More Than Title IX: How Equity in Education has Shaped the Nation

Women in America have come a long way in the last hundred years, from lacking the right to vote to holding some of the highest profile positions in the country. But this change has not come without struggle. More Than Title IX highlights the impact of one of the most powerful instruments of change—education. The book takes readers behind the scenes of some of the most influential moments for gender equity in education and tells the dramatic stories of the women and men who made these changes possible. The narrative blends historical analysis with dynamic interview excerpts with people whose actions made a difference in both educational equity and in the country as a whole. By showing how hard-won changes in education have improved life for women and men in America over the past century, the authors remind readers not to take freedoms for granted.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Many Waves, One Ocean Chapter 2: Taking Down the No Trespassing Signs Chapter 3: Jill and Jack Go Off to School Chapter 4: Woman as Subject Chapter 5: What a Way to Make a Living Chapter 6: Play Like a Girl Chapter 7: Woman of the House Chapter 8: Ride the Wave

About the Author :
Katherine Hanson was previously managing director of the Gender, Diversities, and Technology Institute at Education Development Center, Inc., and is currently a writer and artist in New York. Vivian Guilfoy is senior vice president at Education Development Center, Inc. Sarita Pillai is a senior project director at Education Development Center, Inc.

Review :
More Than Title IX is the story of how our society was transformed by opening education to women, by law. Testimonies from leaders tell us what it took, and how long, to accomplish this kind of fundamental change. We also see that the real impacts of Title IX in schools would have been slower to realize without federally funded technical assistance centers. As the details show, we should never take equal opportunity for granted, and we are not there yet. More Than Title IX will significantly help us build on hard-earned progress. More than Title IX describes the development of gender equity in education and its relationship to a cultural shift in gender roles. The resulting narrative about the dynamic process that took place between the 'ordinary' people of the movement and its institutions and laws is inspirational, and compels us to think about how to build on the lessons that were learned. Title IX’s impact on both genders, and on society as a whole, is an important focus of this volume, which merges straightforward history with firsthand accounts from those who took on the monumental task of changing politics and people in the 1960s and 1970s. Also stressed is the vital connection between women’s rights and racial equality. The authors, all senior executives at the non-profit Educational Development Center, also review the changes still needed, as well as evidence of regression in American policy and culture....This volume admirably archives the testimony of brave activists, past and present, who struggle for true parity, and warns against forgetting or distorting the origins of the debate. Placing Title IX at the epicenter of a cultural movement, Hanson, Guilfoy, and Pillai chart the ripples this key piece of educational legislation has made across the surface and substance of American life. Their smart and engrossing history registers the links between educational equality and gender equality at large, evincing how Title IX's reach has extended far beyond the classroom. By beginning at the center and moving outward, the authors probe the interconnected relationship between legislative and cultural shifts that has brought gender relations so far while still anchoring them in place. . . . Serving as an important reminder of legislation's long reach, as well as a call to innovation in multiple sectors, this book illustrates how one act and may actors can set the stage for change. It is an important text for anyone who doubts that the world without Title IX would be a starkly different place. This valuable volume explores the impact of Title IX, the landmark education amendments of 1972, which covered many realms of academic life.... Each section contains succinct but highly useful historical analyses, followed by revealing annotated interviews with renowned and not-so-known figures whose lives have been altered by Title IX.... Recommended. Is the glass half full or half empty when it comes to gender equity in education? This valuable and comprehensive work highlights the major transformations that have occurred since the 1970s but never loses sight of how much more remains to be done. The stories of individual activists are especially illuminating.