Lord knows we wish it weren’t so, but America in 2022 is a place where the rights of women are - somehow - under ever-increasing threat from forces judicial, legislative, and political.
Fifty years ago, the US Congress passed legislation usually referred to as Title IX. And it’s all right there in the first thirty-seven words: “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."
Title IX profoundly changed the lives of women and girls in the United States, accelerating a movement for equal education in classrooms, on sports fields, and in all of campus life. 37 Words is the story of that law.
Filled with rich characters--from Bernice Resnick Sandler, an early organizer for the law, to her trans grandchild--the story of Title IX is a legislative and legal drama with conflicts over regulations and challenges to the law. It's also a human story about women denied opportunities, students struggling for an education free from sexual harassment, and activists defying sexist discrimination. These intersecting narratives of women seeking an education, playing sports, and wanting protection from sexual harassment and assault map gains and setbacks for feminism in the last fifty years and show how some women benefit more than others. Award-winning journalist Sherry Boschert beautifully explores the gripping history of Title IX through the gutsy people behind it.
This in-person talk will be a must-attend event for anyone who is horrified by current attacks on women's rights, and wants to understand how we got here.
Sherry Boschert is an award-winning journalist and the author of 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination (The New Press) and Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars That Will Recharge America. Among her many honors, she received a Distinguished Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists for her efforts to promote equity within the news industry. After forty years in the San Francisco Bay Area, she now lives in New Hampshire.
