Winning equality: A ‘Title IX baby’ on the women who made it happen

Episode transcript

Samantha Laine Perfas: Thirty-seven words. Thirty-seven words that changed just about everything.

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Laine Perfas: Welcome to Rethinking the News by The Christian Science Monitor. I’m your host, Samantha Laine Perfas. 

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Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 states: “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.” 

Fifty years ago, this sparsely worded law, referred to now as Title IX, passed, beginning a tidal wave of legal action to ensure that all women had equal access to educational opportunities. Since its passing on June 23, 1972, it has been applied to everything from education to sports to sexual harassment to transgender rights. The Monitor’s Kendra Nordin Beato and Tara Adhikari reported on the anniversary of this groundbreaking law by tracing the arc of its progress over the past 50 years. 

Today we’re joined by Kendra to talk about this story, and how she went about reporting on the social effects of such a complex piece of legislation.

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Laine Perfas: Kendra, before we dive in, could you just tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, what you do? 

Kendra Nordin Beato: I've been a staff editor at the Christian Science Monitor since 1999. I've always had an interest in women's sports, primarily because after I graduated from school and I had this rich sports experience, I suddenly thought, “Well, where did everybody go?” You don't really read about women athletes. You know, you didn't see them on TV. And some of the very first stories that I started to report on were asking that question: Why or why is there a lack of media coverage of women's sports? And also, oh, look at these emerging professional women's leagues.

Laine Perfas: When you started writing this story about Title IX, did you think it would be simple and straightforward?

Nordin Beato: Oh, absolutely not. I knew from the get go that approaching this story was trying to fill a Dixie cup at Niagara Falls. There's probably been no girl or woman in the United States today who hasn't been impacted in some way by the passing of Title IX in 1972. 

Laine Perfas: So what would you say were the major pillars that you focused on in your reporting?

Nordin Beato: I see Title IX like a braid that has three strands: education, sports and protections against sexual harassment and sexual assault. The primary motivation for passing Title IX was equal opportunity in education. And then out of that came a new sports culture for girls and women. And then once women and girls were gaining access to environments that had been designed by and for men, they were encountering instances of sexual assault and sexual abuse.  

Laine Perfas: What do you feel is your personal relationship to this story? You mentioned that you consider yourself “a Title IX baby.”

Nordin Beato: Yes, I absolutely am a Title IX baby. I was born in 1971. I was 10 months old when the law was passed. I was part of the group of girls that was pioneering this new sports culture. When I was growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, I was one of four girls on my community soccer team that was sponsored by the local hamburger joint. And going on all the way through high school, I was on a state championship soccer team. My track team was a state champion all four years I was there. I was always immersed in this sports culture that really my mom hadn't been part of. 

Laine Perfas: You played sports as a kid on co-ed teams. What was that like?

Nordin Beato: I have this one distinct memory. We had played against an all boys team, and there was one, you know, kind of heavyset kid who was a little slower to the ball than I was. And I would steal the ball away from him repeatedly. And feeling pretty good about myself until we line up to shake hands at the end of the game where you go, Good game. Good game. And as I came up to this kid, he just wound up and socked me right in the stomach. And I was so surprised. But I have to tell you, even as an eight year old, I knew that he was hitting me because he was mad that I was a girl and that I had beaten him out on the field. It certainly made me aware that just because I had been given a space to play, I wasn't necessarily welcome. 

Laine Perfas: In your story, we meet Carol Hutchins, who sounds like a phenomenal person. You said that Carol is kind of intense. When you met her, could you give us an example? Like, what is this woman like? 

Nordin Beato: She's the kind of person who looks directly in your eyes and won't work to make you feel at ease until she's ready to. When I walked into her office, even before I had set up my recording equipment, she looked at me and said, “Oh yeah, I just got off the phone,” and I won't name it, but it was a major sports publication who had called her to talk to her about Title IX. And she said, “They put women in bathing suits on their cover. Why would they expect me to talk to them?”

Laine Perfas: What was it about her and her life that you felt was appropriate to tell and capture the history of Title IX?

Nordin Beato: She is a big proponent of Title IX, not only with her own life story, but the fact that she wants her student athletes today to understand what Title IX is and what life used to be like before the law’s passing.

Her own personal story is that she just wanted to play sports the way her three brothers were growing up in the 1960s, but just didn't have access to any organized sports. And at some point, her mother told her it was inappropriate for her to be out on the athletic field. So when Title IX passes, she's in high school. Suddenly there is a girls varsity basketball team and she's on it.

So, Carol, she's going to college at Michigan State University, and playing basketball there, but has an encounter with a visiting coach who basically told her team that “nobody cares about women's basketball; you have to get off the court.” And that lit a fire in her that hasn't gone out. To even have a field of their own, practice time, uniforms – none of these things were a given when she first started coaching in the early 80s. She had to mow her own field.

Laine Perfas: Oh, my gosh.

Nordin Beato: They didn't have a fence yet. They had to put down their own lines. So that's what started this awakening of them wanting to stand up and ask for what they felt like they rightfully deserved. She would go on to become one of the most decorated softball coaches in sports history in the United States. 

Laine Perfas: And one thing that comes out in your story is that, you know, Carol did amazing work, but it's really not just about Carol. There are so many women who have done really courageous work through the years. I'm curious how you saw that as you were talking to people about this issue.

Nordin Beato: It's not natural to stand up and ask for equal treatment under the law, and it takes a group of people inspiring each other to do that.

Carol herself tells a story of… after winning The World Series in 2005 at University of Michigan, the baseball coach – who was younger, less experienced, a shorter resumé – had won regionals. And Michigan offered him a contract that doubled his salary, which now put his salary above Carol's. And she really … it was a dilemma for her if she should ask for a raise herself, where she had already achieved so much more and had so much more experience. And she had reached out to Nancy Hogshead-Makar, who is a former Olympic swimmer and a legal expert on sports and gender…. And Carol said that Nancy gave her the courage to stand up and ask for her own higher salary. Carol tells a story about putting down her resumé – no name, no gender, no sport – next to the baseball coach's resume and saying to the administrator, “Who deserves to be paid more?” And the administrator just saying, “Oh, geez.” And she says,” I'm not going to let this go.” And she did get a higher contract in the end. 

And then she pointed to a current example of Dawn Staley, who is University of South Carolina women's basketball coach who just signed a historic contract deal for $22.4 million for the next seven years. And you look at Dawn Staley’s story, she, in turn, had been inspired by watching a documentary of the women's national soccer team asking for equal pay. So women are inspiring each other to find the courage and the resilience to stick their necks out, because Carol says she knew plenty of cases where women coaches might start to make demands, or questioned things, and they just simply would get fired. So that there are very high stakes involved. 

Laine Perfas: What gives you hope that Title IX will continue to be a force for achieving gender equity moving forward? 

Nordin Beato: The fact that the law is so simple, but it has really reshaped our society, is kind of astounding when you stop and think about it. Even talking to some of the players on Carol Hutchin’s team at the University of Michigan. They're just these confident, well-spoken women that, you know that an educational experience that they received on an athletic field has contributed to them just as a person. And that's going to give them confidence in the work that they're going to pursue, the public spheres that they're going to move in, and even in turn, what they're going to inspire for generations of girls coming up behind them. 

You can see human potential when you create spaces of equal treatment and equal opportunity.

Laine Perfas: Well, thank you so much, Kendra. I'm really glad that we got to hear you talk about reporting this story. 

Nordin Beato: Thanks Sam.

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Laine Perfas: Thanks for listening. To read more about Title IX, you can find Kendra’s story at csmonitor.com/titleix. That’s csmonitor.com/titleix. This story was hosted by me and co-produced with Jingnan Peng, edited by Clay Collins. Our audio engineer was Alyssa Britton. Produced by the Christian Science Monitor, copyright 2022.

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