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Sunday, October 06, 2002

By L.A. Johnson, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Like many people, Liz Higgins equated Title IX with women's collegiate athletics -- period.

"In all honesty, that's what I thought," says Higgins, 20, a Carnegie Mellon University senior.

	The Education Amendment opened up previously male-only subjects for women such as Liz Higgins, a Carnegie Mellon University engineering student who gazes here through a fir wood structure she helped to design which was made to support 500 pounds. (John Beale, Post-Gazette)

However, as a female civil engineering student, Higgins is as much a beneficiary of Title IX as a member of the women's soccer team.

Although the tremendous gains made in girls' and women's athletics have been much more ballyhooed in the media, the measure was proposed to ensure equity in all aspects of education, with sports being just one of the areas covered.

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

-- From the preamble to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

"Title IX has done more for women than anything since the 19th Amendment [which gave women the vote]," says former U.S. Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., who sponsored the measure in the Senate in 1972.

Even before Title IX, when Bayh was researching and writing the Equal Rights Amendment, women faced a decidedly uneven playing field in the world of academia and routinely were discriminated against:

In admission standards.

In access to certain graduate programs, including computer science and engineering, and professional degree programs, including medicine and law.

In access to financial aid.

In vocational education.

Bayh's now-deceased first wife -- a straight-A high school student, class president and national high school speech contest winner -- was denied admission to the University of Virginia because, before 1970, Virginia state law prohibited women from being admitted.

Years later, Bayh intervened on behalf of a friend's daughter who initially was denied admission to a veterinary school despite her outstanding grades, test scores and numerous medals and awards for exemplary horsewomanship because the admission's committee just "didn't believe little girls liked big animals," he said.

After he called the school on its discriminatory practices, the woman was admitted into the veterinary program the following year. She now runs an animal clinic.

"I thought from the very beginning the most valuable results of Title IX would come through academic equality," said Bayh via telephone from his Washington law offices. "Only a small part of the student body has a chance to play athletics."

In 1971-72, women received 44 percent of all bachelor's degrees, 41 percent of all master's degrees, 16 percent of all doctorate degrees and 6 percent of all first professional degrees, according to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.

First professional degrees include dentistry, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, podiatric medicine, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, law, and theological professions.

Before Title IX, many colleges required women to have better test scores and higher grades than male applicants to gain admission, and most law and medical schools limited the number of women admitted to 15 or fewer each year.

Also before Title IX, women received half the number of scholarships men did, and the value of those scholarships was less than 50 percent of those given to men, Bayh said. Financial assistance wasn't given to part-time students, and 60 percent of them were women, he added.

In 1999-2000, women received 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees, 58 percent of all master's degrees, 44 percent of all doctorates and 45 percent of all first professional degrees.

"Title IX gave us an opportunity to strike a blow for equality for women," Bayh says. "We don't have a totally clean slate now, but I don't think there are any schools that say, 'You can't come.' "

Despite tremendous gains, while half of college instructors are women, fewer than 20 percent are full professors. And women still receive only 20 percent of computer science- and engineering-related technology bachelor's degrees, according to "Title IX at 30: Report Card on Gender Equity," a report by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.

"It's not that [female students] are not capable, not interested or enthusiastic about it," says Cristina H. Amon, the Lane Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems at Carnegie Mellon University.

In fact, the average grades and grade-point average of women who choose engineering are better than their male counterparts, she says. So, something else is at work.

	Amy Costa likes it when she is asked for help by her male classmates at Steel Center Area Vocational Technical School in Jefferson Hills. (Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette.)

During her teaching career, Amon has noticed and studies also have shown that male students often are more interested in technology for its own sake, regardless of how it's applied, while female students often are interested in technology for its social and human benefits and applications.

"Female students look at the outcome of the product they're working on or developing as something important," says Amon, who received her bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Simon Bolivar University in Venezuela and her master's degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT.

All children -- especially girls -- in grade, middle and high schools need to be better educated about opportunities in engineering and the practical applications of engineering, Amon says.

That's one of the things Higgins has thoroughly enjoyed about her civil engineering studies at CMU.

"They do a really good job of telling you about real-world experience and showing you your options and telling you what you can do with your skills," she says. "We like to say the civil engineers are the cool engineers because we build things; we don't sit at our computers all day."

Higgins' civil engineering class at CMU is small -- about 15 students -- and about 50-50 men-to-women, which is a rarity in the overall engineering department. Last year, four of the five members of her lab group were women. About 30 percent of her civil engineering professors are women and, at least in her branch of engineering, she doesn't think being a woman is all that unusual anymore.

"I've never had a problem with it," said Higgins, a Fairfax County, Va., native who is attending CMU on a Navy ROTC scholarship. "We carry our weight and work just as hard."

She is one of three women in her 19-member ROTC class. In addition to the rigors of her engineering studies, she is required to take naval science and naval lab courses each semester and maintain the Navy's physical fitness standards through thrice-weekly workouts.

After graduation, Higgins will be a Navy ensign. She hopes to be assigned to some "big, gray ship" and eventually become part of the Navy's Civil Engineer Corps.

Amon is heartened by what she sees in the engineering field. Change is happening; it's simply happening a lot slower than some would like. More women are choosing to major in engineering, but they're still underrepresented, especially in the fields of electrical and mechanical engineering.

"We've reached 24 percent women in the six engineering departments [overall], which is quite good," Amon says. "Twelve years ago, it was barely 10 percent."

In addition to earlier introductions to the field, more also can be done to retain women. Amon has noticed that some women at the master's, doctorate and even early professional level sometimes just drop out. Lacking a critical mass of female students, women sometimes also feel isolated during their graduate studies and later in their careers.

"The first years of the professional careers are very important in your future success, and for a woman that conflicts many times with childbearing or preg- nancy," she said. "So, some flexibility in allowing those things to happen simultaneously would help retain more females in the active profession."

In another so-called nontraditional female realm, there's still much work to be done. Stark and pervasive sex segregation still persists in vocational education, says Jocelyn Samuels, vice president for educational opportunities at the National Women's Law Center in Washington.

"It's as if Title IX had no effect," Samuels says.

According to the "Title IX at 30" report, young women still are frequently stereotyped and sometimes steered toward traditionally female trades and away from nontraditional trades. Male students predominate in high-skill, high-wage career tracks where the courses are regularly updated with new technology. Conversely, female students are clustered in the lower-skilled, low-wage tracks and have limited access to high-level academic courses.

"Not only is the median wage for each of the traditionally female fields [child care, cosmetology and health-care assistants] lower than male fields [plumbers, electricians and mechanical draftsman]," Samuels said. "The top 10 percent of cosmetologists and child-care workers earn less than the median for [the male fields.]"

Some schools engage in exclusionary recruitment into traditionally male vocational education programs. Classroom practices and attitudes of classmates and teachers sometimes can make young women feel unwelcome in predominantly male classes. Much of the recent Title IX litigation has focused on sexual harassment in educational settings and students' and teachers' rights to sue and receive monetary damages from schools for harassment that's permitted to continue.

The law center has asked the Office of Civil Rights to investigate vocational education programs in 12 states to explain the sex segregation.

"The stunning patterns of sex segregation that we perceived cannot be explained by independent choice alone," Samuels says.

If things seem bleak in the aggregate, there are many signs that things are changing, however slowly.

Katrina Schaffer's first year in the masonry program at Parkway West Area Vocational Technical School in Oakdale was tough.

"The teachers were good, but I had to earn the respect of the kids," says Schaffer, 18, who graduated from the program in June and spoke at graduation. "I had to prove I could do the job."

She endured some teasing from classmates who didn't think girls should be in masonry or were strong enough to perform the job, but she stuck it out. Now, she hopes to get into the union's apprenticeship program in February.

Bob Eagleson runs a disciplined electrical construction class at Steel Center Area Vocational Technical School in Jefferson Hills. From day one, he demands that his students respect each other, each other's projects and each other's personal items.

"It's typical to have about four girls in the program each year," says Eagleson, a union electrician. "Five years ago, you'd have one come through every three years or so."

He's noticed that young women are more meticulous about their work and seem to pick up the theory more quickly than the young men, he says. Electrical construction also may be more attractive to women because it requires a lot of technical knowledge and not just brute strength.

"Females have, so far, done everything that a male can do, and sometimes better," he says.

Amy Costa, a Brentwood High School senior, is in her third year of electrical construction classes at Steel Center.

"I'd rather take this than sewing class," says Costa, 17, of Brentwood. "At first it was hard, but once you get to know everybody, it's not that bad."

She says her classmates have been very supportive. Some even ask her questions about their classwork.

"I like it when they ask," she says.

Costa attends her home high school in the mornings and vo-tech in the afternoons. She had a baby six months ago and is working two jobs while attending school.

"It's hard, but it's only one year," she says.

In the spring, Costa plans to take the exam to enter the electricians union as an apprentice. If she makes it into the program, she'll be paid to work jobs, learn the trade and take classes.

After five years, she could earn journeyman status and make more than $29 per hour.

"I think more [young women] should do it," Costa says.

"It's like free college."