Title IX

Title IX, among the Education Amendments of 1972, explains that “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. . .”* All programs at any college receiving financial aid from the government are subject to allowing anyone to participate in any activity or degree program. Women, like men, are given their agency to choose what they will and will not do pertaining their career. Accordingly, whether computer science, or any other physical science field, will be their chosen path of study is their choice. Title IX explains in section B that “nothing contained in [the above statement] shall be interpreted to require any educational institution to grant preferential or disparate treatment to the members of one sex on account of an imbalance which may exist with respect to the total number or percentage of persons of that sex participating in or receiving the benefits of any federally supported program or activity...” To summarize and emphasize, there should be no preferential treatment to men or women in any program. Should colleges cater to Title IX and actively recruit women into the field? Absolutely—as long as they put forth the same effort in recruiting men. Remember, “no person...shall, on the basis of sex, shall be excluded from participation in...any education program or activity...” And also remember that no one should be required “to grant preferential...treatment to members of one sex...” So why try to "strongly encourage" women into computer science to appease Title IX? It just might be that women are not interested.

Note that there are exceptions to this rule that follow this statement; they will not be considered here. See http://www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/titleIX.htm