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Tuesday, July 3, 2012

The Educated Reporter: From Schools to the Olympics, Women and Title IX Score New Victories

The Educated Reporter: From Schools to the Olympics, Women and Title IX Score New Victories:


From Schools to the Olympics, Women and Title IX Score New Victories

Four school districts have agreed to ensure thousands of girls are given equal athletic opportunities after gender discrimination complaints were filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Title IX, the 1972 federal law banning gender discrimination in schools, applies to all campuses that receive public funding. In 2010, the National Women’s Law Center filed complaints against a dozen districts nationwide alleging that girls were not being given equal opportunities to play sports.

Back in May, I asked Neena Chaudhry, the NWLC’s senior counsel for education and employment, how the organization selected the 12 school districts. Chaudhry told me they were chosen not because their Title IX violations were necessarily the most egregious but rather because they were a representative sampling of urban, suburban and rural campuses. By picking a cross-section of districts, the scope of the problem could be better