Great minds in conversation

On October 11, Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, will discuss Title IX with Tucker Center director Mary Jo Kane. A member of the Softball Hall of Fame, Lopiano was named one of the 100 most influential people in sports by Sporting News.

From eNews, September 30, 2004

In 1972, fewer than 32,000 women competed in intercollegiate athletics and there was no such thing as an athletic scholarship for women. One in 27 girls played high school sports. Today that number is one in three.

What brought about this astonishing turnaround? Title IX, a paragraph of legislation in the Education Amendments Act of 1972: "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."

Mary Jo Kane, director of the U's Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport, and Donna Lopiano, executive director of the Women's Sports Foundation, will analyze how Title IX put women's sports on the map on Monday, October 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the Ted Mann Concert Hall on the Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis. Their discussion, "A Revolution in Women's Sports" kicks off the College of Continuing Education's 2004-05 Great Conversation series-public forums that pair U faculty with renowned experts to talk about contemporary issues.

For information about the other Great Conversations this season, see "Electric exchanges."

Kane's and Lopiano's conversation will focus on the accomplishments of Title IX and examine their hopes and dreams for the future. "In one generation, there has been a fundamental sea of change in this culture in terms of attitudes towards women's sports," says Kane. "What Title IX did was give proponents of women's sports a big stick to sue for gender equity."

Tickets are $28.50 or $115 for the entire series (see sidebar) and can be purchased by calling 612-624-2345. Discounts are available for alumni association members. To learn more about the U's Great Conversations series, see www.cce.umn.edu/conversations.