Heather Van Mullem’s life wouldn’t be where it is today without Title IX.
She wouldn’t have been a student athlete. She wouldn’t have been a college basketball coach. She wouldn’t have a doctorate in sport studies. She wouldn’t be a professor of kinesiology and health in the division of movement and sport sciences at Lewis-Clark State College. She wouldn’t be researching gender issues in sports. She wouldn’t be earning her law degree to be a Title IX consultant.
“For me personally, I credit the law Title IX with, sort of, my life,” Van Mullem said. “Title IX really allowed me to explore the things I’m interested in and gave me an opportunity to have experiences I probably wouldn’t have if the law wasn’t in existence.”
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Van Mullem grew up in a post-Title IX world where she was able to play basketball, first at Green River Community College in Auburn, Wash., then at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. She also coached as a graduate assistant at Humboldt State in California and an assistant coach at Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas.
Van Mullem doesn’t just credit Title IX with her athletic career, but her academic one as well. The law requires equal access to education – not just sports – regardless of gender. Before Title IX, most students in grad school or law school were men.
She’s grateful, Van Mullem said, for the opportunities she has had that women pre-Title IX didn’t.
“As a person who studies sport and sport culture, and as somebody who’s played and coached, I have always had a passion for sport, and also studying sport,” she said. “But in particular the experience of athletes from a gender perspective, because I can recognize not everyone was granted the same opportunities I was.”
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Though Title IX required equal access to education and athletics, it doesn’t mean the way female athletes are represented is the same as men. The University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport focuses on media representation for female athletes, mostly at bigger NCAA schools, Van Mullem said. She is interested in studying smaller schools at the NAIA level, like LCSC.
One of the areas she looks for in media representation of female athletes is how those athletes are marketed, which she studied using media guide covers. For example, some guides feature action shots of female athletes, focusing on their athletic ability; others show them wearing dresses and high heels.
“Then it begs the question, ‘What are we marketing? What are we trying to encourage people to watch?’ ” Van Mullem said. “I strongly believe, and I think that others who study this and do this kind of work believe, that in order for female athletes to get the respect that they deserve for their high quality of play, for their athleticism, for their ability to be successful athletes, then they have to be in an environment that respects what they have to offer. And that means that what we’re marketing is athleticism, is their success as an athlete and their ability to do their sport and do it well.”
Female athletes also don’t get as much media coverage, and their games aren’t as widely televised as men’s games.
“It’s hard to imagine being a fan of something you never get to see,” Van Mullem said. “The argument’s long been that if you provide opportunities for people to engage and watch these athletes perform their skill, you’re probably gonna get some fans. But if you never get the chance to see them play, it makes it really tough to develop an affinity for a team or for an athlete.”
The issue isn’t the skill of the female athletes, she said. Even though the Oklahoma women’s softball team is breaking all kinds of records, she noted, those games generally aren’t broadcast, despite the many TV channels dedicated to sports.
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Changing the game in female athletic broadcast coverage is the Sports Bra, a sports bar in Portland, Ore., owned by Jenny Nguyen that only shows women’s sports. Van Mullem hasn’t visited it yet but is planning a trip in the fall and has purchased some merch from the business. Until then, when she’s out to eat in a place that’s showing sports she requests to change it to a women’s competition.
“I think that’s pretty fantastic to have a space where you can always get a women’s game on TV,” she said. “Like that’s awesome: You don’t have to ask, it’s just playing.”
Sports Bra provides a place for women who are sports fans to gather in a welcoming space, but there also is room for men as fans of female athletics, Van Mullem said, noting WNBA player Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm played her final home game to a sold-out crowd of men and women, including some NBA players. That response isn’t just for the love of the game, she said, but respecting female athletes as players.
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Some change has come through student athletes sharing their experiences with the world through social media. That was the case when a female student athlete revealed the inequality between accommodations for male and female athletes at the NCAA March Madness basketball tournaments in 2021.
“Social media is changing the game with how information gets created and also shared,” Van Mullem said, noting anyone with a smartphone can be a content creator.
Contributing to the pace of change, some women are making spaces for themselves and others by creating companies and opportunities for more female athletes.
“More and more women are getting a seat at the table and they’re also making their own tables,” Van Mullem said. “Sometimes people get invited to the table, and sometimes people just make their own table, and I think it’s going to be really, really interesting to see the implications in sort of the shift in the model as we move into the future.”
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Title IX opened the door for female athletes at the college level, which then opened the door for professional female athletes. However, women in those roles still face inequality in pay, often seeking other ways to supplement their income, like WNBA players who play overseas in the off season.
Athletes such as former tennis player Billie Jean King and the U.S. women’s soccer team brought attention to those inequities, keeping the conversation about pay for women athletes in the spotlight.
“These women have paved the way for opportunities and experiences that they didn’t necessarily have, and they’re trying to leave these sports in a better space than when they started playing,” Van Mullem said. “And I think there are signs that their work is paying off.”
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Van Mullem also is exploring the legal side of Title IX.. She’s attending law school part time to work on her juris doctorate degree, in hopes of working with colleges and universities as a legal consultant on Title IX issues, including student athletics, campus safety and sexual assault.
Title IX has shaped her experiences as a college athlete, professor and aspiring legal consultant, and she hopes to be part of continuing to shape that experience for others.
“Title IX just celebrated its 50th anniversary and some good things have happened, but there is room for improvement,” Van Mullem said. “The goal moving forward is to examine and explore how we can continue to improve experiences and advance efforts toward equity.”
Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.
