Dubious gender 'equality' would mean ending separate boys and girls teams: PennLive letters

on June 05, 2013 at 8:15 AM, updated June 05, 2013 at 8:42 AM

In response to "In school sports, the level playing field runs both ways: As I See It," (May 16), I question whether the Women's Law Project members have ever played a sport. How can they state "Boys and girls are not uniquely different in the physical factors that affect athletic skill"?

If this were true, why do the NCAA and the Olympics and every other serious athletic organization have separate gender classifications? Because reality,­ not stereotypes, demonstrate that male and female athletes are different. History and Title IX prove it.

In 1972, pre-Title IX, just one in 27 girls participated in high school sports; today, about two in five do. 

The number of girls competing in high school sports escalated from under 295,000 to nearly 3.2 million after Title IX. The dramatic increase in girl's and women's participation in sports demonstrates that it was lack of opportunity,­ not lack of interest, that kept females out of athletics. 

Title IX does not take the "gender blind" approach of the Women's Law Project. It does not agree that "boys and girls are not uniquely different in the physical factors." Rather, Title IX supports and demands gender-segregated athletics to provide females with real athletic equal opportunity. 

The Women's Law Project ignores gender under the guise of "equality." They imply that open tryouts for each sport, regardless of gender, would be best. Such an approach defies common sense, would offer females no equal opportunity and would effectively guarantee the demise of female sports. Are they serious?

MARY D. GRENEN, Pittsburgh