Library Guides: Title IX 50th Anniversary: Title IX and Women in Sports

Accessing eBooks

Access to most of these ebooks is provided by the Iowa State University Library. You'll need to login with your Net-ID to read these books.

Some books are open access and free to read by anyone. Open access titles are marked with an open access icon

Encyclopedic

Encyclopedia of Title IX and Sports by Nicole Mitchell; Lisa A. Ennis
Call Number: GV709.18.U6 M58 2007
ISBN: 9780313335877
Publication Date: 2007
Fierce debate has long loomed over Title IX, the landmark legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in schools, whether in academics or athletics. Since its inception, Title IX has inspired both backlash and backlash-against-backlash commentary. Supporters contend that the legislation is a long overdue measure in securing equal opportunities for girls and women in America's school and university athletics. Opponents argue that Title IX is nothing more than a government-enforced quota system that is damaging men's sports programs. Caught in the middle are the schools that struggle to develop equitable sports programs for male and female athletes. From the hard fought passing of Title IX in 1972 to the most recent debates surrounding compliance, this encyclopedia explores the significant individuals, events, key concepts, controversies, and legal cases revolving around Title IX and its application in collegiate athletics. This encyclopedia, the first of its kind, offers a comprehensive guide to various aspects and wide ranging issues associated with Title IX and sports. With more than 150 in-depth entries, this inclusive and authoritative reference will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers interested in both the historic framework and contemporary implications of Title IX and academic athletics. Sample entries include: A League of Their Own Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women v. NCAA (1984) Bonnie Blair Molly Machine Gun Bolin California NOW v. Board of Trustees of California State Universities (1993) Commission on Equal Opportunity in Athletics Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act Patsy Mink Ms. Foundation National Women's Football League National Wrestling Coaches Assocation Pederson v. Louisiana State University (2000) Three Part Test

links to news articles

Selected Books - Sex, Gender, and Title IX in Sports

Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Women's Sport by Susan K. Cahn
Call Number: GV709 C34 2015
ISBN: 0252039556
Publication Date: 2015
Acclaimed since its original publication, Coming on Strong has become a much-cited touchstone in scholarship on women and sports. In this new edition, Susan K. Cahn updates her detailed history of women's sport and the struggles over gender, sexuality, race, class, and policy that have often defined it. A new chapter explores the impact of Title IX and how the opportunities and interest in sports it helped create reshaped women's lives even as the legislation itself came under sustained attack.
Game, Set, Match by Susan Ware
ISBN: 0807834548
Publication Date: 2011
When Billie Jean King trounced Bobby Riggs in tennis's "Battle of the Sexes" in 1973, she placed sports squarely at the center of a national debate about gender equity. In this winning combination of biography and history, Susan Ware argues that King's challenge to sexism, the supportive climate of second-wave feminism, and the legislative clout of Title IX sparked a women's sports revolution in the 1970s that fundamentally reshaped American society. While King did not single-handedly cause the revolution in women's sports, she quickly became one of its most enduring symbols, as did Title IX, a federal law that was initially passed in 1972 to attack sex discrimination in educational institutions but had its greatest impact by opening opportunities for women in sports. King's place in tennis history is secure, and now, with Game, Set, Match, she can take her rightful place as a key player in the history of feminism as well. By linking the stories of King and Title IX, Ware explains why women's sports took off in the 1970s and demonstrates how giving women a sporting chance has permanently changed American life on and off the playing field.
Playing for Equality: Oral Histories of Women Leaders in the Early Years of Title IX by Diane LeBlanc; Allys Swanson
ISBN: 9781476663005
Publication Date: 2016
The right to participate in sports and competitive athletics is more than an issue of fair play-it's a matter of human rights. In 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments became law, transforming sports opportunities for girls and women in the U.S. Based on oral histories, this book chronicles Title IX's passage and implementation through the stories of eight women physical educators, coaches, Olympic athletes and administrators. They recall the experience of being female in mid-20th century, the influential teachers and mentors, and their work creating recreation, sport and athletic opportunity. Their narratives reveal gender, race and class inequity in higher education and athletics and describe how women leaders worked through sports to make women's rights human rights.
A Place on the Team by Welch Suggs
ISBN: 9780691128856
Publication Date: 2006
A Place on the Team is the inside story of how Title IX revolutionized American sports. The federal law guaranteeing women's rights in education, Title IX opened gymnasiums and playing fields to millions of young women previously locked out. Journalist Welch Suggs chronicles both the law's successes and failures-the exciting opportunities for women as well as the commercial and recruiting pressures of modern-day athletics. Enlivened with tales from Suggs's reportage, the book clears up the muddle of interpretation and opinion surrounding Title IX. It provides not only a lucid description of how courts and colleges have read (and misread) the law, but also compelling portraits of the people who made women's sports a vibrant feature of American life. What's more, the book provides the first history of the law's evolution since its passage in 1972. Suggs details thirty years of struggles for equal rights on the playing field. Schools dragged their feet, offering token efforts for women and girls, until the courts made it clear that women had to be treated on par with men. Those decisions set the stage for some of the most celebrated moments in sports, such as the Women's World Cup in soccer and the Women's Final Four in NCAA basketball. Title IX is not without its critics. Wrestlers and other male athletes say colleges have cut their teams to comply with the law, and Suggs tells their stories as well. With the chronicles of Pat Summitt, Anson Dorrance, and others who shaped women's sports, A Place on the Team is a must-read not only for sports buffs but also for parents of every young woman who enters the arena of competitive sports.
Gender Relations in Sport by Emily A. Roper (Volume Editor)
ISBN: 9789462094536
Publication Date: 2013
Designed primarily as a textbook for upper division undergraduate courses in gender and sport, gender issues, sport sociology, cultural sport studies, and women's studies, Gender Relations in Sport provides a comprehensive examination of the intersecting themes and concepts surrounding the study of gender and sport. The 16 contributors, leading scholars from sport studies, present key issues, current research perspectives and theoretical developments within nine sub-areas of gender and sport: Gender and sport participation Theories of gender and sport Gender and sport media Sexual identity and sport Intersections of race, ethnicity and gender in sport Framing Title IX policy using conceptual metaphors Studying the athletic body Sexual harassment and abuse in sport Historical developments and current issues from a European perspective The intersecting themes and concepts across chapters are also accentuated. Such a publication provides access to the study of gender relations in sport to students across a variety of disciplines. Gender Relations in Sport has been nominated for the following awards: Best Edited Collection in Popular and American Culture 2014 sponsored by the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Susan Koppelman Award for the Best Anthology, Multi-Authored, or Edited book in Feminist Studies in Popular and American Culture 2014 sponsored by the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association
Playing with the Boys by Eileen McDonagh; Laura Pappano
Call Number: GV706.5 M3673 2008
ISBN: 9780195167566
Publication Date: 2007
From small-town life to the national stage, from the boardroom to Capitol Hill, athletic contests help define what we mean in America by success. And by keeping women from playing with the boys on the grounds that they are inherently inferior to men, society relegates them to second-classstatus in American life.In this forcefully argued book, Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano show in vivid detail how women have been unfairly excluded from participating in sports on an equal footing with men. Using dozens of colorful examples from the world of contemporary American athletics--girls and women tryingto break through in high school football, ice hockey, wrestling, and baseball, to name just a few--the authors show that sex differences are not sufficient to warrant exclusion in most sports, that success usually entails more than brute strength, and that the special rules for women in many sportsdo not simply reflect the "differences" between the sexes, but actively create and reinforce them. For instance, if women's bodies give them a physiological advantage in endurance sports like the ultra-marathon and distance swimming, why do so many Olympic events--from swimming to skiing to runningto bike racing--have shorter races for women than men? Likewise, why are women's singles games in badminton limited to 11 points while men's singles go to 15? Surely female badminton players can endure four more points. Such rules merely reinforce a "difference" for social--not competitive--purposes.An original and provocative argument to level the athletic playing field, Playing with the Boys issues a clarion call for sex-sensible policies in sports as another important step toward the equality of men and women in our society.
Women in Sports by Amelia S. Halloway (Editor)
ISBN: 9781617281617
Publication Date: 2010
Although women and young girls have come a long way since the passage of Title IX some thirty four years ago, there is still a lot to do. The framers of the legislation and later on the guidelines understood that mandating equality in opportunity could not happen overnight, and that is the reason why the guidelines and the three-part participation test are crafted the way they are. History has painted a picture of tremendous growth and acceptance of the female athlete, but she still battles the perception that girls and women are inherently less interested in sports than men and that providing women with opportunities cheats men out of resources. This book gathers and presents topical research in the study of women in sports across a broad spectrum.
Invisible Seasons by Kelly Belanger
Call Number: GV709.18 U6 B45 2016
ISBN: 9780815634843
Publication Date: 2017
In 1979, a group of women athletes at Michigan State University, their civil rights attorney, the institution's Title IX coordinator, and a close circle of college students used the law to confront a powerful institution-their own university. By the mid-1970s, opposition from the NCAA had made intercollegiate athletics the most controversial part of Title IX, the 1972 federal law prohibiting discrimination in all federally funded education programs and activities. At the same time, some of the most motivated, highly skilled women athletes in colleges and universities could no longer tolerate the long-standing differences between men's and women's separate but obviously unequal sports programs. In Invisible Seasons, Belanger recalls the remarkable story of how the MSU women athletes helped change the landscape of higher education athletics. They learned the hard way that even groundbreaking civil rights laws are not self-executing. This behind-the?scenes look at a university sports program challenges us all to think about what it really means to put equality into practice, especially in the money-driven world of college sports.
Changing the Game by Kelly McFall; Abigail Perkiss
Call Number: GV709.18 U6 M36 2019
ISBN: 9780393696660
Publication Date: 2020
This Reacting to the Past game is set at a fictional university in the mid-1990s. A debate over the role of athletics quickly expands to encompass demands that women's sports and athletes receive more resources and opportunities. The result is a firestorm of controversy on and off campus. Drawing on congressional testimonies from the Title IX hearings, players advance their views in student government meetings, talk radio shows, town meetings, and impromptu rallies. As students wrestle with questions of gender parity and the place of athletics in higher education, they learn about the implementation--and implications--of legal change in the United States. Reacting to the Past is an award-winning series of immersive role-playing games that actively engage students in their own learning. Students assume the roles of historical characters to practice critical thinking, primary source analysis, and both written and spoken argument. Adopted by thousands of instructors at all types of institutions, Reacting to the Past games are flexible enough to be used across the curriculum, from first-year general education classes and discussion sections of lecture classes to capstone experiences and honors programs.
The Transformation of Title IX by R. Shep Melnick
ISBN: 9780815732228
Publication Date: 2018
One civil rights-era law has reshaped American society-and contributed to the country's ongoing culture wars Few laws have had such far-reaching impact as Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Intended to give girls and women greater access to sports programs and other courses of study in schools and colleges, the law has since been used by judges and agencies to expand a wide range of antidiscrimination policies-most recently the Obama administration's 2016 mandates on sexual harassment and transgender rights. In this comprehensive review of how Title IX has been implemented, Boston College political science professor R. Shep Melnick analyzes how interpretations of ""equal educational opportunity"" have changed over the years. In terms accessible to non-lawyers, Melnick examines how Title IX has become a central part of legal and political campaigns to correct gender stereotypes, not only in academic settings but in society at large. Title IX thus has become a major factor in America's culture wars-and almost certainly will remain so for years to come.
Let Me Play by Karen Blumenthal
Call Number: PZ125 B627L
ISBN: 9780689859571
Publication Date: 2005
Can girls play softball? Can girls be school crossing guards? Can girls play basketball or ice hockey or soccer? Can girls become lawyers or doctors or engineers? Of course they can... today. But just a few decades ago, opportunities for girls were far more limited, not because they weren't capable of playing or didn't want to become doctors or lawyers, but because they weren't allowed to. Then quietly, in 1972, something momentous happened: Congress passed a law called "Title IX," forever changing the lives of American girls. Hundreds of determined lawmakers, teachers, parents, and athletes carefully plotted to ensure that the law was passed, protected, and enforced. Time and time again, they were pushed back by Þerce opposition. But as a result of their perseverance, millions of American girls can now play sports. Young women make up half of the nation's medical and law students, and star on the best basketball, soccer, and softball teams in the world. This small law made a huge difference. From the Sibert Honor-winning author of Six Days in October comes this powerful tale of courage and persistence, the stories of the people who believed that girls could do anything -- and were willing to fight to prove it. A Junior Library Guild Selection