A closer look at Title IX: The pros and the cons

A closer look at Title IX: The pros and the cons
Flickr/Jennifer Brandel
A closer look at Title IX: The pros and the cons
Flickr/Jennifer Brandel

A closer look at Title IX: The pros and the cons

WBEZ brings you fact-based news and information. Sign up for our newsletters to stay up to date on the stories that matter.

There’s been a 940 percent increase in women’s sports participation since the 1972 passing of a federal law prohibiting sexual discrimination against female athletes in federally funding schools. But, National Women’s Law Center recently file a Title IX complaint against a dozen school districts. Chicago Public Schools are allegedly the worst offenders. Under the law, sporting opportunities for girls should be proportionate to their overall enrollment in the school. By that measure, CPS has an average participation gap of 33 percent.

But those programs have given us athletes like Angelina Williams. She was a two-time all-state basketball player at George Washington High School on the far South Side. She scored more than one thousand points as a forward at the University of Illinois. After graduating she spent two years in the WNBA then went overseas to play pro ball in Europe. Last year Angelina was sidelined by a foot injury but she joined Eight Forty-Eight to talk about how Title IX made her journey possible.

And for another point of view, Professor Richard Epstein explained why he thinks Title IX creates inequities.

Music Button: Thunderball, “Runaway”, from the CD 12 Mile High, (ESL)