Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/author/viv-bernstein/)
After opening a Hall of Fame for women’s sports and switching CEOs, the Women’s Sports Foundation is at a crucial juncture. In a tighter marketplace for sponsors, the group finds itself competing with the results of its own Title IX success.
From Roz Savage to Alison Criscitiello, women are rowing the oceans and scaling the world’s highest peaks. They often take a cause along on the journey as they push conventional limits on women’s endurance.
A string of jury awards in Title IX cases at Fresno State, part of California’s state university system, should serve as a warning sign for other schools. But women’s sports advocates say the legal battle is far from over, as a case in Florida shows.
“Negative recruiting” in college sports can refer to a coach’s criticism of a competing school. But in women’s sports it focuses on an opposing coach’s sexual orientation so often that an organized response to the problem is now underway.
Title IX is often equated with equal opportunity in athletics but the 1972 law also addresses sexual harassment. If the Supreme Court decides to hear a case involving a star college soccer coach it could clarify this aspect of gender-equity law.
Athletics programs and gender equality advocates still battle over how best to comply with the federal law that guarantees equal opportunity in college sports decades after the law was enacted. Second of two stories on Title IX’s 35th anniversary.