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“IN RECOGNITION OF CONGRESSWOMAN PATSY MINK” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1122-E1123 on June 21, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
IN RECOGNITION OF CONGRESSWOMAN PATSY MINK
______
HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK
of california
in the house of representatives
Friday, June 21, 2002
Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge my great appreciation for the work done in Congress by my colleague from Hawaii, Congresswoman Patsy Mink. Recently, I came across an article published in Outlook magazine in connection with the American Association of University Women, titled Title IX at 30: Making the Grade? written by Patrice Gaines. The article observes Title IX's 30th anniversary as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. As a co-author of this law, Congresswoman Mink desired equal opportunities for women in comparison to their male counterparts in all education programs receiving taxpayer dollars. While there has been significant progress for women in the past thirty years, there are still many obstacles to overcome. Some of the barriers were addressed in the article, provided below.
Title IX at 30: Making the Grade?
It was just 37 words, attached without fanfare to an education amendment.
``In the dark of night, we stuck in this language,'' recalls U.S. Rep. Patsy Mink (D-Hawaii) (pictured above), who authored the law with the late Rep. Edith Green (D-Oregon).
``I don't think my colleagues had any idea that language hitched to funding could make such a difference.''
The law was Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Its existence illustrates what can happen when women are in positions of power. Of course, Mink and Green needed the support of their male colleagues. At the time, women held just 12 congressional seats. But history was altered because these two women beat the odds to be elected to Congress and then took strong leadership roles.
``I knew of this terrible disparity in education long before [I came to] Congress,'' says Mink, who had applied to 13 law schools and found that only one would accept women. In 1949 the University of Chicago admitted two female law students in Mink's class of 200.
In the last 30 years, Title IX has dramatically changed many aspects of society, most notably the sports arena. Young women who once could only shoot hoops in their driveways now earn sports scholarships to college and have opportunities--though limited--to become professional athletes. And nearly 50 percent of law school students and lawyers are women.
Yet progress under Title IX remains mixed. While we can watch WNBA games on TV, in some less visible aspects progress is slower or has even come to a screeching halt.
Pink vs. Blue Education
``There is a lack of progress in career education--vocational training at the high school and postsecondary levels,'' says Leslie Annexstein, senior counsel at the National Women's Law Center and vice chair of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, which is publishing a report (available late June 2002 at www.aauw.org) marking the status of Title IX on its 30th anniversary. ``We still see female students clustered in traditional occupational tracks that lead to jobs that make a lot less money.''
On the high school level, that means females still take cosmetology classes while males fill trade and construction programs. Statistics show that across the board, blue-collar jobs pay more than pink. While the gender gap has narrowed in math and science, engineering and physics remain male domains, and the gap yawns in technology.
``Technology is the key to the future, but women have been left behind,'' says AAUW Director of Public Policy and Government Relations Nancy Zirkin, who co-chairs the coalition with AAUW Government Relations Manager Jamie Pueschel. According to statistics in Tech-Savvy: Educating Girls in the New Computer Age (AAUW Educational Foundation, 2002), boys take computer advanced placement classes and pursue information technology degrees. Girls tend to use computers for data entry and e-mail. That leaves men with more than 80 percent of high-tech--and high-paying--jobs.
Other post-Title IX hurdles remain: As you move up the career ladder in prestige or rank, you find fewer and fewer women. The coalition report highlights the second-class status of women working in educational institutions. While women account for almost three-fourths of school-teachers, for example, they make up only about 20 percent of high school principals and 12 percent of superintendents. In higher education, women are only 21 percent of full professors and 19 percent of college and university presidents.
And persistently, on all educational levels, the learning environment remains uneven. Male students attract more attention--positive and negative--than do females. ``That means females receive less encouragement and stay in secondary roles throughout their education,'' says Annexstein. This can condition females to accept a back seat in school as well as in career and adult roles.
That's not just bad for girls. Boys hear that they are trouble-makers and problem students and may find the heat of the added attention uncomfortable.
Sexual harassment, too, continues to plague young women and men. Eight in 10 students in grades eight to 11 experience harassment during their student lives, according to Hostile Hallways: Bullying, Teasing, and Sexual Harassment in School
(AAUW Educational Foundation, 2001), and more than a quarter say they experience harassment often. Girls are more likely to experience harassment than boys--83 percent versus 79 percent--but boys today are more likely to be harassed than were their counterparts in 1993.
Compared to this backslide, there is a standstill in progress in the treatment of pregnant and parenting students. Before Title IX, high school students were automatically expelled if they became pregnant, and parenting typically signified the end of their formal education. Title IX now prohibits discrimination based on parental status, making automatic expulsion illegal. Yet while these young women may be allowed to stay in school, without more programs and assistance to help them, the results remain the same: A young women is often forced to drop out. Traditional schools encourage pregnant students to leave or to attend one of the newer programs established specifically for young parents. But these newer schools generally lack academic quality.
Push for Change
Still, Mink remains hopeful. She's seen how far women have come, though progress may be slow. A member of AAUW's Puna, Hawaii, Branch, she began taking a lead role in advancing equity on the House Education and Labor Committee when she and other members summoned publishers to address the lack of female images in schoolbooks. With that congressional nudge, in a few years the texts changed.
Next, Mink recalls, Edith Green wanted to add the category of ``sex'' to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination in the workplace.
``The Justice Department kept saying it couldn't [legally] be done,'' says Mink. ``The only thing left was to attach it to the education bill.'' In the end, Congress did outlaw sex discrimination in Title VII, but Mink and Green still pushed the change in Title IX.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) immediately added his support.
``I was a Little League coach in Anchorage,'' he recalls.
``I had three boys and two girls. When it came time to pick a team, I had to tell the girls they couldn't play.''
His oldest daughter suggested the sue, but Stevens didn't have the time or money to invest in a lengthy court case. Yet he never forgot his daughters' disappointment and his feeling that the playing field was not fair. So when he got to Congress, he joined forces with Mink, Green, and others. He remains a staunch supporter of Title IX.
So does Dot ``Doc'' Richardson, captain of the softball team that took home the gold from the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. Richardson says that title IX helped her become not just a world-class athlete but a surgeon, too.
``Through Title IX we got the chance to learn that people appreciate athletic talent no matter the gender,'' she says.
``That's the kind of respect every athlete wants: to just be treated as an athlete--not as a male or female athlete.'' But that's just the beginning. ``Title IX is all about education,'' says Richardson, a surgeon at Ray-Richardson Orthopedic Associates in Clermont, Florida.
``It amazes me that people believe that Title IX means if you have a college football team for men, you have to have a football team for women,'' says Richardson. What it says is that female students must have equal opportunities to participate in educational programs and activities.
In a way, Richardson says, Title IX taught her to dream, creating opportunities she never imagined possible. The young Dot who longed to play Little League baseball with her brothers never dreamed that one day the best-selling Louisville Slugger bat would bear her name.
keeping title ix alive
Mink and Green's short amendment has created opportunities while making equity issues a part of the general consciousness of many men and women, especially those who have grown up since the amendment became law.
Consider the children of ABC News reporter and commentator Cokie Roberts: ``My daughter went to Princeton and had a varsity letter in water polo. That would not have been possible without Title IX. But it would never occur to her that she would not have equal education and access to everything. And her brother is appalled at the notion that things would be any different for her than they are for him.''
Yet, warns Mink, people must be vigilant in guarding the law that passed so quietly.
``Most of the young people around today don't understand what it was like in the 1940s and '50s,'' says Mink. ``As the older women pass and the younger ones do not have the knowledge,there may be an attempt to water down Title IX.''
I ask my colleagues to rise today and recognize our colleague, Patsy Mink; a woman who has dedicated much of her time and efforts advocating the significance and achievements that women can and do contribute to this country.
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