“Congress has acted irresponsibly and irrationally by requiring equal funding for women’s and men’s sports at the college level. By pursuing divisive policies such as Title IX, the federal government cannot achieve true equality between men and women.”
For quote… Pursuing policies such as Title IX assumes that men and women both want to play sports the same amount. There is not equal demand to watch or demand to play women’ sports as there is to play or watch men’s. Why should women receive equal funding if not as many women play sports and they are not enjoyed by as many viewers? Title IX, although it has been used primarily in circumstances relating to athletics, was meant to achieve equality for women in any way necessary. If our goal is true quality why would men’s and women’s sports even be separated? Didn’t Brown v the Board of Education overrule the separate but equal theory? So why not allow men and women to play together as they work together, go to school together, and live together? Title IX is based on flawed assumptions. The law has led to the number of women’s teams outnumbering men’s teams, while the total number of men playing on these teams outnumbers the total number of women, 232,000 to 163,000. And although male participation in college sports continues to rise, many men’s teams are getting cut, especially tennis, track and field, and swimming (wikipedia> “title IX”). Is it not true that more men than women are interested in sports? If not, why wouldn’t there be as many men as women on college teams? Men are genetically, innately and historically different than women. Title IX does not encourage equality, it encourages assimilation. Cutting “minor” men’s sports in an attempt to provide equality for women does not make sense. Not only is this imposing limitations on the priorities and choices of men but it provides such an excess of unnecessary “opportunities” for women that their greatest accomplishments will not be noticed. In my intramural soccer league girl’s goals are worth 2 goals while guys’ goals are worth 1. This is an example of how people have attempted to impose equality on women. It assumes that the chance of a girls’ goal occurring is less likely than a guys’ and should therefore be worth more. Instead of giving equality to women it insults them and results in unintended reverse discrimination.
Aqainst quote… In many areas of life, American women are still treated as inferiors. In the workforce the median income of women is only 77% of what men earn. At many high schools and colleges, women’s sports are not taken as seriously as men’s. They generally have very few fans and supporters compared to male athletes. Women need equal funding for sports at the college level so they have the opportunity to gain supporters and fans. If there is no reward or motivation to play, why would you? One of my teammates on my intramural soccer team did not want to participate in our first soccer game because she thought she would be made fun of for not being as good as everyone else. If women are not given a chance to make progress, they will not make progress. There are too many stereotypes about how women don’t like or aren’t able to play sports. Title IX has been a key piece of legislature to stop discrimination based on gender. It is as basic as the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Even if, way into the future when equality is nearly perfected, we find out that women just don’t like to play sports nearly as much as men, we wouldn’t have been able to discover such an innate difference without simply giving it a try (trial and error) by providing equal opportunities. And even if they don’t enjoy, or aren’t as good at sports as men, shouldn’t they be provided with the same privileges as men? Both men and women in college are fairly equally provided with food, dorms, clubs, classes, libraries, and other facilities/services… so why not sports too?
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I went to a Big Ten school. The football team had 128 full scholarships. That was enough to put their third string, guys who would never see playing time in four years, on full scholarships. Meanwhile, the men's track team had 11 full scholarships. There were almost fifty guys on the team. Whenever a Title IX scholarship had to be added, it got cut from men's track or golf, just as you said, but the women's team representatives to the team council (I was one of them) always fought that. We wanted it cut from football. There was no reason they should have full rides for every athlete, when not even the All-Americans on the track team got a full scholarship.
The women's teams were in the same boat as the men's. In order to achieve parity numbers-wise, we had to add a bunch of teams, which was great, but that meant fewer scholarships available for the teams we already had. The women's track team had 15 scholarships and more than fifty athletes.
People always say that football brings in the money, but that just isn't true. Very few football programs are in the black. Ours was a complete financial drain on the department...they still got treated like kings.
So don't blame the women...blame the Good Ol' Boys.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
People always say that football brings in the money, but that just isn't true. Very few football programs are in the black.
It is not the revenues like advertising and ticket sales that they are talking about or the cost of equiping the athletes and maintaining the stadium, etc. That stuff runs at a huge loss. But in business things like that are know as loss leaders because they lead to big profits elsewhere.
The big bucks come in the form of alumni giving. A strong football program is what keeps people excited about their Alma mater and that is when they break open the checkbook. That is what they are talking about when they say football brings in the money.
It seems like shallow behavior and misplaced priorities but that is how people are and particularly how men are. I doubt there are many women's sports programs that bring in a lot of alumni giving because women, on average, don't seem to get nearly as excited about sports.