In the June 24 column “Title IX benefits kids on, off field’,” columnists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers bemoan that “fewer than half of all athletes are girls.” Maybe this can be attributed to football. It’s the only major sport I know where every team has to field two alternate squads with respect to ball possession. The team rosters are huge and the sport is ubiquitous in high school athletic programs, regardless of school size and wealth inequalities from district to district.
We get how sports develop character, but more women than men now graduate from college. Meanwhile, more men still go to prison vs. women. Now that Title IX has instituted so much change in athletics over 40 years, let’s at least glance at other aspects of the big picture instead of obsessing solely about participation numbers between the sexes.
Gerald R. Johnson
WASHOUGAL
