The Women’s Center at the University of Idaho has spent the semester celebrating its 40th anniversary, including a Brown Bag Serie, said Lysa Salsbury, program coordinator for the Women’s Center.
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Kathy Clark, the first director of UI Women’s Athletics, speaks as the first panelist at the Title IX discussion. The discussion was the third event this semester of the Women’s Center’s Brown Bag Series.
She said the series does a program once a month to celebrate the history of the past 40 years.
On Oct. 31, the Brown Bag Series covered Title IX and the history of UI’s women athletics, which was perfect because this year is also the 40th anniversary of Title IX, Salsbury said.
Title IX is a piece of legislation passed in 1972 requiring schools to give equal opportunity for women to participate in athletic and academic programs in schools, said Moraine Taylor, a former assistant director of athletics at UI.
She said having a program that shows the history of such a piece of legislation shows people what it took to get the foot in the door for women, because most people do not realize this.
Taylor said at the time of legislation they were not thinking, “Well guys can do all of this,” they were just excited to have the opportunity.
“I’m surprised we are thought of as pioneers now,” Taylor said.
Heather Shea Gasser, the director of student affairs for the Women’s Center, said without Title IX women would not have the equity that they see today, for athletics as well as other opportunities.
The program featured a panel of five women who all have different experiences with athletics, from coaching to being an athlete, Gasser said.
Members of the panel included Kathy Clark, the first director of UI Women’s Athletics and Nancy Monroe, who was a four time Associates of Intercollegiate Athletics national qualifier for UI swimming and diving from 1970-1971.
Other participants were Robin Barnes, who was the starting guard in 1985 to 1986 for UI’s women’s basketball team, Angela Whyte, Olympian and UI Track and Field Athlete and Julia Veseth, a member of the Women’s Cross Country/Track and Field team.
“Having people speak from different perspectives allows people to compare what we see today from how things were 30 to 40 years ago,” she said.
The program did not just focus on the last 40 years and how Title IX changed the lives of women, but also on what changes will be seen in the future.
At the end of the program, Whyte discussed ways to have more females become assistant coaches, head coaches and a part of the hierarchy of the athletic department.
“Education is key,” she said. “We need more women pursing Physical Education and Sports Science degrees.”
Whyte said female coaches also need to be more confident and present facts when explaining their practices. This will help athletes have more respect female coaches.
Allison Griffith can be reached at [email protected]