An Update on Title IX

The general public is invited to attend an important event hosted by the Reno Branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW) on February 14, 2015, from 9:30–11:30 A.M. at the Reno Best Western Airport Plaza (1981 Terminal Way, Reno, NV 89502) for a timely discussion on Title IX by Alicia Hetman, a California gender equity educator and consultant. The event’s admissions fee is $10.00, and it includes a continental breakfast.

Gender equity issues and sexual harassment in the military and college campuses nationwide loom large as well in the American workplace, in education, and in athletics in spite of passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 that “protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance.” The National Center for Education Statistics (http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=93) reports that the types of discrimination in violation of Title IX include “sexual harassment, the failure to provide equal opportunity in athletics, and discrimination based on pregnancy. To enforce Title IX, the U.S. Department of Education maintains an Office for Civil Rights, with headquarters in Washington, DC, and 12 offices across the United States.”

In recent decades, there has been progress toward gender equity in postsecondary education and athletic participation and achievements, but the margins of success are still much smaller in comparison to men. Ms. Hetman will speak on how Title IX affirms the protection of rights where the Civil Right’s Act left off, a discourse of critical importance in the 21st century deserving attention and remedial action on a national level.

Ms. Hetman was president of the California State AAUW from 2012–2014; officer for twenty years of the Marysville–Yuba City Branch, including branch president once in the 1980s and again in the 1990s; and is a current member of the AAUW Sacramento Branch.  She has had a distinguished career in education for over 20 years, in which she taught elementary and middle school students, followed by a four-year appointment as a visiting educator at the Gender Equity Unit at the California Department of Education, and subsequent Education Program Consultant for the Department. She is currently a candidate for AAUW Vice President, which will be decided in elections between April 15 and June 15, 2015.

RSVP To: Sara Vélez, AAUW Reno Event Assistant (svelezhunter@gmail.com)