More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Title IX was passed in 1972 and prohibits sex (and pregnancy, gender identity or sexual orientation) discrimination in any higher education institution receiving federal funding. It guaranteed equal opportunities in sports for women and girls in higher education. It also provided resources and protections against sexual harassment and sexual assault.
The recent Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions was heralded as a victory for “merit-based” selection. The ruling has, however, left an implicit discriminatory practice intact: Male applicants continue to be prioritized over female applicants when needed to balance out the student population. This is no coincidence. It’s the result of a deeply ingrained, albeit often unacknowledged, bias in the admissions process that dates back decades.
On the first day of his second term in office, Trump signed the “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” executive order, which claims to defend and protect women by asserting that, as a matter of U.S. policy, the existence of transgender people will not be recognized. Trump followed up on Feb. 5 with his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order. These EOs join a long history of laws in the U.S. based on professed protection for women, which actually do the opposite.
While posturing as women’s protectors, Republican lawmakers ignore or inadequately address very real, substantiated and systemic threats to women, including in the intimate space of their own homes, where as many as one in four women experience domestic violence and more than three women are killed by husbands or boyfriends every day.
Women’s intelligence is insulted—and their autonomy further threatened—when the state asserts the intent to protect them from trumped-up threats that are overstated and insignificant in comparison to a spate of other much more common material, even mortal, threats to their lives and well-being.
A fierce feminist resistance is ready to defend women’s rights at the federal level—and creatively expand equality protections in the states. This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump’s attacks on democracy.
(This is the third in a four-part series on the steps activists are taking to fight for our rights amid Trump administration’s attacks on democracy.)
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This week: Getting pregnant doubles the risk of dying by homicide for women under 25; Biden has appointed a record 40 Black women to federal judgeships; Louisiana’s abortion ban has a chilling effect on maternal healthcare and miscarriage treatment; N.C. Republicans try to overturn the fair election of a Democratic justice; the psychological toll on children in Gaza is severe; Biden’s Title IX protections struck down; Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against actor and director Justin Baldoni for repeated sexual harassment and retaliation; Trump’s Cabinet will be the wealthiest in American history; and more.
Since 1972, when Title IX was signed into law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex by any educational program receiving federal financial assistance, colleges and universities have faced questions about what constitutes “discrimination” under the statute, specifically in the universe of college athletics.
Now, 52 years after the law was passed, the Department of Education is under threat by the incoming presidential administration at a crucial time for Title IX enforcement, as new NCAA policies could spell a threat to gender equality in the college sports space even as female student-athletes continue to gain visibility and marketability.
Throwing trans and nonbinary people under the bus is a terrible compromise to the very authoritarian ambitions that liberals say they’re stepping up to fight. We need more love and support for people who are stigmatized and under assault, not less. And we desperately need more understanding of sex, gender and sexuality.
Let’s equip ourselves with the intellectual tools that will help us understand how would-be tyrants use gender to divide us.
The infamous 887-page policy manual linked to Donald Trump and JD Vance aims to take Ron DeSantis’ war against liberal arts education nationwide.
Ms. spoke with Bedera about her research for her newly released book, On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence, and how Title IX has fared in the 52 years since its passage.
Her findings are appalling.
“The average college expels just one perpetrator of sexual assault every three years.
“One of the administrators … told me that he hesitated to consider something as rape unless it involved ‘a stranger jumping out of the bushes.’ Survivors’ experiences were consistently misunderstood and minimized.”
The fight for gender equality in sports remains a long, arduous journey.
The retroactive NIL (name, image and likeness) payments for former and current athletes included in the pending NCAA legal settlement would represent a new chapter in this battle by offering female athletes a chance to finally be compensated for their contributions to their sports and the universities they represented.
Part two of a three-part series about the 900-plus-page right-wing “misogynistic manifesto”:
Project 2025 eviscerates women’s long-held rights to sex equality in the workplace. Its plans for women students and workers would devastate their educational opportunities, harming their careers and earning power.
(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)