What Does the Title Mean?

It comes from John Swales’ CARS (method source!!).

These CARS?? Source: Pexels

No, not those CARS; it’s an acronym for “Create a Research Space” which basically provides a framework for composing a research argument.

1. “Mapping the territory” is just another phrase for entering the broader conversation, seeing what “they say,” finding background sources or doing a literature review. It essentially means establishing the context for your research argument.
2. “Minding the gap” refers to finding the holes or spaces that need to be filled in the existing research. When you find the gap, you occupy it with your own research and perspectives and voilá, there’s your argument.

My Territory 

To map my territory, I have been reading anything and everything that has to do with Title IX and it’s application to collegiate athletics, leading me to lots of useful (and some not so useful) sources. This has helped me better understand what people are saying in the broader conversation about Title IX in college sports. The main topics that are coming up are

1. Pros/Cons – Now, more women are participating in collegiate athletics than ever before, and they have far greater opportunities than they did 40 years ago. BUT, in order to comply with the proportionality requirement (one of the three tests for compliance), many institutions have cut men’s programs. In short, women gain opportunity while men lose opportunity.
2. Factors that influence support – Various studies have been done to determine if factors like sex, age, race, education levels, income levels and political party impact one’s support for Title IX. Multiple sources indicate that women typically support Title IX more than men, but sources are contradictory about the other factors.
3. Evaluating Compliance – There is a three-pronged test to evaluate educational institutions’ compliance with Title IX, but most rely on the aforementioned proportionality requirement. Many of the sources believe that these requirements are problematic because 2 of them are hard to measure, and the proportionality requirement leads to discrimination against men.

My Gap

Before I began researching, I was intending to use my Santa Clara survey as a case study, but I know realize that my survey information doesn’t fit with the broader conversation. Now that I can’t do that, I’m struggling to find a gap that I can fill.

I could analyze the differing results regarding factors that influence support, however, I suspect that it’s simply due to differing samples that are not representative of the entire population. So, kind of a

Source: Flickr

I am most interested in analyzing the injustices that have recently occurred as a result of Title IX, such as men’s sports teams being cut to meet the proportionality requirement. I believe that this is due to improper enforcement of Title IX that no longer aligns with its original values of eradicating discrimination. But, I fear that this may be too similar to the argument made by Ambrosius in her article “Title IX: Creating Unequal Through Application of the Proportionality Standard in Collegiate Athletics.”

Basically, I’m struggling to add something new to the conversation.