Leveling the Playing Fields
When George Drake ’56 was a student at Grinnell, he didn’t give much thought to the fact that his female peers couldn’t play sports. “The women watched, and we performed,” says Drake, a top track and cross country runner as a student. “Once in awhile, some women might play field hockey against another school, but the thought was that strenuous athletics was not something women did.”
Fast-forward to 1979, when Drake was inaugurated as the College’s president. By then, Drake guesses that perhaps 20 percent of the women in the student body were competing in varsity athletics, and the numbers were rising.
The difference, of course, was Title IX. This tiny section of the Education Amendments of 1972 didn’t even mention women or athletics. But it effectively transformed girls’ and women’s sports in just 37 words: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” It applied to any programs a school offered, but the most glaring inequity was in athletics. And the stark economic choice in the legislation’s language — offer equal opportunities or lose federal funding — propelled institutions nationwide to build teams, gyms, playing fields, and millions of new opportunities for women. The changes at Grinnell were as dramatic as at many other schools across the country.
Today at Grinnell, both men and women compete in 10 varsity sports each. Last year, nearly 200 women competed in at least one varsity sport.
In the 40 years since Title IX was implemented, there has been enormous change both at Grinnell and nationwide that has led to greater equity in the opportunities offered to men and women. But the work of Title IX is far from finished. Grinnell continues to grapple with nuanced athletic and wellness issues for both men and women. More recently, the school has begun to address sexual assault concerns through the lens of Title IX [see p. 38]. But even as the issues of Title IX change over time, one thing hasn’t: Grinnell’s commitment to go beyond simple compliance to the law to reflect its spirit.
The Calculus of Discrimination
A few Grinnell women had competed on men’s teams before Title IX — and some had bested their male teammates. Golfer Julie Litchfield ’66 played on the freshman men’s golf team. At a double-dual meet against Coe and Cornell, she shot a 94 and led the team to victory. At least one other golfer and three runners competed on male teams before Title IX as well, sometimes to the chagrin of both teammates and competitors.
When Title IX passed, Grinnell found a strong champion for equity in athletic director John Pfitsch. Until then, the few women who had been able to compete on the men’s teams had his blessing; under his leadership, the first sports offered to women were basketball, swimming, tennis, and track. When Title IX became law, Pfitsch was one of its staunchest advocates, Drake recalls. “There was no question in John’s mind that women’s sports were just as important as men’s sports, and his openness and encouragement was critical,” he says. Indeed, when a female athlete asked to play on the baseball team, Pfitsch overruled the head coach’s claims that it was too dangerous, and said she could join.
But as the number of women playing sports skyrocketed, so did some thorny problems. For example, the Physical Education Complex had been built just before Title IX, so the college had a brand-new facility that simply couldn’t accommodate the number of women who wanted to play. Dee Fairchild arrived at Grinnell in 1984 and became the athletic director after Pfitsch retired in 1986. She recalls that women’s locker rooms were inadequate at best. It was only in 2010, after the second phase of the Charles Benson Bear ’39 Recreation and Athletic Center completed, that the inequity was fully resolved.
Hiring new coaches to lead the new women’s teams also proved problematic early on. Fairchild was eager to find women coaches to helm the new women’s teams, but female candidates often had much thinner resumes than their male counterparts because they simply hadn’t had as many opportunities to play or coach. “Many of them didn’t have the experience, but they definitely had the skill,” she says. She and her staff worked hard to find top women’s coaches — especially those who might be green, but who had significant potential. “I knew I would have to mentor them, and I considered that an important part of my job,” she says.
There were also questions of fairness and equality in other areas, from travel accommodations to more personal matters. “When I first looked over the men’s football budget after I became athletic director, there was a budget for jock straps,” Fairchild says. “There was no budget in women’s sports for sports bras. Of course, sports bras are much more expensive. But we needed to buy both or we needed to buy neither. It wasn’t about having men’s and women’s budgets the same. Individually, we wanted to make sure each athlete had as much as any other.” In the end, male athletes ended up buying their own athletic supporters.
These growing pains at Grinnell were common everywhere; one difference was the level of support the Grinnell administration provided to ensure equity. “George Drake was very, very responsive to my concerns,” Fairchild says. “I never had a problem getting equitable budgets.”
Nuances of Equity
When Title IX first became law, the differences among men’s and women’s sports was vast; today, the gap is much narrower. Grinnell has improved opportunities, funding, and facilities to help give female athletes a similar experience to their male counterparts. It has also begun to address subtler issues that have long given an edge to men’s teams.
For example, women’s and men’s basketball teams typically play their games one after the other; at most schools, the women’s team has generally played first. That often felt like a warm-up to the premier event: the men’s game. This year, the Midwest Conference deemed the tradition to be in violation of Title IX. Going forward, the men and women will switch game times each year.
A second concern has been alumni support, which has tended to come from men to support men’s teams. Head women’s basketball coach Kate Gluckman says it makes sense: “The men’s programs tend to have more longevity than the women’s programs, and male alumni who participate in varsity athletics tend to give more than females at this point,” she says. So far, however, coaches from Grinnell’s programs have tended to split gifts with women’s teams to help provide better experiences for both groups.
Sometimes, Grinnell has invoked Title IX to ensure parity for men. Grinnell’s robust wellness program, for example, has tweaked some of its offerings, says wellness coordinator Jen Jacobsen ’95. “Some male students would say ‘I like that we do sex ed on campus, but most of it is directed toward women. Where are the men in this conversation?’” This past fall, the department created a Men’s Health and Wellness Group in response. “We don’t want men to feel left out,” Jacobsen says.
Support for All
Legislating equality was a catalyst for women’s sports, but continuing to build a culture where men’s and women’s sports are equally valued is also incredibly powerful. Forty years ago, women’s sports were looked upon with some skepticism. Even 20 years ago, when Jacobsen was a cross country and track athlete at Grinnell, she says she often felt like the women’s teams were “little sisters” to the men’s teams, even if they were similarly successful. That’s changed. “Top female athletes are seen as just as impressive as top male athletes,” she says. “They get the same amount of respect from students.”
Today, many of Grinnell’s women’s sports attract as many fans — both male and female — as do men’s teams. Drake avidly follows the women’s volleyball team, not only for their competitiveness but for the way he says they “manifest their joy in the sport” — something he says he sometimes find lacking in the men’s sports he follows. “There are differences between men’s and women’s teams, but we’re learning to appreciate those differences,” he says.
But Drake says the work of Title IX — at Grinnell and beyond — is not yet done. “This is an evolutionary phenomena, and I don’t think we’re at the end of it by any means,” he says. “We probably can’t anticipate all the pressure points, but it will be interesting to see the directions it takes in the future.”
Gender Equity in Science
Title IX has had the most visible impact in girls’ and women’s athletics. But now, people have begun to turn their attention to the sciences where, both nationally and at Grinnell, women tend to be less likely to major in biology, chemistry, math, and physics than men. Physics professor and associate dean Mark Schneider says that the issues in the sciences aren’t as straightforward as they have been in sports. “Discrimination and discouragement faced by girls and women at the various levels of our education system is readily quantified, in dollars and offerings, for athletics,” he says. “It’s more subtle and cultural in nature for pursuit of the sciences.”
Title IX hasn’t motivated programs that Grinnell has introduced to encourage women in the sciences, but these programs also illustrate that the College takes its responsibility to women seriously. Perhaps the most important contribution to increasing the number of women in the sciences at Grinnell has been the Grinnell Science Project (originally the New Science Project).
The program, initiated by College President Pamela Ferguson in 1992, addresses the underrepresentation of groups (including women and students of color) among science students at Grinnell. Today, the program includes mentoring, an emphasis on interactive coursework, and orientation sessions. In 2011, the White House recognized the Grinnell program with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
Biology professor Leslie Gregg-Jolly says some of the most exciting changes today are happening within the ranks of the faculty, where recent female hires in the physics and math departments provide new role models for students who want to pursue science and math careers. “Grinnell is doing a really good job,” she says. “But it’s not something you can check off a list to say, ‘Okay, now we’ve done that.’ We’ve always got to keep our eye on the ball.”
Title IX Across Generations
Veronika Platzer ’87 has made a career of empowering women through sports.
Veronika Platzer ’87 aims high. As a student, the nationally ranked discus thrower had two chief goals: to be the first in her family to graduate from college and to compete in the Olympics. After graduation, her passion for athletics led her to the U.S. Olympic rowing team and later to a coaching career.
A lifelong athlete who came of age as Title IX found its feet, Platzer was enmeshed in the gender politics of athletics early on. “I didn’t see myself as a female athlete,” she recalls. “I was the one picking the guys in grade-school football. I was bigger and stronger; I saw myself as an athletic equal.”
In general, she says, “Grinnell did a far better job balancing men’s and women’s teams than other schools. Cross country and track coaches Will Freeman and Evelyn Freeman were a husband-and-wife team who were equal: They coached events rather than genders.”
Still, she felt a nagging sense of inequity. “The women’s gear was old and outdated, and the guys’ was new and cool,” she remembers. Platzer attended the NCAA championships in a red shirt borrowed from the men’s team, because the College didn’t have women’s shirts that fit her 6-foot frame. Most poignantly, she remembers the athletic display case. Platzer would later be one of the first female athletes inducted into the Grinnell Hall of Fame, but as a student, she recalls, “Every day I’d look at the display case photographs at the PEC. I wanted to see what a champion looked like. I was struck by the absence of females.”
After graduation, Platzer took a life-insurance sales job that allowed her to work and train with the U.S. Olympic rowing team. When offered the opportunity to take over New York Life Insurance’s Grinnell office, she faced a choice: steady work or her rowing career. “That was when a friend pointed out a film about Title IX,” she says. “It told the story of a basketball coach at George Washington University who won this massive Title IX lawsuit against the school. She gave every penny back to the university to build lockers.” It sparked an awakening: “I knew then what my calling was,” she says. “I made the decision to be a career coach and a role model to empower women and girls through sports. That’s where I am now.”
Platzer has coached rowing at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, since 1999. She still sees Title IX backlash, 40 years later. “There’s tons of misinformation that suggests that women’s sports are the reason athletic departments cut men’s sports. “It’s unequivocally untrue,” she says. Programs are cut “because of the budget, not because we need more women’s sports. It’s a very sensitive topic.”
As a coach, she is in a unique position to influence athletes’ attitudes on the issue. “It’s important I role-model the appropriate behaviors,” she says. “In my program, women’s rowing is a varsity sport, and men’s is club. The painful part is hearing these guys get upset. Club status is not a step down from varsity. We all have the same hardships. We’re going to help each other, without infringing on Title IX. I don’t coach them, but if we can help transport their boats, we do it.”
Despite some Title IX backlash, Platzer sees great progress. “I see tremendous role models of all types,” she says. “If you want a role model who maintains über-femininity and who is a formidable athlete, look no further than Serena Williams,” she says, referring to the American pro tennis player.
Looking back, “Grinnell was far, far more developed than most schools. Most coaches for women’s sports were women. The extraordinary thing now is that at most schools, there are far more guys coaching women’s sports,” Platzer says.
“It is my hope that — not necessarily because of Title IX, but because at Grinnell we are Pioneers — we push information to the forefront, so the next set of men and women athletes looking at the display case can look into the eyes of women and think, ‘I wonder what her story is. I wonder what made her a national champion.’”
—Kate Moening ’11
Sexual Assault and Safety
When sexual assault allegations jolted Grinnell’s campus last spring, the school took quick action to improve student safety. It also hired Title IX consultants — both to help craft better policies and procedures to help prevent future assaults and to help the College community provide better support to sexual assault survivors.
The link between sexual assault and Title IX may not seem obvious, but Astrid Henry, associate professor of gender, women’s, and sexuality studies, says it is there. “Title IX is about ending discrimination in educational institutions,” she says. “This is one way [female] students feel that their sex or gender is preventing them from having the same educational experiences that male students take for granted.”
The process for improving Grinnell’s systems is still in the early stages, says Angela Voos, vice-president for strategic planning, but Grinnell is committed to going well beyond what is required by law, and students are deeply involved in the conversations. “We want to create a campus that has not only the programs, but the ethos that makes it very hard for these things to happen,” she says. “Grinnell wants not just to be in compliance with the law — the minimum standard — but to develop prevention programs that can be a model for the country.”
“Field hockey was the reason I chose Grinnell,” says Kisa Skelton ’86, who played all four years. “It didn’t exist in Midwest high schools. It was a huge part of my college experience, between the travel and the friendships. It developed my confidence and time management, and it let me go beyond just the books: There was that release and that commitment. In varsity sports, you didn’t have the option of not showing up.”
“Track was the thing I did consistently in college,” says Maggie Klingele ’81 of her four years on the Grinnell track team. “Being female in the world, it wasn’t completely acceptable, and that’s changed dramatically. The concern was that when you ran, you lost your neurons.”
Terri Porter ’86, far right, played volleyball, basketball, and softball as a student. “Title IX was still a work in progress,” she recalls of her Grinnell athletic experience. “Particularly in team sports, there wasn’t the same emphasis on competitiveness there is now, that it’s okay for women to be competitive in sports.” Still, she says, “Sports gave me an immediate connection and a community. I learned to juggle athletics, academics, working, play time — that translates into day-to-day business, the game of life.”
An avid club soccer player all four years at Grinnell, Louellen Stedman ’85 (not pictured) pushed to make women’s soccer a varsity sport (a change that wouldn’t take place until after her graduation). “Grinnell took Title IX seriously, but that doesn’t mean the change was easy,” she recalls. “Arguably, if there are 40 women going out for soccer, you have demand, but they felt they had an even number of men’s and women’s teams. We had to organize everything ourselves.”