Examples within Universities
Examples within Universities
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At Columbia University, there has been a gender gap within athletics since the very beginning, though it has been improving. For example, in the 2018-2019 season, the football team received over 5 million dollars, while only 6 million dollars were spent on all women’s athletics. There is also a disproportion in funding for coaching; head coaches for male sports received 83 percent more than head coaches for female sports, and 73 percent higher for assistant coaches. One reason for this gap is where the funding comes from, which is mostly alumni. Since men's sports have been around for much longer, there are many more alumni from men's sports than from women's. There are pushes for changes, and many are hopeful for the future (Morse).
To comply with Title IX laws, schools must show that they are providing equal opportunities and scholarships to men and women. In 2017, Florida Atlantic University or FAU turned in false information to show their achievement, and later claimed it was all a mistake. FAU has had the largest gender gap within their sports of all the schools that are in the highest level of college sports. FAU also disproportionately funds its football program, paying the coach a higher salary than the college's president receives. In terms of scholarships, the football program received the equivalent of 82 full-rides, while the women’s tennis team only gets eight full-rides. In general, there is a gap of 24 percentage points between the percentages of female students attending the college, and female athletes. Although this doesn’t comply with the Title IX law, the school is not being penalized (Jaco).
When the University of Cincinnati’s Fifth Third Arena was being renovated, both of the basketball teams needed to find other venues to play home games at. However, the men's team moved to Northern Kentucky University’s arena, while the women's team played at Saint Ursula Academy, a local high school. While the men's team now had the ability to host 9,000 fans, the women's was limited to 1,000. According to Cheryl Cooky, an expert on Title IX, “This is Title IX's origin story. This type of treatment was what really motivated female athletes to make those kinds of complaints." Not only is there a lack of equality in this instance, but there was also a difference in funding in the past. In the 2015-2016 school year, the athletic department spent four times as much money per male basketball player, as female basketball player. This sends a message to the athletes, that they are not yet equal (Murphy).
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