This summer, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the passage of Title IX, gender equity in collegiate athletics has once again emerged at the forefront of the college sports scene. In a grievance filed by the National Women's Law Center, Duke has been accused of being one of 25 schools nationally that is not sufficiently in compliance with Title IX. Is Duke actually an egregious violator of women's rights? Is it guilty of failing to do as much as it can to move swiftly towards a state of gender equality in athletics? Or is Duke doing as well as the rest of the country and simply a victim of its own notoriety?
To answer these questions, The Chronicle asked members of the university community with the best perspective on the current state of gender equity at Duke-the women of Blue Devil athletics. Four athletes and the University president share their thoughts on a variety of issues:
- Interviews by Michael King
What is your opinion about the current state of gender equity in athletics at Duke?
"Duke does a really good job trying to give equal opportunities, especially since they instilled women's lacrosse two years ago, which gave me the chance to compete here.
"We've had to cut some of the scholarships for men sports, and I just really think that is not the intention of Title IX-eliminate the opportunities for men in order to make room for women." - Karen Sutton, senior defender, women's lacrosse
"I definitely think that it is moving in the right direction. Our athletic department has been very supportive with the women's sports here at Duke. I feel financial as well as just verbal support from the athletic department throughout our season and even out of season." - Sam Baggett, senior defender, women's soccer
"One of the things that is clear is that women athletes and women coaches are, by and large, quite happy at Duke. People express a good deal of satisfaction with what's been made available for women athletes-not that everybody is happy with everything, but the level of satisfaction compared to some of our peers is pretty good.
"There are other prongs. For example, exact proportionality with the number of undergraduate women-which we don't have. And I think the question of how we would achieve that without making an enormous change in men's sports is a real problem." - President Nan Keohane
Is Duke moving forward at an acceptable pace?
"I was just looking at some figures about our 10-year plan and where we are with it in terms of increasing the percentage of women athletes and the kinds of opportunities available to them, and the amount of dollars that we spend on women's sports. On both those dimensions, Duke has been increasing steadily year by year.
"We can't just add sports for which at present there is no particular demand in order to hope, which is probably true, that in the long run women would come and be recruited and fill them up to the level of 48 percent. But to afford to do that without drawing money from other high priorities at the University-whether it's libraries or faculty salaries or residential life or whatever-the money doesn't just sit there. So if we decided we were going to try to do that boldly and dramatically over the next two years, for example, the money would have to come from somewhere. And I don't think anybody who has really wrestled with this feels like that is a high priority to do in such a bold fashion-because it would mean dramatically shifting resources in a way which we don't see as healthy or else dramatically reducing the sports available to men, which we don't see as healthy either." - President Keohane
Is Title IX still necessary?
"If it weren't there, a lot of schools still wouldn't pay attention to women's sports. Historically, males have played sports and made the sport famous, so I think in order for the women's sports to continue to grow, Title IX needs to exist. You've got these male revenue sports, so there's really not that much incentive to try and spend the same amount on women's sports. The more people know about women's sports, the more girls will play them in high school and the more it will all grow. In the end, it's just one thing affecting the other." - Vanessa Webb, junior, women's tennis
Should the NCAA establish strict monetary or scholarship number equalities for all schools to adopt and follow, or should it continue to leave the matter in the hands of the individual universities to monitor as best they can?
"I think there should be more trust placed in the schools because so much depends on where the school is, in terms of which sports are popular where. I just think that they should keep doing what they've been doing, checking up on the schools and making sure they follow the general requirements." - Karen Sutton
"Perhaps schools should try and aim for a certain percentage, if not exactly 50-50. But you have to be able to trust schools. It's for their best interests; it will create a much more well-rounded student body." - Samantha Baggett
"I don't think you should leave it entirely up to the schools. A figure set by the NCAA that everybody has to adhere to is really the only fair way." - Kim Voyticky, senior, women's track
What are your thoughts about the argument suggesting that schools should not be required to have the same number of female athletes as male athletes because "women are inherently less interested in competing in athletics?"
"Initially I agreed with that argument, but after talking with older women, like my mom for instance, there were a lot of athletic women who just didn't get the opportunities. I just think that there is a direct correlation between how many opportunities you give to females in sports and how many participate." - Karen Sutton
"I think there are lots of women who are interested in sports, just like there are men who aren't." - Kim Voyticky
"I think that in the past, less interest on the part of women has been evident. But I think that there is a growing interest in women's sports, and I think society in general is now accepting women as athletes. I don't think that's it's still equal, but by giving girls more opportunities it opens the window wider. And along with strong marketing support, like Nike's string of ads on female athletes, girls are being taught that you don't have to be a man to be an athlete." - Samantha Baggett
"I wouldn't make that argument. I think that women increasingly have interest in sports. If we had varsity sports scholarships available to recruit another hefty chunk of young women and others would come in for non-varsity sports up to 50 percent of the student body, I think people would be interested. Now, I can't guarantee that because I know that over time women have been less interested." - President Keohane
Should the football program, with its unusually high number of participants, be left out of Title IX equation?
"While there is almost an equal amount of female and male teams, there's a big imbalance as far as money is concerned and most of that's from football. In the end, I don't think that Duke faces any issues that are any different from any other schools. While Duke is being singled out as one of the schools not complying with Title IX, I think that's the case with most schools in the country and we're just being used as an example." - Kim Voyticky
"If you try and create gender equality based on scholarships, you have football, which has 85 scholarships, and there's no way that some of the other non-revenue male sports should suffer just because of football." - Samantha Baggett
"Football has 85 scholarships, and football is an expensive sport. Football takes a lot of people-coaches and players and supporting persons. So either in terms of dollars or in terms of number of participants, it becomes very difficult to reach some strict sense of equity if you've got a major football program.
"People are going to have to think through the consequences of that. Are they going to decide we're not going to have major football programs anymore? Or that suddenly universities are going to have to spend enormous amounts of more money on athletics? Is that a good thing at a time when we're all strapped?" - President Keohane
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