Publicity Disparity Between Boys' And Girls' Sports at FLHS

I first heard about Title IX when my father threatened to sue my Chicago-area high school in 1984. My sister wanted to play on the boys’ soccer team, as there wasn’t a girls’ team at the time. We have come a long way since then. Girls access to sports has improved dramatically.

There is more to Title IX than access. One of the three prongs of Title IX is “Treatment” - which is a laundry list of items which are required to be equitable among boys’ and girls’ sports. One of those items is Publicity Resources.

I first became aware of a publicity disparity when hosting a pasta party last year for the FLHS Girls’ Swim and Dive team. The girls lamented that their results were not promoted at all on the Athletic Department’s Twitter account. I did some research and the girls were correct that they had little promotion at all over the years, including not promoting a previous All-American eligible relay time.

After analyzing the AD’s Twitter account, it was apparent that Girls’ Swim and Dive Team was not alone. Many girls’ sports were in similar straits with a lack of social media produced by the FLHS Athletic Department. A clear example of this disparity is the difference in Tweets for boys’ and girls’ hockey, who have seasons that run concurrently. Below is a graph of of the number of Tweets for the two hockey teams for 2018 and 2019 seasons from the official FLHS AD Twitter account.

To put some numbers to this graph- last year, the boys’ hockey team had over 170 social media posts. The girls’ team had under 20 (Charlie Capalbo posts are excluded from these numbers).

After numerous meetings with the administration at FLHS last year, I learned that a volunteer ‘superfan’ has been given access to post as the Fairfield Ludlowe Athletic Department on the official Twitter account. Only certain FLHS teams (and they appear to be only boys’ teams) enjoy this increased publicity power of FLHS Athletic Department’s Twitter account.

Under Title IX, schools have an obligation to ensure that both genders have equal access to publicity resources and that the quantity and quality of promotional devices featuring boys’ and girls’ programs are equitable. Giving a volunteer the ability to promote favored boys' teams using the voice of the official FLHS AD social media platform without extending this to girls' sports is not fair. But more importantly, it doesn’t provide equitable publicity access to girls’ teams, nor any of the boys’ teams that this superfan doesn’t promote. After looking at the @LudloweSports account yesterday, I once again noticed that the Girls’ Swim and Dive team had scant promotion along with the Cross Country team.

FLHS talks a lot about the Falcon Footprint each student makes. I also think it is important for FLHS Athletic Department to consider the footprint it makes- and if it diminishes the footprint possibilities of their female student athletes. One of the Falcon Footprint’s Calls to Action is: Engage in the world around you and realize the impact.

Female student athletes are well-aware of the publicity inequality and are discouraged when they do not receive acknowledgement for their hard work and achievements. The impact of lack of acknowledgement is disempowering to female athletes. Additionally, a lack of social media postings and publicity can impact a college athlete’s recruitment process, which may impact the ability of a female athlete to be able to afford college. Our athletic department's Twitter is followed by local sports reporters which impacts the direction of news coverage – coverage that is followed by college sports’ recruiters.

It is my hope that bringing this to light doesn’t reduce those boys’ sports that are currently enjoying the extra promotion. I hope that we raise the bar for the girls’ sports and the other unpromoted boys’ teams so that they can enjoy the same promotional benefit that only certain boys’ teams and athletes currently have.

Per the Women’s Sports Foundation, “…Title IX does not require the reduction of opportunities for male athletes in order to increase opportunities for female athletes. Schools that choose this manner of compliance are not meeting the spirit of discrimination laws, which is to bring members of the disadvantaged group up to the participation or benefit levels of the advantaged group rather than to bring male athletes down to the current level of poor treatment … experienced by female athletes.”

Fairfield Ludlowe High School has incredible teams and student athletes. It is time we celebrate, acknowledge and promote all of their hard work and achievements. I have two Calls to Action for this post. 1. For Athletic Department to consider the Falcon Footprint they are making by not providing publicity in an equitable manner to all sports at FLHS. 2. To put in place policies and access to promotional tools which will provide a level publicity playing field for all teams and athletes.