No, Zachary, girls do not have the same right to join the football team
as boys have to join the literary club. Girls are excluded, legally,
from the football team, because under Title IX it is a contact sport,
and therefore an area where girls are thought to be disadvantaged by
size and weight; hence schools are allowed to exclude girls from the
sport that takes the elephant's share of sports scholarships, support,
and opportunity.
Moreover, it is hard to ignore the big picture when talking about Title
IX. There is a history of discrimination against girls in this as in all
nations; and there is a profound difference between the condition of
school and the condition of the workplace that follows school. This
country's law--which is pretty good, in theory--was written to correct a
gap in democracy; that law isn't perfect, isn't enforced, but is very
influential--it is like holding up an ideal toward which the nation is
moving. That is why in thinking about Title IX, we need to look at the
history and the surrounding environment of schools, the purpose of
schools.
And as for academic excellence, girls are learning to excel in school
partly because of their worry about what lies ahead--the unequal
challenges of economic life that face women in the workplace who must
try to simultaneously satisfy cultural and biological patterns that keep
them poor. Girls are trying to store up some help for the days when it
doesn't matter how good their grades were in school--the young men will
still be preferred for high-paying jobs, will still shirk their share of
the chores, and will still refuse to pay their full share of child
support.
The good news is, boys are changing--they really are gaining from Title
IX, because more and more think it is only fair for women to get equal
wages for equal work, not to be left with the worst burdens of poverty,
to have an equal voice in government. In other words, they are becoming
fuller participants in the human condition.
Linda Purrington
Title IX Advocates
lpurring@earthlink.net
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