Each December as the old year ends, I tend to look back on my life. This exercise seems to take longer and longer, as I now have 72 years under my belt. Recently, President Biden inadvertently referred to Title VIII (Aliens and Nationality) as Title IX. The reference to Title IX brought back a torrent of memories wherein I particularly honed in on how views on gender affected my high school years. 

I attended high school from 1964 through 1968. High school for me began placidly enough. However soon, the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam conflict beginning the second semester of my freshman year. Suddenly, military recruiters roamed the halls of my high school. They were only interested in male students at that time. But I digress.

Throughout my high school experience, it was most apparent that there were no interscholastic competitive sports for female students. The female students were confined to intramural sports. For example, the female students in each grade would compete against one another in basketball or volleyball. Female students didn’t compete against other schools. Some of the lackluster activities for female students in gym were marching and folk dance. Naturally, these didn’t require a lot of athletic prowess, and of course, due to the lack of interscholastic competition, there were no opportunities for athletic scholarships for female students.

Even more blatant was the curricula divide. The female students were offered home economics. The male students were offered shop. No male student took home economics. No female student took shop. I experienced this divide personally. In my senior year, I had to challenge the administration to allow me to take Senior Math and French at the same time. I was the only female student who desired to take both courses. They were scheduled at the same days and periods. French was considered a course for female students. Ultimately, I was allowed to take French outside of class and the math course in class. I didn’t comprehend the inequity of that until years later.

In 1973, I entered the federal workforce and experienced firsthand many attorneys consumed with the task of enforcing the regulations implementing Title IX, found at 34 C.F.R. Part 106. The statute provides female students the right to an education equivalent to that of male students. I saw attorneys apply this statute to an ever-broadening array of circumstances. 

As a federal investigator, I worked with the attorneys in gathering facts to support legal action against public schools and universities in the Midwest that were not complying with the statute. The issues addressed were wide ranging. They included athletics, curricular offerings, sexual harassment, discipline, counseling, and financial assistance, among many others. 

In the 1970’s, many local school districts funded interscholastic sports for male students to a much greater degree than they funded sports for female students. This resulted in fewer opportunities for female students to participate in interscholastic athletics. Further, this consequently limited the girls’ opportunities to earn athletic scholarships. Many of the settlements negotiated to remedy this disparity included concerted efforts to increase the interest of female students in participating in sports and the re-allocation of funds to girls’ sports. 

Another prevalent issue was sex segregated extra-curricular activities. For example, some school districts offered robotics and computer clubs to male students only. Offending institutions were required to generate the interest of female students in such activities and to offer activities to students that would be of interest to all students.

As the years progressed, I witnessed the emergence of sexual harassment as an activity prohibited by Title IX in public schools and universities. Educational institutions that overlooked harassment of students on the basis of sex were held accountable for violations of Title IX. Students subjected to harassment were no longer blamed for the behavior of perpetrators. 

Counseling was another area in which disparate treatment was documented. High school counselors were found to have discouraged female students from pursuing science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) courses when applying to colleges and universities.

The attorneys with whom I worked for a span of 34 years advanced the public’s perception of female capabilities through their vigilant efforts. Their work is of historical significance.