Winter 2004

Volume 33
Number 2

Balancing Act

A New Year, A New Assault on Title IX
Once again, the fate of Title IX is in question. The Department of Education recently ended a 45-day public comment period on proposed regulations that would amend Title IX to make it easier for public schools to create single-sex programs. While the Department of Education and groups such as the National Association for Single-Sex Education laud the changes as a way to increase school flexibility and parental choice, women's and civil rights advocacy groups have vocally criticized the Bush Administration's efforts to weaken Title IX.

Current law permits schools to offer single-sex programs when appropriate--for physical education involving contact sports, human sexuality education, choirs, or as a remedy for past discrimination. Title IX also provides strong legal protections to ensure that single-sex programs do not, however inadvertently, perpetuate stereotypes or promote discriminatory programs.

Critics of the proposed regulations--including AAUW, the National Women's Law Center, the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education, and the ACLU--have articulated a broad range of concerns with the proposed regulations. They contend that the proposed regulations do not require schools:
· to base single-sex programs on scientific or empirical research, thus violating Bush's No Child Left Behind Act, which promised that educational reforms would be grounded in "scientifically based evidence."
· to justify decisions to create single sex programs, despite existing Constitutional constraints.
· to demonstrate that significant educational problems exist or that single-sex programs would solve existing problems.
· to evaluate single sex programs or report any such internal evaluations to the Office of Civil Rights.
· to provide equal opportunities for boys and girls class by class or subject by subject, as long as schools provide "substantially equal" opportunities "in the aggregate." (For example, a school may offer single-sex advanced placement courses to one group but not to the other as long as such co-educational advanced placement courses are available.)

While groups such as AAUW do not necessarily oppose single-sex education, they do object to efforts to weaken Title IX protections, especially given the lack of research to support the benefits of single-sex education.

The Department of Education is currently reviewing comments on the proposed regulations and will announce a final decision in the coming months.

Slip-Sliding Away: Women's Rights Eroding Under Bush's Administration
Pay equity, family leave, educational grants, child care, family planning--these are all protections and services that women have seen limited or eliminated since President Bush took office. Indeed, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) contends that the Bush Administration "has taken actions and embraced proposals across a wide range of policy areas that are eroding or threatening to erode the progress that women have fought hard to win." By documenting these actions in a comprehensive report, Slip-Sliding Away: The Erosion of Hard-Won Gains for Women Under the Bush Administration and an Agenda for Moving Forward makes the case that these actions and proposals are more than isolated instances. Rather, NWLC argues that the Administration's action constitute an insidious "pattern of backsliding."

To make the case, Slip-Sliding Away focuses on ten key areas, including women at work, girls at school, child care, retirement security, health and reproductive rights, violence against women, women in the military, judicial nominations, and government offices that are charged with safeguarding women's interests. Each section of the report notes "constructive actions" by the Administration, such as recent prosecutions of sex traffickers, but the scarcity of such examples only proves the rule. The report focuses primarily on domestic issues, though the reinstatement of the "global gag rule" is a notable exception.

While some attacks on women's rights have been well publicized, many others have snuck through "under the radar." A primary aim of this report, then, is to call attention to stealthy actions and the hidden, harsh effects many of the Administration's policies and proposals have had or will have on all areas of women's lives. To access the report or an executive summary of the report, go to www.nwlc.org/details.cfm?id=1840&section=newsroom.

Supporting Women in Science and Engineering
Two recent reports in the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering evaluate the success of programs designed to recruit and retain women students and faculty in the 1990s.

Meredith Thompson Knight and Christine M. Cunningham report that the number of formal Women in Engineering (WIE) and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) programs grew dramatically in the 1990s, from 10 in 1990 to over 50 in 1999. As these programs developed and matured, Knight and Cunningham sought to tap into the experience and expertise of WIE program directors in order to share their knowledge with other WIE directors, deans, administrators, and faculty members. Their report, "Building a Structure of Support: An Inside Look at the Structure of Women in Engineering Programs," places particular emphasis on the "beneficial impact of campus support systems, the utility of off-campus networks, and the importance of funding." Although contexts vary across institutions, the report offers useful insights and advice for those interested in establishing or expanding WIE programs at their own institutions. (For the full article, see volume 10.1 of the Journal).

Researchers Beth A. Montelone, Ruth A. Dyer, and Dolores J Takemoto turn their attention to a mentoring program for women and minority faculty members. Mentoring is often promoted as an important form of support for women and minorities in academia, providing "advice, increased access to resources, support, role modeling, and direct assistance with professional development." This report, "A Mentoring Program for Female and Minority Faculty Members in the Sciences and Engineering: Effectiveness and Status After 9 Years," puts those claims to the test in its evaluation of a mentoring program at Kansas State University. Originally funded by the Sloan Foundation, it has continued with university funding to provide formal, one-on-one mentoring for new tenure-track female and minority faculty, with a particular focus on helping new faculty establish their research programs and obtain extramural research funding. This review finds that both the individual participants and the University have benefited from the program: since graduating the mentoring program, the 31 participants remaining at Kansas State (eight others left for positions at other universities) have generated 547 refereed publications, 15 other pieces of intellectual property (e.g., patents issued), and more than $39 million in total external grant funds. While the program continues to evaluate and negotiate challenges, this review clearly supports the claim that mentoring programs, when well planned and supported, do indeed benefit participants. (For the full article, see volume 9.3-4 of the Journal).

Gloria Anzaldúa, Lesbian Chicana Writer
Gloria Anzaldúa, writer, teacher, theorist, and activist, died at the age of sixty-one on May 15, 2004, from complications related to diabetes .

Born in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, Anzaldúa was one of the first openly lesbian Chicana authors and is best known for Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987), a hybrid collection of poetry and prose. In describing the book, Anzaldúa said "the Borderlands are physically present wherever two or more cultures edge each other, where people of different races occupy the same territory, where under, lower, middle and upper classes touch, where the space between two individuals shrinks with intimacy."

Anzaldúa's published works also include This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981), a ground-breaking collection of essays and poems widely recognized by scholars as the premier multicultural feminist text; Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists-of-Color (1990); two bilingual children's books--Friends from the Other Side/Amigos del Otro Lado (1993) and Prietita and the Ghost Woman/Prietita y la Llorona (1995); Interviews/Entrevistas (2000), a memoir-like collection of interviews; and this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation (2002), a coedited collection of essays, poetry, and artwork that examines the current status of feminist/womanist theorizing.

In her writing and teaching, Anzaldúa helped to redefine Chicano/a and lesbian/queer identities, and she championed an inclusive feminist movement.

A public memorial will be planned at a later date.

Dr. Emily Taylor, Champion of Women in Higher Education
Dr. Emily Taylor, former Director of the Office of Women in Higher Education (OWHE) at the American Council on Education, passed away on Saturday, May 1, 2004, at the age of eighty-nine.

After earning bachelor's and master's degrees from Ohio State University and a doctorate from the Indiana University, Taylor served as Kansas University's dean of women from 1956 to 1975. There, she established what now is known as the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center to assist students of both sexes. She also founded the nation's first university student commission on the status of women, which still exists. From 1975 to 1981, Taylor directed OWHE at ACE. During her tenure, OWHE published the first "Table of Women CEO's in U.S. Colleges and Universities" and received a $195,000 award from The Carnegie Corporation of New York to start the ACE/National Identification Program for the Advancement of Women in Higher Education Administration (ACE/NIP) to increase the number of women in higher education administration, especially presidencies. She also established the National Forums, which became the primary means of identifying and enhancing careers of women ready for presidencies. Hundreds of women who participated in the program now are presidents or chancellors of U.S. colleges and universities or serving in high administrative posts.

After her retirement, Taylor returned to Lawrence, KS, but continued to travel the country as a lecturer and consultant on issues related to women and education. She also became active in health care and end-of-life care issues, including serving on the Kansas Board of Healing Arts.

A memorial service was held May 16, 2004, at the Leeds Center in Lawrence, KS. Donations can be sent to the Taylor/Stockstead Women's Leadership Lectures Series, c/o University of Kansas Endowment, Lawrence, KS 66047.