Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Publisher
Boston University School of Law
Language
en-US
Abstract
Title IX is in transition. Fifty years after its passage, Title IX is at the center of multiple culture wars, notably those around the definition of sex1 and the contours of due process2 in schools. Since 2011, the federal Department of Education (“ED”) has issued multiple guidance documents, containing widely divergent obligations for schools.3 In the last decade, the meaning of Title IX has been highly contested, appearing sometimes more dependent on the administration in power than on the statute’s text and purpose.4 This pendulum swing has diverted attention away from Title IX’s core goal: equal access to education based on sex.
Title IX’s fiftieth birthday is an ideal moment to step back from the culture wars and reflect on what the future could, and should, hold for Title IX. How can we effectuate Title IX’s promise of equal education under law? How do we marry the promise of a statute written fifty years ago with the reality of today, one in which definitions of sex and what constitutes discrimination have so radically changed? Additionally, how can a civil rights statute that tackles discrimination one identity at a time, here sex,5 remedy the intersectional harms that are endemic within the educational system? In this essay, I focus on these questions through the lens of Title IX, sexual assault, and the obligations placed on post-secondary schools (“schools”).
Recommended Citation
Naomi M. Mann,
Forging a Future Title IX
,
in
103
Boston University Law Review Online
121
(2023).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/faculty_scholarship/3921
