President’s Letter, June 2022

June 23, 2022 is the 50th anniversary of the enactment of the law that’s commonly referred to as “Title IX”. Most of us think about Title IX’s effect on equity for women and girls in athletics, but Title IX affects ALL areas of education, including career and technical education (including science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)) ; sexual harassment and assault; harassment based on gender identity; recruitment, admissions and housing; pregnant, parenting and/or married students; comparable facilities and access to course offerings; financial assistance; and student health services and insurance benefits.

According to the Title IX webpage under AAUW’s “Explore the Issues” topic, because of Title IX:

• Women now make up over 56% of America’s college students.
• Women hold nearly half (48%) of tenure-track positions.
• Since Title IX’s passage, the number of female athletes rose more than 10-fold and female
  athletes now make up  42% of all high school athletes.
• In 1972, only 700 girls played soccer on high school teams. In 2018, there were 390,000.

  But there’s still a LONG way to go. Again, according to the AAUW’s Title IX webpage:

• 1.13 million more boys participate in high school sports than girls, reflecting in part less support and available opportunities.
• Researchers found that at high schools where students are predominantly white, girls have 82% of the opportunity to play sports that boys have; at schools where students are predominantly racial and ethnic minorities, girls only have 67% the opportunity to play sports compared to boys.
• Sexual harassment continues to be a significant problem for female students, creating barriers to an equal education.
• A 2017 study found that men dominate 9 of the 10 college majors that lead to the highest-
  paying jobs, all 10 of which are in STEM fields and 7 out of the 10 are in computer science and engineering. Women, by contrast, dominate 6 of the 10 lowest-paying majors and are at or near parity with men in two others.

Because there is so much still to do to realize the full intent of Title IX, AAUW has complied materials from the Department of Education that can be delivered to local schools, intended to be used by the school or school district’s Title IX coordinator. The materials are designed to ensure that Title IX coordinators better understand and perform their important job of ensuring that learning environments are free from sex discrimination. AAUW has tips for staying in touch with Title IX coordinators and has templates for letters to the Title IX coordinators to use as follow-up as well as template letters to send to the boards of school districts where not every school has a Title IX coordinator. I was very impressed with the amount of information available on how to support Title IX in our communities and schools; its a concrete example of how AAUW is trying to further its mission of making a difference in the lives of women and girls, by advancing gender equity in education and in the workplace.