Sports Illustrated seems to shunt its most controversial stories to its website, and if Marcia Frost of collegeandjuniortennis.com had not forwarded an email copy of this article by by E.M. Swift, I doubt I would ever have seen it.
The topic of the unintended consequences of Title IX has shown up in comments on this site, usually when I link to a story about yet another men's tennis team being axed. Swift mentions men's tennis in this piece; but the usual ogre in this drama, football, isn't discussed. I agree that back in the 70's, Title IX was necessary, and now it probably isn't, at least in its current form.
One of the great pleasures I've had in the past three years of covering junior tennis is meeting so many girls who take for granted their lives as athletes. There is no stigma, no self-consciousness, no glass ceilings, thanks in large part to the women who battled all those things in previous generations--with the assistance of Title IX. But as Swift says:
If you believe that being on a team, practicing, learning discipline through sports is beneficial to the development of the individual, as I do, then as a society we are poorer every time a school eliminates any athletic program -- male or female. School administrators don't enforce gender proportionality for chemistry, economics or English-lit classes. Why should they try to engineer gender ratios in sports?
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