Gender Inequality in Higher Education: Title IX Administrators’ Narratives of Campus Sexual Violence

• In Event: 2160 - Gender inequality

Abstract

Sexual violence is an issue that disproportionately affects women and as such, is both a sign of and a contributor to gender inequality. Despite the recent growth of Title IX offices, administrators, and policies aimed at preventing sexual violence on university campuses, rates of sexual violence remain high: an estimated 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted in college. Research on women in higher education has focused mostly on women’s access to higher education and a growing female advantage in college completion, which has had the unintended effect of obscuring inequalities women experience within college environments. This paper addresses how university administrators make meaning of sexual violence on their campuses. I report from interview data on university administrators’ experiences of creating and implementing Title IX policies. I argue that Title IX administrators’ conceptions of campus sexual violence ignores issues of power. Caught between their own disassociation from the second-hand trauma of bearing witness to sexual assault, the constant threat of lawsuits, the pressure to be neutral, and other societal pressures, Title IX administrators construct narratives that neutralize the students who report sexual misconduct and those who are accused of it. This paper sheds new light on how universities are responding to sexual violence.

Author

• Jacqueline Cruz, New York University