Gender differences related to interest in participation in intercollegiate athletics: Another look at Title IX

Abstract

Since 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments has required that institutions eliminate all vestiges of discrimination in education based on an individual's sex. This has come to be known as gender equity. In the area of intercollegiate athletics the determination of how to achieve gender equity has been problematic and, at times, contentious. These are not simply abstract issues, since, in many institutions, large numbers of dollars are involved. Recently, court ruling have held that the most appropriate way to determine if gender equity has been achieved is by means of the criterion of proportionality. This criterion holds that an institution should provide essentially the same opportunities for participation of female athletes in its athletics program as female students represent in the undergraduate student body. In a challenge to this criterion, Brown University argued that such a measure was inappropriate in that it assumed that female students were as interested in participating in intercollegiate athletics as male students. The court ruled that this was
not an essential element of proportionality, and that if opportunities were provided, women would eventually utilize those opportunities. However, the question of how male and female students compare in terms of their interest in participating in intercollegiate athletics has not been studied.