NCAA Division III student athletes' perceptions of Title IX

Abstract

United States President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act into law in 1972. Since 1972, Title IX on college campuses has legally mandated access for both sexes to all academic offerings and expanded athletics offerings for women; most recently, Title IX protection has expanded to include sexual misconduct. While the scope of Title IX is broad, the purpose of this research was to study NCAA Division III student athletes' perceptions of Title IX generating useful understandings to guide key stakeholder's future decisions. Previously conducted Title IX research focused primarily on NCAA Division I institutions and I could find no study from the lens of student athletes. The lack of empirical evidence quantifying student athletes' perceptions of Title IX as well as no study primary focusing on Title IX at NCAA Division III campuses are problematic when evaluating Title IX effectiveness. This research surveyed NCAA Division III student athletes in Wisconsin focusing on possible differences in Title IX perceptions between the sexes, student athletes participating on higher- verses lower-expense sports, and among all years of participation. Pierre Bourdieu's social reproduction theory served as the theoretical lens for examination of the quantitative results to the primary research questions.