Through the Looking Glass with Alice: The Current Application and Future of Title IX in Athletics

This Article is a snapshot of the past pervasive discriminatory treatment of women in athletics and where women athletes and women’s athletics currently stand. It discusses some of the new challenges for Title IX enforcement—-female transgender athletes and treatment of name, image, and likeness revenues now open to college athletes. It reviews research regarding the physiological, hormonal, metabolic, body size and composition, and brain and neurological differences between men and women and how these factors impact both athletic performance and athletic interest. Finally, this Article concludes that the Title IX three-pronged test to assure gender equity in athletic participation opportunities takes us through the looking glass with Alice by failing to account for the realities of gender differences.