this was under the department of health, education, and welfare in the United States of America. Among these included what is known as the three-prong test. Those were to be followed by the institution.
- Make sure that number of opportunities provided should be proportional to the student enrolled in that particular institution.
- Making sure that the underrepresented gender are exposed to a wide variety of opportunity as far as athletic is concerned
- The institutions should take care of the gender which is not fairly represented in terms of interest and ability. (Mauricio 2007)
In the 1988 Act which included civil rights, the ruling about title ix was that it would only apply to the programs which only received financial aid from the federal funds, on the same note there was an attempt to exclude those sports institutions which were profit making but this offer was rejected. The government went ahead to make sure that there was compliance of title ix by making all those institutions that received federal funds submit their reports annually concerning the information of the ratio of participation between the enrollment of male and female and their ratio of participation in the athletic in a given institution.
Title IX has impacted positively the performance of adolescent girls in their participation in sports, this has also been shown in their spending when purchasing equipment which reveals that their spending compared to that one of the boys is almost equal (Brown & Gilligan, 1991)
Benefits of the Title IX
Novick (1999) argues that those who are involved in games especially girls had higher esteem and perceived themselves to acquire masculinity more than feminism compared to those who did not participate in sports.
According to (Richman 2002), participation in sports boosts the body image of individuals and feelings of support and competence. The major purpose of title ix was to avoid discrimination on basis of sex in all educational institutions and activities more so which are federally funded. This law was not meant for the women to obtain more benefits than their opposite gender but was meant for both sexes to obtain benefits and promote equality in learning institutions.
Those institutions which got Federal funding from the government were to ensure that all policies which protected sex discrimination were observed.
All activities such as schooling and employment should have a fair and equal representation of males and females and ensure that no group has an upper hand compared to the other. This most likely is supposed to be reflected in public sectors.
Some people mistook title IX to be a quota system which is not the case.
Title IX was dedicated wholly to restricting the discrimination about sex that may appear when educational and participation in sports opportunities were being offered.
It also allowed sports teams to be segregated in terms of gender. The opportunity for male and females should be dictated by schools as far as the number of male or females required in sports is concerned.
Title ix was not focused on the elimination of athletics or any degree of quotas but equal participation without any group being left behind. (NCWGE 2005)
There is no allowance in title ix where it requires cutting of men’s programs. According to NCWGE (2005).many schools just decided to cut their budget through doing away with some sports completely.
Title ix impact on adolescent girls’ participation in sport has been seen to be enormous and positive. Many female can testify that their sports participation before the law was enacted was very minimal. The law also signify that the female sports are of equal importance as male as revealed through equal spending on sports facilities, coaches and sports uniform. This offsets the inequality which girls still experience in classes. At this time we can now see that young girls can look ahead towards professional opportunities for team sports for women and hence become role models for women in sports presented by the media. We now have grade schools and colleges coaches who are female. When girls participate in sporting activities there is enhanced self esteem and they also learn to work and compete with others on cooperation. The risk of girls development comes when sports magnifies the cultural pressure for thinners or sets the girls apart for judgment of her individual performance hence magnify herself scrutiny.
Pitfalls of Title IX
Title IX has provided a number of positive impacts upon both male and female students, but also brought several negative blows too. Many athletes of minor sports urge that their future plans of participating at collegiate level have been shuttered due to the introduction of title ix. Many minor sports have been eliminated including wrestling teams. This was clearly evident in the 2000 Olympic games in Australia when the united states freestyle wrestler failed to scoop a single medal for the first time since 1968 (Cutler, Glaeser & Shapiro, 2003)
When there is an introduction of new women athletic slot, there are substantially a good number of male athletic dropped. The dropping of some men’s sports can be attributed to title ix since the budgets of universities and other learning institutions and other economic factors impacts the funding of college sports. Many institutions have tight budgets and are unable to meet gender proportionality requirements. The only way out is to alter the gender proportionality especially with no money to spend to make mew female athletes teams hence many institutions opt to drop minor men’s sports at collegiate level, but it is however arguable that males and females should receive the same amount of funding to do this. Males attendants at sporting events is significantly higher than female attendance, hence giving them same amount of money will favor the female sportswomen.
It’s only few people who met the goals of fitness and dietary which were set by federal government despite the rejection of earlier evaluation methods which were said to be discriminatory. (Wright, 2002)
Specialized sports made a number of girls to be eliminated and left a small number who only participated hence creating differences in class.
Many schools especially learning institution are not required to fulfill the interests of their own learners in their preferred sports for the sex which is not properly represented unless there is a clear evidence that the school has not clearly established a sport despite the students showing sufficient interest needed to sustain a school team in the sport, the institution’s ability to sustain an inter collegiate team at the mentioned sports but does not.
Some less recognized effects of the Title IX on men’s athletics were seen, if the number of minor male athletic program was not removed from the sport list their budgets were greatly affected. As a result this culminated to cutting the roster or number of people in the team. This meant that unless the athlete is a star, he or she cannot be recruited by other learning institutions as a sports man or sport woman. (Berglund, 2002).most of these institutions had to drop a male athletic team so that they could comply with the law of Title IX. The scholarship of these male athletic were given to female in other sports.
Title ix was seen to be a quota after its establishment in that it stressed more on the first prong which in real sense did not take into consideration differences between the male and female levels of interest in involvement in the sporting activities. Contrary it required that the participation of both gender in athletics be directly proportional to the levels of enrolment despite difference in interest. The second prong was also seen to be temporary fixtures especially in the universities since the universities could only point out some past expanded chances for the women for a short time before they compiled with another prong.
The third prong also failed to put into consideration the fact that there was high male athlete interest since it required the institution to fully and effectively accommodate the interests of athletes for the sex which is not equally represented.
Picard (1999) observed that when it came to competition at high level in athletic, it may have adverse effects whereby one may develop pathological eating habit, so it is also to be observed on which games to adopt in those learning institution
Personal Views about Title IX
As we have seen from the above research since the inception of the title ix opportunities for women in general have increased greatly. This is in terms of their participation in games like athletic in their respective colleges’.Despite the fact that some of the criticism which title ix has experience it has explained the benefit have outdone the shortcoming.in my own opinion title ix has actually been of great importance to American people in general because women has now been seen to be as equal as men unlike in the past when they did not even have the right to vote. Many critics have argued that since title ix has been made a law In America opportunities for men participation has been reducing. But this is not true because as we have seen from the above research as more women get involved in the Athletics the opportunity for men participation has also increased contrary to what people expected.
Sex discrimination should not be allowed to take control in any organization be it in school or work place because when it came to human sexuality there is no line between a male or female and if there is it almost imperceptible for all male and female do experience the same challenges in life without any consideration of their gender.
On the other hand Title IX still should incorporate and also allow some adjustment in some areas this is because in many school male predominate in those courses which are believed to offer high skills which consequently offer high paying jobs. Unlike female where they enroll in courses offering low skills which eventually lead to low wage in future. This indicates that title ix cannot be credited to have brought entirely the issue of gender equality to the society.
evident that women in the society need more laws dedicated to dealing with their issues In the society and also bringing them at per with men, when it comes to courses a mechanism should be set to make sure the ratio of enrolment is harmonized together with participation in athletics to make women also to enjoy their career and participation in all sectors which are male dominated.
Summary
Its evident that from the above research Title IX has contributed positively towards the American people despite the enormous attempt to resist it adoption it has been able to withstand scrutiny and criticism. However there are some instances it’s found to compromise the attention paid towards males athletic welfare but still social benefits it has contributed has by far outdone the negative impact it’s believed to have brought in the society.
Reference List
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