The Title IX activist campaign against men's sports | FACTUAL FEMINIST — Transcript

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1. 0:00This week is the 42nd anniversary of the famous equity law Title IX. Stay tuned for the story
2. 0:06of what happens when bad things happen to good laws. Coming up next on the Factual Feminist.
3. 0:17Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972. In 37 momentous words,
4. 0:25it outlawed gender discrimination in all publicly supported educational programs. Before its
5. 0:30passage, many of the nation's leading universities didn't accept women, and law schools and medical
6. 0:35schools they often used quotas to limit female enrollment. As for sports, female student
7. 0:40athletes were rare—and received precious little support from college athletic programs.
8. 0:46The logic behind Title IX is the same as that behind all great civil rights legislation:
9. 0:52in our democracy, the government may not play favorites among races or religions or between
10. 0:56the sexes. We are all equal before the law--including in public colleges and universities. Today
11. 1:04there are many formidable female athletes, and the progress of women's sports should
12. 1:09be celebrated. But something went wrong in the law's implementation. Because of pressure
13. 1:16from women's groups like the National Women's Law Center and the Women's Sports Foundation,
14. 1:21Title IX evolved into a rigid quota regime that dictates equal participation in sports
15. 1:26by both sexes—regardless of interest. Now women's groups will deny that Title IX now
16. 1:32requires quotas. But it does. Schools are cutting back on male teams and creating new
17. 1:37women's teams, not because of demand, but because they are afraid of a federal investigations.
18. 1:43The goal in college athletics is called "proportional representation." What that means
19. 1:48is that if a school has 60 percent female, then it should have 60 percent female athletes.
20. 1:53Look what happened at Howard University in Washington, DC. Howard's student body is 67
21. 1:58percent female, but women are only 44 percent of its athletes. In 2007, the Women's
22. 2:04Sports Foundation, a powerful Title IX advocacy group, gave Howard the grade "F" because of
23. 2:10this 23 percent "proportionality gap." Howard has already at that time had cut men's wrestling
24. 2:17and baseball and added women's bowling, but that just didn't narrow the gap. Unless it
25. 2:20cuts almost half of its current male athletes, it's gonna remain under a Title IX cloud and
26. 2:24legally vulnerable. Howard's wrestling coach Wade Hughes summed up the problem this way:
27. 2:31"The impact of Title IX's proportionality standard has been disastrous because . . . far
28. 2:36more males than females are seeking to take part in athletics." No, say the Title IX activists:
29. 2:43women are every bit as committed to sports as men. And they have persuaded courts that
30. 2:47if there are fewer women than men on college varsity teams—the only explanation is discrimination.
31. 2:54The factual feminist is concerned because the evidence that women, taken as a group,
32. 2:58are less interested in competitive sports than men is overwhelming. To give just one
33. 3:04example, in 2012, a group of psychologists carefully analyzed men and women's propensity
34. 3:09for competitive sports by studying for example, who plays intramural sports? These are recreational
35. 3:15games that college students can play just for the love of the game. Their finding:
36. 3:20only one in four (26 %) of intramural participants are women.
37. 3:25They also studied recreational activity in 41 public parks in 4 different states. Lots
38. 3:30of women were exercising, but among those playing competitive team sports, only 10 percent
39. 3:35were women. I am aware of no serious research that finds similar levels of interest between
40. 3:42men and women in competitive sports. Let's be honest, there is a fallacy in the "proportionality"
41. 3:47requirement. Title IX was meant to be an equal opportunity law, not a rigid quota system.
42. 3:53It was meant to open doors for aspiring female athletes. But because of relentless pressure
43. 3:59from activists groups, it ended up slamming doors to keep men out. Athletic directors
44. 4:04have to move heaven and earth to get enough women on their teams. Meanwhile, Title IX
45. 4:10quotas have all but decimated men's wrestling, swimming, diving, and gymnastic teams. Now,
46. 4:16these sports and others are going extinct across the college campus, for men. As one
47. 4:21wrestling official put it, "Our sport survived the fall of Rome, only to be conquered by
48. 4:26Title IX." I'm going to end by asking a direct question to the Women's Sports Foundation.
49. 4:31Your group gave Howard University an F because its sports profile does not match its enrollments.
50. 4:36There are 33% men, 67% women at Howard, yet women are only 44 percent women of its teams.
51. 4:43Nationally, women earn 58 percent of BA degrees. Why doesn't the diminishing number of men
52. 4:48on the college create a Title IX concern? The Factual Feminist gives the Women's Sports
53. 4:53Foundation an F for basic fairness and common sense. Let me know what you think about the
54. 4:59current state of Title IX. I am especially interested in suggestions on how to restore
55. 5:03it to its original democratic goals. If you found this video worthwhile, please subscribe
56. 5:09to the series, and follow me on Twitter. And remember, check your facts not your privilege.