Women Still on the
Sidelines
Women increased their representation as college athletes
as a result of Title IX. In 1972,women comprised only 15.6%
of college athletes. As of 1993, that percentage has grown
to 34.8%. These statistics are deceptive, however, because
since the early 1980s the percentage of women athletes has
been increasing very slowly, and in some years has decreased.
In 1981-82 women were 30.5% of athletes and that percentage
increased only to 34.8% in 1992-93.3.
While more women are playing college sports now, there
are more men college athletes as well. In 1972, there were
31,852 women athletes and 172,447 men athletes at National
Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) member institutions.
By 1993 there were 99,859 women athletes and 187,041 men
athletes.4 Often coaches of men's sports try to argue against
gender equity, saying it takes away opportunities from men.
But this has not proven to be true. (See Chart 1).
Women are also shortchanged in athletic funding. In 1991,
at the request of the National Association of Collegiate
Women Athletic Administrators, the NCAA conducted a study
analyzing expenditures for women's and men's athletics.
The study revealed major inequities in the funding of men's
and women's college athletics. The NCAA themselves called
the findings "disturbing." Although the numbers
of women and men on campus were roughly equal, the NCAA
found that men received 70% of scholarship money, 77% of
operating budgets, and 83% of recruiting money.5 The inequities
deny women not only the equal opportunity to benefit from
sports, but sometimes the opportunity to attend college
at all because they were not offered an athletic scholarship.
High School Sports
Girls entered high school sports rapidly after the passage
of Title IX. In 1972, only 7% of interscholastic athletes
were girls. By 1992, 37% of those athletes were female.
Since the late 70s, however, the percentage of girl athletes
has been increasing very slowly or decreasing. In 1977-78,
girls were about 32% of athletes, and this percentage has
grown only an additional 5% -- to 37% -in 1992-93.6 If this
trend continues, it will take girls about 40 years --until
the year 2033 -- to achieve parity.7
Even more disturbing, a study by the Department of Education
shows that the percentage of high school girl sophomores
who participate in athletic teams has actually declined
from 1980 to 1990. In 1980, 46% of 10th-grade girls were
members of interscholastic or intramural athletic teams,
but only 41% in 1990. The percentage of boys who participated
in athletics remained steady at 63%.8.
As with college athletics, the addition of girl athletes
in high school has not proven to take away opportunities
for boys to play sports. In 1972, 49% of high school boys
were athletes; by 1993, 52% of high school boys were athletes.9
There were 817,073 girls and 3,770,621 boys participating
in interscholastic athletics in 1972. 10 By 1993, with declining
high school enrollments, 1,997,489 girls and 3,416,389 boys
were high school athletes. No national data are currently
available on expenditures for girls' and boys' athletics
in high school.
Women as Coaches and Athletics Administrators
There are still significantly fewer women coaches and administrators
than men coaches and administrators. One reason is that
as the salaries of coaches of women's teams increased with
Title IX, male coaches began to displace female coaches.
In 1972, the year Title IX was signed into law, over 90%
of women's teams were coached by women. Now, half of women's
college teams are coached by men, but only about 2% of men's
teams are coached by women. The record is not much better
at secondary schools. As of 1990, over 40% of girls' teams
were coached by men, but only 2% of boys' teams are coached
by women. Seventy-five percent of all high school teams
were coached by men.
Women are also excluded from administrative positions within
sports. Only 21 % of college women's athletic programs are
headed by women, and women fill only 33% of all administrative
jobs in women's programs.13 In high school, less than 20%
of athletic directors are women, and less than 40% of directors
of physical education are women. 14
(Empowering Women in Sports, The Empowering
Women Series, No. 4; A Publication of the Feminist Majority
Foundation, 1995)
|
|
Table of Contents
New York Times
|
