MOSCOW, Idaho — 50 years since Title IX, the fight for gender equality continues all over the nation; Idaho is no exception.
“Especially in this political landscape, in this state there has been an ongoing stride to bring inclusion and belonging especially in higher education," said Jeana Moody, program coordinator for the University of Idaho Women’s Center.
The U of I Women Center advocates for gender justice and education for students, staff, and the local community.
“Providing a space for women and other minoritized genders to come together and communicate and have discussions together,” Moody said.
50 years ago, in June, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law. It mandates that any education program or activity receiving federal funding cannot discriminate based on gender.
"Just by making it illegal for sex discrimination does not necessarily put in place those supports and community that would enable folks to succeed,” Moody said.
Moody says before Title IX, women made up about 37% of the U of I's enrollment; of those, about 25% to 30% dropped out.
"So, they were seeing dropout numbers in women of all fields across the board drastically,” Moody said.
A couple months after Title IX, the University of Idaho founded what's now one of the longest running women’s centers in the nation.
50 years later, Moody says the rate of women enrolling and graduating has increased.
"Not only is sex discrimination illegal, but also that there are supports on campus to get them through to graduation,” Moody said. "Now we have more than 50% students being woman-identified. Our graduation rates are, I would say, even for men and women and other minoritized genders,” said Moody.
The university will celebrate the accomplishments made in the past half century. Moody said thinking about the future of the center is complicated.
"The future is complicated because of Idaho's legislature right now. The ways we want to serve our students, we are unable to in some ways. Our goal is to serve our students the best that we can at the moment,” Moody said.
As part of their celebration, they will have a panel of women from different generations talk about the evolution of the center and how they’ve experienced it throughout the years.
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