A Discussion on Gender Equity and Women of Color

Establishing women’s equality took center stage of the Women’s Movement during the 1970s as women focused their attention on political institutions and the distribution of public resources to advance women’s equity. One significant achievement marking the period was the passage of the Women’s Educational Equity Act of 1974 (weea). weea followed the landmark Title IX legislation and was designed to provide the programmatic funding to carry out many of the principles set forth in Title IX. The gender equity legislation crafted at that moment centered on establishing women’s equal access to education, with the understanding that greater access to educational opportunities would result in a range of opportunities opening for women across society, including increasing their access to employment in both the public and private sectors.

This legislation, introduced by the late congresswoman Patsy Mink of Hawaii, contributed to the political energy around ensuring women’s equality under the law. Together with its sister legislation, the popular Title IX, weea set out to level the playing field for women in society by first attending to one of the critical areas in which women needed to gain greater access—quality education.¹ weea had three stated goals that overall speak to the level of societal transformation the legislation aimed to achieve. First and foremost, the legislation sought to “promote gender equity in education.” Second, weea was designed to offer the funds to make women’s equality a reality. Whereas Title IX set forth the policy goals, weea addressed the need to fund programs to support the policy goals outlined in Title IX. In other words, weea set out to fund the road to women’s equality. It appropriated funds for activists and advocacy groups working in the field of education equity for women and girls. Congresswoman Mink and the other sponsors were clear that in order to realize gender equity, not only did their efforts have to be carefully theorized, but they had to provide for funding as well. The third stated purpose of weea makes it a particularly significant piece of landmark legislation to consider for this special issue focused on women of color. This third stated goal, which sets weea apart from other equity measures that address the group “women,” articulates its purpose as “to promote equity in education for women and girls who suffer from multiple forms of discrimination based on sex, race, ethnic origin, limited English proficiency, disability, or age.”

weea’s purpose very much reflects an intersectional approach to gender equity. We find this aspect of weea worthy of closer examination. If weea had at its center equity for women of color, did it contribute to setting a course for increasing equity for women of color not only in education but across society? weea, along with other pivotal legislation of the period, attempted to codify women’s equality under the law. It also launched a robust discussion of women’s equality, and we began to think about gender equality as a framework for women’s greater access to societal opportunities.

For this discussion we gathered economist and professor emeritus of Ponoma College Cecilia Conrad; women-in-sports activist, former elite athlete, and collegiate coach Clementine “Tina” Sloan Green; and associate professor of Critical Race Theory and education at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign Adrienne Dixson to examine the impact of weea and the broader discourse on gender equality from the perspective of women of color. We asked each to speak from her field of expertise on how notions of gender equality have impacted women of color. The discussion took place with the participants miles apart, but their voices came together to articulate the landscape for women of color prior to weea and the changes women of color experienced with the shift to a focus on equity; they offer some understandings of the challenges that continue to confront women of color’s quest for greater equality. We asked each to guide us in thinking about how both the landmark...