Women Still Have Some Legal Recourse

The article “Title IX, Did It Work” (Oct. 22) focused some needed attention on the continued inequality between men’s and women’s athletic programs in our educational institutions. It is not true, however, that the “death” of Title IX leaves women athletes without legal recourse.

At least in California, the dream of equal athletic opportunities and a serious commitment to women’s athletic programs is far from dead. In 1976, the California legislature enacted Education Code Section 41 which specifically prohibits sex discrimination in school-sponsored athletic programs.

Section 41 then prohibits the use of any public funds in connection with any athletic program conducted under the auspices of a school district or community college governing board or any student organization within the district that “does not provide equal opportunity to both sexes for participation and for use of facilities.”

In addition to Section 41, the Education Code also contains the more general anti-discrimination language of Section 200, which is essentially the state equivalent of Title IX. Passed in 1982, it prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex and requires “equal rights and opportunities in the educational institutions of the state.”

Despite the fact that these statutes have been on the books for years, they have been largely ignored by school administrators who continue to shortchange women athletes. On Nov. 14, 1984, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California filed a lawsuit on behalf of 17 women athletes at Long Beach City College. The suit alleges vast disparities in the resources allocated the men’s and women’s athletic programs.

The Long Beach City College case asserts that an athletic program budget must be divided according to each gender’s representation on the student body, unless the administration can show, by objective evidence, that the program for a given gender cannot absorb its proportionate share of the resources. The case has far-reaching implications and has attracted nationwide attention.

DANIELLA SAPRIEL

Los Angeles