Girls, Sports, and Equality: A State-by-State Ranking on Title IX

National Women's Law Center, June 23, 2015

High schools across the country are not providing girls with their fair share of spots on sports teams.

The table and map below rank states based on what percentage of their high schools have large gender equity gaps in sports.

(In Hawaii, ranked 2nd, 4.7% of high schools have a large gender equity gap in sports.)

Nationally, of the more than 16,000 high schools examined, nearly 4,500 schools — 28 percent — have large gender equity gaps.

Notes: One way that a school can demonstrate compliance with Title IX is to show that the percentage of spots on teams allocated to girls is roughly equal to the percentage of students who are girls.

The term “large gender equity gap” refers to a gap between the percentage of spots on teams allocated to girls and the percentage of students who are girls that is 10 percentage points or higher. For example, if at School A, girls are 45 percent of all students but only get 33 percent of all the spots on teams, then School A has a gender equity gap of 12 percentage points.

While there is no set gap that constitutes a violation of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education, gaps of 10 percentage points or more indicate that schools are likely not complying with the law. See U.S. Dep’t of Educ., Office for Civil Rights, Clarification of Intercollegiate Athletics Policy Guidance: The Three-Part Test (Jan. 16, 1996) at 4-5.

NWLC calculations of figures are based on the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2011-2012 school year and include all public, co-educational high schools that provide interscholastic athletic opportunities.

The 10 to 19 percent band includes all states up to 20 percent, and other bands follow the same pattern.