Title IX

Title IX, a groundbreaking statute intended to end sex discrimination in education, became the law of the land on June 23, 1972. While most famous for its requirement that schools provide girls with equal athletic opportunities, the law applies to all educational programs that receive federal funding, and to all aspects of a school's educational system. Title IX benefits both boys and girls and is the lynchpin of 40 years of efforts to promote and establish gender equity in schools. Learn more >>

05/13/2012
Pregnancy Discrimination

Respecting Moms on Mother's Day

By Tiseme Zegeye, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 10:27am

This Mother's Day, we need to work towards a country where women's work is truly respected and valued both inside and outside of the home.

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03/22/2012
Title IX

You Have a Right to an Education: Breaking Down the Barriers Facing Pregnant and Parenting Teens in School

Teenage moms and moms-to-be are treated with shocking hostility when they are just trying get an education.

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06/22/2012
Title IX

Celebrating Title IX at 40: Texas Victory Leads to Better Response to Sexual Assault in Schools

By Ariela Migdal, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 10:56am

My kids’ school let out for the summer this week, and as I drove by the locked doors today I was overcome with a warm feeling that comes when you know your children were able to learn in a safe environment. Our client, Rachel Bradshaw (in previous communications about this case Rachel was referred to as “Faith” to protect her privacy while this matter was under OCR investigation), used to think that she was safe at school too, until that feeling was shattered after she was sexually assaulted by another student. Instead of supporting her or taking steps to support Rachel's ability to learn, her school responded to the rape by exiling her to a disciplinary program with her attacker, where she had to see him daily. 

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03/19/2012
Title IX

Title IX — It’s More Than Sports

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 12:33pm

This week, as part of Women’s History Month, we'll be blogging about Title IX. This series will highlight some of the core areas of educational equality that this landmark statute covers.

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10/06/2011
Title IX

Do Women Have to Be Afraid, Even in Heaven?

By Molly Houlahan, New Haven, Connecticut at 3:57pm

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and this week the ACLU in conjunction with some of our youth clients and V-Girls, a global network of youth activists and advocates empowering themselves and one another to create the change they imagine for the world, is presenting a blog series. "Your School Your Rights – Ending Sexual Violence" is designed to highlight the many voices impacted by sexual violence and harassment in schools and the tools students, teachers and parents can use to fight back. The girls, expressing themselves in both poetry and prose, underscore the fact that kids have a RIGHT to be protected against gender-based violence in schools.

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08/10/2012
Title IX

You Can't Replace Spikes with Splits

By Navya Lakkaraju, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 5:20pm

Though it’s been 40 long years since Title IX was passed, discouraging stories continue to pop up all around the country that show that many people just don’t want to implement this groundbreaking law. In 2009, Quinnipiac University in Connecticut decided to cut funding for their Women’s Volleyball team. This put them in direct violation of Title IX, a federal law that requires educational institutions to provide equal opportunities to participate in activities, including sports, for female and male students, and the ACLU of Connecticut sued on behalf of the former coach and women’s volleyball players.   But Quinnipiac claimed they weren’t restricting opportunities to women athletes. They claimed compliance with Title IX by triple-counting female cross country runners – who were also on the rosters of track and field teams – even if they didn’t actually compete. And to top it off, they claimed to have replaced volleyball with a suitable alternative: they installed a competitive cheerleading team in its place.

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07/02/2012
Women's Rights in the Workplace

The Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations Act Turns 20

 

While we’re all celebrating the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and oh, we are, let’s also take a moment to celebrate the 20th anniversary of another excellent law passed in 1992:  The Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations Act.  
 
This week, the U.S. Department of Labor used WANTO to award $1.8 million in grants to improve women’s participation in apprenticeships in industries such as advanced manufacturing, transportation, construction, and new and emerging green occupations.  Several of the grantees, such as Chicago Women in Trades, Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc., West Virginia Women Work, and Women in Non Traditional Employment Roles, have extensive experience moving women into construction – a notoriously male-dominated field.  Each of the six grantees will place at least 100 women in apprenticeships over the next two years.
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06/21/2012
Title IX

Visiting Capitol Hill in Celebration of 40 Years of Title IX

By Galen Sherwin, ACLU Women's Rights Project & Amy L. Katz, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 3:02pm

Forty years ago, we would have been rarities, women lawyers. Congresswoman Gwen Moore would have been a greater rarity: an African American female member of the House of Representatives. Yesterday we were on Capitol Hill to celebrate the 40th anniversary of a law that helped make our careers possible: Title IX.

We attended a panel briefing, hosted by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education and Rep. Moore in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Title IX and the launch of a new NCWGE report. Although Title IX is best known for its impact on increasing participation by women and girls in athletics, the report and the panel covered several of the less well-known applications of the landmark law, including career and technical education (CTE), science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), sexual harassment, the rights of pregnant and parenting students to complete their education, and single-sex education.

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06/21/2012
Title IX

Quilting is not Geometry: Pregnant and Parenting Teens Deserve an Education Free from Discrimination

By Tiseme Zegeye, ACLU Women's Rights Project at 2:21pm

This Saturday marks the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the landmark law that prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities. Among its other, better-known applications (for example, mandating equality in athletics), Title IX bans discrimination against pregnant and parenting students. Title IX’s regulations mandate that schools cannot apply school policies differently on the basis of sex based on marital or parental status, nor can a school discriminate against or exclude any person “on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, termination of pregnancy, or recovery therefrom.” 

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03/23/2012
Title IX

"Work It Out" With Your Rapist? No Way.

Outrageous: After a student in Texas reported her rape by a fellow student, school officials told to "work it out" with her rapist.

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