Sharrow Wins Award for Title IX Article

Elizabeth Sharrow, associate professor in the School of Public Policy and department of history, has received the 2021 Best Article Award from the journal Politics, Groups and Identities, a flagship journal of the Western Political Science Association.

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The award-winning article, “Sex segregation as policy problem: a gendered policy paradox,” considers the effectiveness of Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational institutions that receive federal funding.

“Has Title IX fulfilled its promise to end discriminatory and disparate treatment of women in educational institutions?” Sharrow asked in their paper, which examines the complexity of sex-equity politics and calls for a rethinking of policy practices that considers issues such as sex discrimination, discrimination against trans people, gendered harassment and the #MeToo movement.

“[W]e are losing ground in the struggle to end gendered oppression – despite all that it may appear we have gained – because of Title IX’s divergent implementation strategy, which integrates women and men in classrooms and segregates them in sports,” Sharrow wrote. “Rather than vitiating sex discrimination, implementation generated a series of policy ironies, authorizing, rather than challenging the notion that women and men are inherently ‘different.’”

In an announcement of the award, the selection committee wrote: “Sharrow’s study of how Title IX represents a triumph for educational equity in the classroom and the entrenchment of sexist ideologies in sports provides an excellent example of the continued negative consequences of addressing inequality while continuing to codify binary gender categories.”

The article, the announcement continued, “is an excellent example of a critical assessment of equity policies and the structural limitations that underlie gendered ideologies and assumptions in society. … It encourages readers to consider more seriously how assumptions about the nature of sex and ideas about bodies are deeply ingrained in public policies and their implementation.”

“As we approach the 50th anniversary of Title IX in June 2022, I look forward to playing a role in the public conversations about the status of educational and athletic equality,” Sharrow said. “The stakes of public policies that determine inclusion for cisgender, transgender, non-binary and gender-diverse people in sports, as everywhere, are extremely pressing. I’m honored to receive this award and to continue my public engagement work to help build a better world for all athletes.”