On February 5, 2025, National Girls and Women in Sports Day, U.S. Senator Christopher Murphy (CT-D) and U.S. Representative Alma Adams (NC-12-D) introduced the Fair Play for Women Act in the 119th Congress.

Kassandra Ramsey, President of The Drake Group, issued the following statement:

“The Drake Group applauds the Senator Murphy/Representative Adams team for stepping up to the plate to provide better Title IX compliance tools through the Fair Play for Women Act. The legislation closes significant collegiate athletics reporting loopholes and establishes long overdue K-12 reporting and training obligations. As important, the Act provides for a private right of action and civil penalties as well as clearly holding athletics governance associations accountable for discriminatory treatment. This is good, common sense gender equity legislation deserving of widespread non-partisan support.”

See a one-page summary or the full text of the bill.

Ramsey continued, “The Drake Group appreciates the persistence of so many in Congress who continue to work on better Title IX enforcement. However, it’s important to remember that we still have work to do.” The numbers say it all. The latest college data from the April 2024 General Accounting Office (GAO) audit of Title IX enforcement by the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights showed how college women are still being significantly shortchanged:

• Ninety-three percent of all intercollegiate athletic programs were not offering athletics opportunities to females proportional to their percentage in the full-time undergraduate student body;
• The overall athletic participation rate for females was 14 percentage points lower than their enrollment during the 2021-2022 academic year;
• At two-thirds of all colleges with athletic programs, the rate of females’ athletics participation was at least 10 percent lower than their undergraduate female enrollment; and
• Forty percent of the colleges with these large enrollment differences had not added a new female sport over the last 14 years or had dropped one or more female sports during that period.

See The Drake Group’s analysis and recommendations regarding this GAO report, College Athletics: Education Should Improve Its Title IX Enforcement Effort.

ChampionWomen.com used the Department of Education Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act database to further quantify how far behind girls and women are from achieving gender equity in sport:

·         $1.2 billion in college financial aid (athletics scholarships)

·         540,000 high school participation opportunities

·         225,000 college participation opportunities

–ChampionWomen’s TitleIXSchools.com report

We can do better.