The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
8 — Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Task Force on Women in Sports shows that Title IX 
isn’t enough in Michigan

In 
2019, 
Governor 
Gretchen 
Whitmer created the Task Force on 
Women in Sports in the leadup to 
the 50th anniversary of Title IX with 
the goal of creating “opportunities 
in Michigan for girls and women in 
sports” and increasing the presence 
of women in leadership positions in 
the larger economy. 
The task force’s final report to 
Whitmer, published on June 22, 2022, 
drew a conclusion that many women 
in sports are all too familiar with: 
Title IX alone isn’t enough to create 
genuine equity in sports.
But the task force also did 
something more. In addition to 
releasing multiple research reports 
throughout its three-year existence, 
it also detailed three ways to close the 
gender gap in sports, and set the state 
of Michigan up to lead an increase in 
sports equity:
Recommendation 1: “Modernize 
and expand upon Federal Title IX 
requirements to increase protections, 
compliance, and accountability.
Recommendation 2: “Invest in 
pathways for Michigan girls and 
women to play, work, and lead in 
sports in Michigan.

Recommendation 3: “Encourage 
Michiganders to support and invest 
in future opportunities and access 
for girls and women at all levels of 
sports.”
Its advice to expand federal Title 
IX requirements is intended to 
increase funding for and support of 
women’s sports from the government 
level. The task force hopes this 
will 
facilitate 
improvements 
in 
opportunities 
and 
facilities 
for 
women’s athletics.
While 
federal 
Title 
IX 
requirements 
mandate 
proportional 
opportunities 
for 
men 
and women in college 
athletics, the reality is that 
less than 10% of NCAA 
Division I schools provide 
opportunities to female athletes at a 
rate proportional to their enrollment. 
“Only 9% of NCAA Division I 
institutions (30 of 348) offered athletic 
opportunities to female athletes 
proportional to their enrollment,” 
the task force noted in one report. 
“In Michigan, participation rates for 
female student-athletes average 13% 
of the female student enrollment … 
compared to a participation rate for 
male student-athletes that averages 
20% male student enrollment.”
At Michigan, despite making up 
nearly 51% of the student body, women 

make up only 46.1% of student-
athletes. And while it’s difficult to 
analyze funding disparities due to 
football generating and receiving 
the majority of funds, the recruiting 
budget of women’s teams makes up 
just 12% of all recruiting expenses.
Across all 27 of the Wolverines’ 
athletic programs in the 2020-21 
academic year, the report showed 
that the average salary of an assistant 
coach for a men’s team is 3.5 times the 

average salary of an assistant coach 
for a women’s team.
But the task force doesn’t believe 
that 
simply 
matching 
women’s 
athletics funding and opportunities 
at the government level will cause 
sufficient 
change. 
The 
second 
recommendation 
is 
to 
create 
pathways for women in Michigan to 
lead and work in sports too.
Many studies have proven that 
women who play sports are more 
likely to achieve leadership positions 
later on in their lives, whether within 
or outside of the sports industry.

Every Wolverines’ men’s varsity 
sport has a male coach at the helm. 
On the women’s side, track and 
field and cross country, rowing, 
swimming and diving, volleyball and 
water polo are all coached by men. 
Across Michigan’s 27 teams, there are 
significantly more male coaches than 
female coaches at the assistant level. 
This isn’t a disparity specific 
only to the Wolverines. One study 
conducted as part of the task force’s 
research found that across 
collegiate athletics in the 
state of Michigan, women 
coached just 41% of women’s 
teams and a meager 4% of 
men’s teams.
The 
task 
force 
also 
reported 
that 
underqualified men were 
more likely to be hired for coaching 
positions while qualified women still 
faced significant hurdles to earn jobs.
The 
committee 
believes 
that 
supporting female leaders in sports 
is crucial to achieving equity. It also 
recommends that Michiganders give 
their support to women’s sports at all 
levels.
This final recommendation, while 
the most abstract, has the potential 
to provide the spark that leads to 
grander changes in college athletics. 
Attendance at men’s and women’s 
sporting events at Michigan isn’t 

ELIZABETH CUSHNIR
Daily Sports Writer

even remotely close to equal. Despite 
having a significantly stronger win 
percentage than the Michigan men’s 
basketball team in the 2021-22 season, 
the Wolverines’ women’s basketball 
team rarely received even a quarter 
of the fan turnout that the men’s team 
received. In a historic season that saw 
Michigan advance to its first-ever 
Elite Eight, its support from students 
and fans lagged behind significantly.
As the task force noted, efforts to 
achieve gender equity in sports are 
more successful when they start from 
the ground up in youth sports. By 
the time they get to college, female 
student-athletes have already faced 
significant disparities throughout 
their athletic careers. But a large part 
of that stems from a lack of female 
role models that young girls in sports 
have.
The state of Michigan doesn’t have 
a lack of strong female athletes, and 
neither does the University. Rather, 
it suggests there’s a lack of support 
— whether intentional or not — from 
the student body, fans and athletics 
departments. 
Looking back 50 years, a lot of 
progress has been made toward 
gender equity in college sports. But as 
the task force found — and as almost 
any female athlete can tell you — a lot 
more work needs to be done to truly 
level the playing field. 

But as the task force found 
— and as almost any female 
athlete can tell you — a lot more 
work needs to be done to truly 
level the playing field. 

With the Supreme 
Court’s recent 
Dobbs ruling, 
women’s rights to 
abortions — and 
autonomy — have 
been shattered. This 
moment is bigger 
than sports, and we 
want to share some 
resources everyone 
can use to do their 
part.

JULIANNE YOON, KATE HUA, DOMINICK 
SOKOTOFF/Daily
50 YEARS OF TITLE IX

