OPINION:
We’ve come a long way, Miss Baby, since women went off to college in search of an Mrs. degree, and a good thing, too. Discrimination hurts everyone. Social institutions large and small have enacted policies in accord with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Like a lingering illness, sexual inequality persists in certain important places, but the politicians who run the bureaucracies aren’t much interested because the aggrieved are not women, but men.
Hillary Clinton has spent her career to become the nation’s first woman president, and bases her candidacy on a promise to use the powers of the Oval Office to give a boost to women and girls in American society. From equal pay and a higher minimum wage, to encouraging abortion and financing Planned Parenthood, her policy promises are usually about the fair sex and, according to her website, “she’s just getting started.” But women haven’t needed a Madam President to give women a fair chance to compete with men.
Women are on a romp through academia, consistently collecting most of the advanced degrees. In 2015, women earned 134 doctorates for every 100 awarded to men, extending a trend of seven consecutive years, according to the research of Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute. Of 76,240 doctorates awarded last year, women earned 51.8 percent compared to 48.2 percent for men.
In graduate schools across the land, 135 women are enrolled for every 100 men, and women received 58.9 percent of all master’s degrees. Women dominate nurturing occupations such as health science, public administration and education, where they earn 67.9 percent of doctorates. Men outnumber women in traditionally male-dominated study such as engineering, where they earn 76.2 percent of doctorates, and prevail in math, computer science and physical science. The trend toward female dominance in academics has been building for some time. Women overtook men in the percentage of associate’s degrees earned in 1978, master’s degrees in 1981, bachelor’s degrees in 1982, and doctorates in 2009.
The Civil Rights Act was amended in 1972 with the addition of Title IX, which banned discrimination under any education program receiving federal financial assistance. Civil rights referees have been keen on throwing the flag when they see trends of inequality in campus settings that put girls and women at a disadvantage. Prima facie evidence of imbalance is enough to penalize institutions for sex discrimination.
Women’s dominance has also emerged in sports, as women’s sports become more popular. Women made up 52.7 percent of the U.S. Olympic team in Rio de Janeiro, and women won more medals than their male teammates — 268 to 262. Americans cheer the achievements of both sexes, but their accomplishments have come with a cost. With women comprising 57 percent of their students, colleges have attempted to boost the proportion of female athletes by throwing scholarship money at young women willing to join a team while shutting out accomplished male athletes simply to demonstrate a liberal policy. The American Sports Council found that over a 25-year period between 1981 and 2005, women’s college sports teams grew by 34 percent while men’s teams diminished by 17 percent. The most popular men’s sports, such as baseball and football, are not varsity sports at many schools.
It’s clear that federal efforts to level the playing field between women and men in academia and sports have largely succeeded. Hillary, ever on the scout for something to take offense at, doesn’t know when to say when. It’s about time.
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