Title IX: The Good, the Bad, and

the Unfinished

Cathy PieronekSWE Title IX Lead

4 May 2013

Introduction & Agenda

About Me

• Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs• College of Engineering, University of Notre Dame

• Director, Women’s Engineering Program

• Of Counsel, Shedlak & Benchik Law Firm, LLP

• Society of Women Engineers, Title IX Lead

• Education• BS in aerospace engineering (Notre Dame)

• MS in aerospace engineering (UCLA)

• JD (Notre Dame)

• Spacecraft Systems Engineer• TRW Space & Defense Sector, Redondo Beach, CA

3

Agenda

• What is Title IX?• What it covers• How it works• What it is and is not (myth/reality)

• What has Title IX helped to accomplish?• Positive and negative effects

• What remains to be accomplished?

• Takeaways / items for your action

4

What is Title IX?

What is Title IX?

• Title IX is the federal gender equity in education law enacted in 1972 to open the doors of all educational programs and activities to women

• 20 USC 1681(a): “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . .”• Regulations codified at 34 CFR Part 106

• Operates like a contract between a federal funding agency and a federal funding recipient• Federal money given in exchange for a promise not to discriminate on the

basis of gender

• Federal funding agencies have monitoring/investigative responsibilities.

6

What does Title IX cover?

• Certain institutional obligations• Policies, procedures, notice requirements

• Policies related to students• Admissions and recruitment of students

• Education programs and activities, course offerings

• Housing and other facilities

• Counseling

• Financial aid

• Employment assistance

• Health and insurance benefits and services

• Athletics

• Sexual harassment• Includes harassment on the basis of sexual identity, but not sexual

orientation

7

What does Title IX cover? (cont.)

• Policies related to employees and faculty• Recruitment

• Compensation

• Job classification and structure

• Fringe benefits

• Treatment of students and employees (including faculty) on the basis of marital/parental status

8

How Title IX Works, Ideally

• Educational institutions provide a statement of assurance to federal funding agencies that the institution does not discriminate on the basis of gender• Also provide notice to students and employees about procedures for

resolving a sex discrimination complaint

• And, maintain an environment free from sex discrimination in all of its forms, which implies that the educational institution actually looks for and works to eradicate discrimination

• In exchange, the government provides money in many forms, both indirect (student loans) and direct (grants)

9

How Title IX Works, Ideally (cont.)

• When the educational institution is made aware of sex-based discrimination, either directly or through a funding agency, it works to cure the problem• It need not necessarily cure the problem on the first attempt, but must

work toward curing the problem

• If the educational institution’s efforts do not cure the problem, the government may offer assistance, or may eliminate funding in all of its forms, including student loans• Funding can be restored after the discrimination is eradicated

10

How Title IX Works, Really

• The statement of assurance from the educational institution to the federal funding agency is, often, simply pro forma

• The educational institution has no obligation to root out discrimination, but merely to respond to complaints• And, it need not even cure the problem, but merely work to address the

problem

• Problems that culminate in lawsuits provide monetary relief to the aggrieved, but might not effect real change

• However, Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act requires reporting of participation opportunities and money spent on athletics by sex

11

How Title IX Works, Really (cont.)

• No federal funding agency has removed funding from any educational institution• Institutions usually remedy problems before funding is removed

• Most federal funding agencies don’t discharge their Title IX obligations • Exceptions are Education with regard to broad policies, and NASA and

Energy with regard to gender equity in STEM education

12

What Title IX Is

• Title IX addresses a broad range of climate issues individually, and can also address the issue of climate at the institution as a whole.• Looks at policies, procedures and practices that impede the progress of

women – and men in certain fields (nursing, early childhood education)

• Title IX helps to identify areas of inequity, either deliberate or inadvertent.

• Title IX helps to identify barriers, either perceived or real, to success.

13

What Title IX Is Not

• Title IX does not push quotas.• Despite what we hear about athletics

• Men do not need to lose in order for women to succeed

• Title IX is not just a women’s law.• In fact, men have used Title IX successfully to address inequities in

traditionally female-dominated fields like nursing

• Title IX cannot make anyone study or work in a particular field or engage in a particular sport.• But it can require educational institutions to alter the conditions for

studying or working in particular fields, or for participating in athletics to make those more appealing to a broader range of people

14

Title IX:The Good, The Bad

The Good

• In 1972, women were• ~50% of college-aged population

• 52% of high school graduates

• 43% of undergraduates (across all majors)

• 36% of post-baccalaureate students (across all majors)

• 9% of medical school students, 7% of law students

• 15% of college student-athletes, 8% of high school student-athletes

• By 1982, women were• 51.3% of high school graduates

• 51% of undergraduates

• 46% of post-baccalaureate students

• 25% of medical school students, 33% of law students

• 31% of college student-athletes, 35% of high school student-athletes

16

The Good (continued)

• Today, women are• 50.8% of high school graduates

• 57.5% of undergraduateso But, a large proportion of non-traditional-aged students among women

undergraduates

• 58.8% of post-baccalaureate students

• 48% of medical school students, 47% of law studentso But, law-student percentage is decreasing from a high of 49% in 2004

• 44% of college student-athletes, 40% of high school student-athleteso And, the number of women’s varsity teams at the collegiate level has grown

from 2.5 per educational institution to 8.7

17

Women’s Progress Post-Title IX

18

The Bad

• Demise of women’s (and men’s) colleges• Only 47 all-women’s colleges remain

• Only 3 all-men’s colleges remain

• Declining representation of women among collegiate coaches• In 1972, women were 90% of coaches of women’s teams

• Today, women coach only 43% of women’s teams, and only 2% of men’s teams

• Interestingly, FBS-division schools do better than FCS-division or non-football schools, both in terms of the percentage of women coaches, the number of women’s teams and the participation of female student-athletes

• Early focus on athletics has skewed public perception of what Title IX and does

19

Title IX:The Unfinished Business

The Unfinished Business

• Senator Birch Bayh, D-IN (2002): Noted that the progress of women in athletics, on the 30th anniversary of Title IX, “warms my heart,” then added, “at the time we were considering the Equal Rights Amendment and Title IX, I thought that the greatest benefit would come from opening the doors of our education system so that girls, young women, faculty members and administrators could fully utilize their God-given talents in the academic area.”

21

The Unfinished Business (cont.)

• Senator Ron Wyden, D-OR (2003): “Many Americans know [that] the enforcement of [Title IX] has brought women much closer to parity in high school and college sports opportunities. But in my view, what Title IX has achieved on the playing field remains undone in the classroom, where the promise of this law was originally directed. Particularly, I believe that Title IX has yet to be applied stringently enough in traditionally male-dominated fields such as the hard sciences, math and engineering—disciplines where our nation needs competent workers now more than ever before.”

22

The Unfinished Business (cont.)

• In engineering (similar trends in physical sciences, math, computer sciences):• 1960s, women earned

o 0.7% of engineering bachelor’s degreeso 1.6% of engineering master’s degreeso 0.6% of engineering PhD degrees

• By 1982, women earned o 12.3% of engineering bachelor’s degreeso 9% of engineering master’s degreeso 4.7% of engineering PhD degrees

• No real growth since 1985 in the number of women earning engineering bachelor’s degrees

• Still some growth at master’s and PhD levels, but 42% of MS and 48% of PhD degrees go to non-domestic students

23

The Unfinished Business (cont.)

• Still work to do at K-12 level to equalize education• Girls take 55% of all advanced placement tests, but only

o 47% of calculus and chemistry AP testso 31% of physics AP testso 17% of computer science tests

• Girls represent 53% of all SAT test takerso But score an average of 31 points lower than boys on the math portion of the

test, despite equivalent performance on eighth-grade standardized math tests

• Some school districts remain amazingly inequitable in athletics participation o NWLC filed a complaint against Chicago Public Schools in 2010, citing a 33

percentage point disparity in participation opportunities for girls, compared to boys

• K-12 inequities can persist at the collegiate level and beyond

24

The Unfinished Business (cont.)

• Persistent misinformation about Title IX can affect public and governmental/legislative support for gender equity efforts• Women are a majority of all college students, so there is no higher

education problem for women.o But, women are over-represented in fields where the pay is lower, which leads to

lower lifetime incomes and persistent economic inequity

• Women earn a majority of all STEM degrees now, so there is no problem in traditionally male-oriented fields.o But, this includes social sciences and biological sciences, which again have lower

pay; women remain under-represented in the higher-income fields of engineering, computer science

• Title IX imposes quotas.o While there is some truth to this in athletics, that occurs because athletics equity

requires equitable distribution of resources, including money, in separate-but-equal programs

o Nowhere else does Title IX impose such specificity

25

What can Title IX do to help?

What Can Title IX Do?: Prescriptive

• Prescriptive – government says what has to happen• Sticks – take away federal funds unless certain reforms are effected

o Is this really a credible threat? o Should change occur only as a result of a threat?

• Carrots – spend federal funds at institutions that do certain good things (NSF “broadening participation” criteria; other requirements in recently proposed federal legislation)o Might this limit institutional responses?o Institutions might do only what the government requires … like in athletics

27

What Can Title IX Do?: Transformative

• Transformative – Title IX reviews can provide a guide to understanding where in the educational process inequities do occur and where changes should occur• Evidence of inequities is specific to a particular educational

environment

• Solutions fit the unique institutional mission

• Creativity could lead to a range of solutions that could benefit a wider range of students

28

Critical Issue #1: Climate

• 2004 GAO report (GAO-04-639) on Title IX and STEM noted that “the variability in men’s and women’s participation in the sciences may result from [actual] discrimination in the workplace or [from] subtler discrimination about what types of career or job choices women can make”• When a woman makes a decision not to participate in a particular field,

she often bases that decision on who she sees around her and how she views their success and happiness

• Title IX can help to identify aspects of an unfriendly (or chilling or toxic or hostile) academic climate that includes few role models to inspire younger women and that passively (or in some cases actively) discourages women from participating in particular fields

29

Critical Issue #2: Success Standards

• A related climate issue

• Some fields (such as STEM fields) present themselves as objective, in terms of criteria for success, but the system generally rewards those who behave like those who have come before them and have succeeded• It does not bend to incorporate factors that can help women succeed

• Example: the long hours required to achieve meaningful research success within the first six or seven years of employment as a faculty member (tenure)• Can be detrimental to mothers or women who want to be mothers

• Can force women to choose between motherhood and career

• And some policies designed to help women here might actually hurt

30

Success Standards (cont.)

• Example: Admissions standards that, while seemingly objective, actually favor men

• Among women and men taking the same advanced math courses in college, women with somewhat lower SAT scores often do better than men with higher scores. • So, SATs under-predict female performance and over-predict male

performance

• And, reliance on standardized test scores impacts women more negatively• Nearly twice as many boys as girls score over 700 on the SAT math test,

and the ratio is even more skewed as scores approach 800o But boys also are much more likely than girls to get all the questions wrong

• Is the SAT (or GRE) truly an objective predictor of success?

• Can other indicators of success allow more women to enter programs?

31

Title IX: Transforming the Climate

• Unless climate issues are addressed, we cannot know whether the under-representation of women in certain fields is a result of personal choices, or societal acculturation and expectations, or utter weariness and frustration with a system that simply does not work for women

• This is where Title IX can be a powerful tool for transformative change – in identifying the policies, procedures and practices that limit the participation of women in certain educational programs and activities

• And this is where organizations such as AAUW can be a catalyst for meaningful change, by supporting efforts that improve the climate for women in higher education

32

Takeaways / Info for You to Use

Takeaways

• Title IX has done a lot to transform higher education for women, but work remains• At the K-12 level, because those young women and girls are future

college students

• In particular programs in higher education, because women continue to be under-represented in programs that can yield high incomes

• The federal government has had little impact on gender equity in academic programs • NASA & Energy reviews, while good, have focused on only a few fields

at only a few educational institutions

• No reviews have focused on overall institutional climate

• Federal legislation (EADA-like) to force educational institutions to review themselves has stalled every time it has been introduced

34

Takeaways (continued)

• Institutions/programs can conduct NASA-like reviews to self-assess

• Individual faculty can assess institutional commitment to gender equity• Do you know who your institution’s Title IX compliance officer is?

• Do you receive annual notices about Title IX, including the grievance policy at your institution?

• Does your institution actively seek information on why women leave the faculty or staff?

• Do policies or procedures differentially impact women versus men?o Parental leave is a particularly sticky subject

35