During my last semester of junior college, I studied abroad in Oxford, England. I came home from school one bright spring day to find a bouquet of flowers on the kitchen table. I assumed they were from my boyfriend back home and so did my "host dad." "You tell your Brian he'd better not send any more flowers or Louise will have my head!" I smiled dreamily, grabbed the card, and said, "Well maybe you should give her some flowers then." I opened the card and was surprised to see that it was not from Brian. The card read, "Congratulations on your scholarship to San Jose. Love Mom and Dad." I read the card again and began jumping up and down. " Trevor guess what? I got a scholarship to play water polo!" He responded with "Oh good, they're not from Brian…Louise our 'Yank' is getting 'kraky' (crazy) again." I raced to the phone, knowing it was four in the morning at home, and dialed my parents' phone number. My father answered with a groggy, "hello," and the rest is history. From that point on my life changed tremendously.

After years of struggles, heartache, and hard work, this year, 1998-1999, San Jose State plans to be in total compliance with Title IX (San Jose 3). As you will see, this was no easy feat. In talking with many young girls, I found that most do not know what Title IX really is nor do they understand the effect it has had on all young women, especially athletes. Until recently all I knew about Title IX was that it was a law about gender equity and that it was the reason I got to play water polo with the boys in high school. I now know differently. I now understand and I want you to understand that Title IX is not just a law, it is a movement. It is a small but momentous part of the women's movement. Many women and men have worked very hard so that the girls of the future will have a chance to compete in athletics. Title IX and the people behind it have made a difference. The San Jose State women's water polo team would not be in its third season and on it's way to becoming a college women's water polo power house if it weren't for the people who fought for Title IX. I, and many girls like me, would not have had the chance to compete in athletics. I know that would not be the strong and independent woman that I am today without athletics, without Title IX.

Attitudes against female athletes

Women have been discouraged and banned from various sports for centuries (Sherrow 79). It used to be that participation in sports represented a non-traditional role for women and "violated femininity" (Glover 28). Opponents of female athletes have argued that women are too mentally and physically weak for various sports and that they are easily injured. One long-standing argument held that strenuous physical activity and competitive sports would prevent women from being able to conceive and bear children. Now, experts agree that the uterus and ovaries are better protected by nature than are the male sex organs (Sherrow 79). The female organs are inside of the body whereas the male organs are not. Another argument against allowing women in athletics was about the vulnerability of the female breasts. But, experts now agree that the knees and elbows of both sexes are far more susceptible to injury than women's breasts (Sherrow 265). The growing interest in sports, by women, and the passing of Title IX are responsible for these changes of attitude.

Title IX History

Title IX was drafted by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and was passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It requires that people of both sexes have equal opportunities in educational programs, including athletics. It reads: "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance" (Sherrow 307). Part of Title IX required schools either to provide sports teams for girls or let girls try out for the boy's teams. This was the reason that I was able to play water polo on the boys team in high school.

In 1972 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) lobbied strenuously against the passage of Title IX. At that time the governing body for women's sports had emerged in the form of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). It enforced standards and regulations for women's college athletic programs and competitions. Title IX passed in 1972 and membership in the AIAW grew until 1974 when the powerful NCAA decided to take over women's collegiate sports (Sherrow 206). Unfortunately, for many years after that the requirements and elements of Title IX were still unclear. Some schools declared varsity cheerleading a sport, in order to have a current activity qualify as a women's sport program. Rather than implement new women's athletic programs at their schools, they gave additional money to cheerleading squads (Sherrow 307). "Although the number of women athletes grew during the seventies, social acceptance of the athlete had not" (Glover 28). Most men were afraid that their sports programs were going to be hurt and therefore, they did not support women's athletic teams. Many men felt that the only way to increase athletic participation for women would be to reduce men's participation. They felt it would cut into their funds and damage their programs (Sherrow 307).

Title IX has undergone many changes to make its requirements clear. In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court removed the applicability of Title IX to most athletics programs in the case of Grove City v. Bell (Achieving I-2). The ruling said that only athletic departments with direct aid from the federal government had to comply with Title IX (Lewis), which caused a decrease in the effort to meet gender equity in athletic programs. The decision was eventually reversed by the U.S. Congress, with the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988 (Achieving I-2). This caused a resurgence in the development of women's sports programs. But Title IX was most clearly defined with the 1992 Supreme Court decision in Franklin v. Gwinnett. The Franklin decision allowed plaintiffs to recover monetary damages and attorney fees in Title IX cases. Before Franklin, the courts could only provide injunctive relief, an order to end any discrimination that was found (Achieving I-2).

After Title IX was finally ironed out, the requirements were clearly defined. The athletic participation percentage must be the same ratio as the undergraduate population of the school (Lewis). If the under graduate population is thirty percent women, then the athletes must also be thirty percent women. As far as the budget is concerned, it is not necessary that the same amount of money be spent on women as is being spent on men. What it does require is that the impact of the budget for men's teams equal the impact on the women's teams (Lewis). For example, if one men's team gets top of the line uniforms, then one women's team must get top of the line uniforms. Title IX is much more complicated than it seems. Other categories that must be analyzed for equity are: equipment and supplies, scheduling of games and practice time, travel and per diem allowances, tutoring, coaching, locker rooms, practice and competitive facilities, medical and training facilities and services, housing and dining facilities and services, publicity, support services, and recruitment of athletes (Achieving II-1). As you can see, meeting gender equity is not simple to calculate.

The effects of Title IX began to surface slowly. It was estimated that women's intercollegiate sports received one percent, or less, of the average college's total budget in 1970; that was up to 16.4 percent in 1978-79 (Hickok 452). An example of how things used to be is that when Title IX was passed in 1972, Carolyn Lewis, the current Senior Associate Athletic Director for SJSU, was the head softball coach at Cal Poly Pomona. Her entire softball budget was less than the $325 the baseball team spent on their belts alone. She raised funds to enter tournaments and camped at campgrounds when traveling (Lewis).

Implementing gender equity was and continues to be a constant struggle for women involved in athletic administration. Jackie Walker, the women's gymnastic coach at SJSU, remembers one argument made by some men: when traveling, men should have a larger meal allowance than women because men eat more. Women advocates returned with the idea that they would have to test the metabolic rates of all the athletes because there are women who eat more than some men. The argument was quickly dropped. Jackie also points out that "when traveling, women don't go into a restaurant and order from the 'women's menu'" (Walker).

SJSU Gender Equity

Carolyn Lewis came to SJSU in 1975, as the head coach for women's basketball, when women's athletics was beginning to grow. Two years later, the women's intercollegiate athletic department was formed. The coaching staff was funded half by the athletic department and half by the physical education department. At this point, a coach could finally buy a set of uniforms for a women's team. Carolyn was ultimately able to award the first women's scholarship to a basketball player (Lewis). Gail Fullerton, the President of SJSU during the turbulent years of Title IX, wanted to add women's sports programs at SJSU, but there was no funding for them. Because Title IX was not enforced until 1992 with the Franklin decision, there was no reason for the university to attempt to find the money to develop women's programs.

In 1982 Mary Zimmerman became the women's athletic director at SJSU. At this time, the men's and women's programs were still separate. The era of Mary Zimmerman is a painful but extremely important part of SJSU's gender equity history. In 1987 the men's and women's athletic departments merged. Zimmerman applied for the Athletic Director position, but was never even given a chance to interview. She was automatically named the Associate Athletic Director and Randy Hoffman was named Athletic Director. In 1988, when Title IX was still unclear and not enforced, the field hockey team, which constituted twenty-five percent of female athletes at SJSU, was dropped (Lewis). The university still felt it met the requirements of Title IX because it would still have seven men's teams and seven women's teams (Walker). The number of female athletes declined tremendously due to this drop, which was clearly not equitable. Randy Hoffman left SJSU in September of 1990. Again, Mary Zimmerman applied for the Athletic Director position, but was never interviewed. Tom Brennan was hired as the new Athletic Director. At first Brennan did not support gender equity outright. When Mary Zimmerman, as the Associate Athletic Director, spoke against Brennan's views on the topic, her position began diminishing. In 1990, she was transferred to student services. Then one year later, in 1991, her contract was not renewed (Zimmerman).

Mary Zimmerman filed a complaint alleging gender discrimination but no action was being taken. So she called upon the Office of Civil Rights, OCR, to investigate SJSU for violation of Title IX. This investigation was conducted in 1992 and its results prompted a voluntary compliance plan, which was agreed upon by OCR and SJSU: the five-year plan (Lewis). In 1991, Mary Zimmerman was contacted by the attorneys handling the California National Organization of Women (NOW) lawsuit against the entire CSU system. They asked her to become a co-plaintiff in the lawsuit and she agreed to (Zimmerman). Even when she was no longer employed by SJSU, Mary Zimmerman fought for the women athletes. This suit was settled out of court in October of 1993. The lawsuit was ground breaking and is now considered to be a model to other schools (Killion, "Zimmerman's" 1D). Under the terms of the agreement with California NOW, each state university must increase opportunities for women to play intercollegiate athletics and to significantly raise the level of funding for women's programs (Chi 1E). The five-year plan also met these requirements. Gail Fullerton had left SJSU in 1991 and Handel Evans was serving as the interim president during the settlement of the lawsuits. Regarding the California NOW lawsuit, Evans said "the aspirations of the National Organization of Women were actually our own. It was easy to agree with them" (Chi 1E).

Zimmerman also went on to file a wrongful termination suit against the university. She felt she was fired because of discrimination based on gender and in retaliation for her support of gender equity at SJSU (Zimmerman). She settled out of court in 1994. This settlement was considered to be the first of its kind for a female athletic administrator. Zimmerman was "hopeful that this settlement would dissuade other institutions and athletic directors from discriminating against women administrators and coaches because of their advocacy of gender equity and the law" (Killion, "zimmerman's 1D). She said, "when I thought of the coaches and young women and all the opportunities ahead, I got tears in my eyes. It's the greatest thing and it is what should have been occurring all along" (Killion, "SJSU" 1A). Mary Zimmerman knew the day she stood up for gender equity at SJSU that she would never work in athletics again (Zimmerman). She would eventually be considered a traitor for turning in SJSU because it had not complied with the law. Being part of athletics was what she loved and it was her whole life. Many women at other universities have had to make tremendous sacrifices like Mary's because they also stood up for enforcement of Title IX and gender equity. SJSU athletics as a whole had good intentions but the process of gender equity was occurring too slowly. The lawsuits acted as catalysts and sped it up. Finally, twenty years after Title IX was passed, SJSU began a five year plan to put itself in compliance with Title IX during the 1998-1999 academic year.

During the first year of the five-year plan, 70.1 percent of the athletes were male and 29.9 percent of the athletes were female (SJSU). SJSU also established a gender equity advisory committee (GEAC), currently led by Carolyn Lewis, which is comprised of coaches, university administrators, and administrators in the athletic department. SJSU provided Title IX training for all athletics staff. In 1994-1995, halfway through the five year plan, the percentage of female athletes increased to 37.5 (SJSU). In the 1996-1997 year, SJSU was rated by the Women's Sports Foundation as the 25^th best gender equitable university in the nation (San Jose 2). This year, 1998-1999, SJSU proposed it would be in total compliance with Title IX. This means women's athletic participation must be within five percent of the university undergraduate women enrolled. Athlete percentages fluctuate, but this year it is at about 50.5% men and 49.5% women (Lewis). If SJSU fails to comply, with Title IX requirements, it will be in jeopardy of losing federal funding. The preliminary undergraduate enrollment for the fall was 48.17% men and 51.83% women (Lewis). These numbers, as well as equity in the other facets, such as practice time, of Title IX, put SJSU in compliance.

Total compliance is far from an easy thing to achieve and SJSU is one of the first universities to do it. Carolyn Lewis, who has led and continues to lead SJSU in Title IX compliance, estimated that every percentage point increase in athletic participation costs the athletic department about $100,000 (Lewis). Although it took a couple of decades to achieve, SJSU is now very clearly a gender equity advocate. John Palomino, regional director of the OCR cited SJSU for its cooperation with the investigation and the internal initiative it took in creating the elements of the five-year plan (Chi 1E). The lawsuits and investigation provoked SJSU to strive for gender equity. Most people knew that gender equity was the right thing to do. They just did not know how to go about doing it. I say from experience that SJSU now takes care its athletes and tries to treat all athletes the same, which is not even required by Title IX. For the first time ever in SJSU history, all of the women's sports were fully funded this year (Walker). This means that SJSU gives all of its women's teams as much money as the NCAA will allow.

Fundraising

A significant and usually neglected area of gender equity is the importance of fundraising. Universities attempting to comply with Title IX do not just dig money up to fund women's programs. They have to raise the money through people and hard work. Commuter schools, like SJSU, have a hard enough time raising money for athletics as a whole, much less extra money to fund new sports programs. We are not a Stanford or a USC or even a Berkeley. We do not have as much financial support from the community and the alumni as most schools do. So, to add a women's program is like asking money to appear out of nowhere.

There is one woman who has by far been the biggest supporter of SJSU women's athletics. As Mary Zimmerman puts it, "it would take forever to tell you what Susie Wilson has contributed to SJSU women's athletics." Susanne Wilson is a lobbyist who served as an elected official for eighteen years in San Jose (Wilson). She is one of the original woman activists of the area, who helped begin fundraising for women at SJSU (Tower). When I asked her if I could interview her about gender equity at SJSU, she modestly said, "I just fundraise." What she and women like her may not realize is that without them no women's athletic program could get off its feet.

It all began, in 1980, when Joyce Malone, the women's Athletic Director at the time, asked Susie to fire the gun at the first women's fundraiser, "The Race to Nationals." This event raised $7000 (Wilson). Susie realized that she could contribute to this and the next year she challenged the university president, Gail Fullerton, to run more laps and raise more money (Wilson). Susie saw that this event needed a broader base of support so she invited women in the community to become involved. The second year, Susie and Gail changed the name to the "Walk for the Women of Sparta." There were twenty-two walkers and they raised over $16,000. The walk went on to raise $172,410 in 1989 with seventy-two walkers (Walk Historical). The fundraiser that Susie and later Mary Zimmerman sculpted became the major portion of money used to fund the women's programs. Susie Wilson is by far the leader in raising money throughout the history of the walk. She raised the first whole scholarship for a women athlete (Tower). When Mary Zimmerman left the university, the walk ended. The eleven-year total for the walk is $1,259,644.74 (Walk, Newsletter). The newsletter after the last walk in 1991 included this quote: "each woman athlete of the future can be proud to be a part of this perpetual legacy. The women who came together over the years can look to the role they played and know The Walk for Women of Sparta made a difference" (Walk, Newsletter). Reading that newsletter eight years after it was published is touching. I can only hope that the women who participated in this fundraiser knew the contribution they made to my life as well as that of all other future SJSU female athletes.

In 1994 a new fundraiser was created, "The Women of Sparta Golf Tournament." This is a golf tournament which only women can enter. All it's profits go to the women's athletic department. Between the years of the walk and the golf tournament, many men in the community finally saw that the money raised by the women all those years was not lost to men. It was money created by women and for women in an effort to support the female athletes of the future (Wilson). It is women like Susie Wilson who make a difference. She helped to make the dream of gender equity, at SJSU, a reality.

SJSU Water Polo History

Part of the SJSU five-year plan was to add a sport every year (Tully). My sport, water polo, was the last sport to be added. The choice was between water polo and four other sports. People who are involved in US Water Polo, such as Dan Sheridan, the liaison between collegiate water polo and US Water Polo, and Megan Hernandez, the Pacific Zone Representative for women's water polo, lobbied SJSU to add water polo (Tully). Even Lou Tully, the future coach of SJSU women's water polo, was indirectly involved in the process of choosing water polo as the last sport to be added. He was coaching the high school teams at Leland and many of his girls signed a petition to signify their interest in water polo at SJSU (Tully).

Lou was hired as the coach in September of 1996. He planned to field a team for the following spring season. He put up posters on campus recruiting women to play that first year in the spring of 1997, which was a club team (McDonough). Since water polo is traditionally a men's sport, there were almost no experienced women on campus who Lou could recruit. So the first women to play water polo for SJSU were brand new to the sport. Rosanne Benson, the head swimming coach at the time, supported water polo by encouraging her swimmers to join the team. She went so far as to allow the women to play for an hour with the water polo team every so often during the swim season. Mary McDonough, our team's first captain, was one of the swimmers who wanted to play water polo. She remembers that some of the swimmers soon-to-be water polo players were so excited to play that they eagerly tried to sneak into water polo practice instead of swim practice (McDonough). On the first team, only two people had played water polo before (Tully). Lou had to teach the team everything from scratch. Once they got a chance to play, some of the women from that first team decided to play water polo instead of swim.

There were six women from the first year who played the second year. The second year Lou had more time to bring in many experienced players. He also had four scholarships to give out (Tully). There were about twenty-five players on the team and it was an NCAA sanctioned sport instead of a club sport. I was a member of this team. It was an amazing year. The twenty-five of us who had never played Division I or ever played together for that matter, pulled together that season to finish ranked sixteenth in the nation. I believe, without a doubt, that we will move up in the ranking this year. This third year, there are thirty-four women on our team. So far, each year the number of girls on our team increases. Now that girls don't have to play on boys teams in high school and have the opportunity to play girls water polo, they are jumping at it. These girls are now going to college looking forward to playing women's water polo. This year we are fully funded and Lou has brought in many very strong players. As time goes on the women in this sport get better and better. Every year the freshman who come in have more experience than the last group because they have had more opportunities to play girls water polo. When I was in high school, I never even knew that there was girl's water polo out there. I was simply a girl playing a boy's sport. The fact that women's water polo has grown so much recently is clearly an effect of Title IX.

Now just think of all the women on this one team alone and imagine how they have benefited from the addition of one sport at a single university. Ask any one of the women on my team if they have benefited, as a person, from the chance to play water polo. I guarantee their answer would be an enthusiastic "heck yeah!"

Effects

The effects of the Title IX movement have come far and wide. An NCAA participation rate study from 1994-1995 indicated that overall participation numbers in women's sports have increased from approximately 93,000 in 1990-1991 to more than 110,000 in 1994-1995. The same study showed that men's participation increased as well, from more than 184,000 to more than 189,000 (Achieving I-2). Everyone sees and feels the benefits of Title IX. It is also allowing many women to be the first in their family to receive a degree. Being an athlete pushes women to continue and finish college. I know from experience that athletics teaches people valuable lessons, especially women, such as: how to win, how to lose, and how to be a member of a team.

The increase in collegiate women athletes is only part of it. The other part is the effect it has on high school girls. In 1970, about 300,000 girls were playing competitive high school sports in the U.S. By the early 1990's more than 2,000,000 girls were competing (Sherrow 80). I was in high school in the early nineties and there are many more sports offered to girls now than there were even as recently as when I was in high school, just five years ago. High school girls who are not interested in the popular sports like softball, basketball, or swimming now have the chance to play different sports. They can even play some traditionally men's sports like soccer, volleyball, and water polo. It is amazing how becoming an athlete can change a girl's life. Shawn Hubler wrote a story in the LA Times about the change in her daughter since she became a high school athlete in water polo. "In a single season, thanks to the addition [of water polo], our teenager dropped twenty pounds, became a juggernaut of drive and organization and learned how people act when they are part of a team." Now parents see the opportunities sports create for their daughters. As Carolyn Lewis said, "America sees female athletes in a better light." Moms and dads want their daughters to become athletes. Girls learn at a young age how to deal with glory and how to deal with pain. Hubler points out that girls learn the "personal power that comes with being a contributing member of a winning team…and you can't help but marvel at the power of these girls as they splash to victory with their high-fives and buff bodies and cheering sections of boyfriends in the stands." It is amazing how the Title IX movement has changed a society's way of thinking. Susie Wilson shared with me an example of this new thinking in a little girl. The little girl was asked, in a room full of people, what she wanted to be when she grew up. The little girl responded with "I want to be a basketball player." Upon hearing this not a single person laughed or smirked like they would have in the past (Wilson). It was not only amazing that the little girl knew that she could become a basketball player but also that the people in the room knew it was a reality too. Girls can now grow up to be professional athletes, police officers, fire fighters, scientists, construction workers or engineers. We have many more options than our mothers had.

It's Not Over Yet

Although San Jose State intended to, it did not truly act with force to put Title IX into action until twenty years after it was passed. Regardless, it will still be one of the first schools to be in total compliance with Title IX. The strides made by women like Mary Zimmerman, Susie Wilson, and Carolyn Lewis, who have seen and led SJSU through this incredible transition, should always be remembered, treasured, honored and celebrated. We, as the young women and next generation of women's activists, need to use the example that they, and all women across the country like them, have set to keep pushing for equality because the fight is not over yet. Surveys conducted by the NCAA in 1991 showed that female athletes receive only about one third of the scholarship money available for student athletes (Sherrow). As I said, SJSU is one of the first universities to be in total compliance with Title IX.

Another part of gender equity that needs to be addressed is that, since Title IX was passed, the number of female coaches has declined sharply. In 1972, ninety percent of the coaches for women's teams were women, but that percent declined to fifty by 1987. Since men hold most of the administrative and coaching positions, they have more control over the sports programs (Sherrow 308). The NCAA has cited that overall women coaches' salaries are lower than those of male coaches with similar experience and qualifications (Sherrow 80).

We have moved beyond the days when women athletes were scorned and looked down upon. And, although it took many years for Title IX to be effective, its effects are amazing. It is important to remember that it was not the words of the law that got us to where we are today, it was the people behind it. The goals of all those people who sacrificed and worked so hard are beginning to be reached. I am an example of this. I have become the woman I am today in many ways because I had the chance to be a student athlete. The benefits are trickling down to high schools where many girls are choosing to pursue athletics and they are also changing due to this opportunity. It is important for us, as today's young women athletes to see that there are still serious strides to be made in the gender equity movement. We are the beneficiaries of many years of struggle by our mothers and grandmothers, and it is our duty to thank them and to make it even better for our daughters.

Return to Projects

References