NOW Opposes Single-Sex Public Education as 'Separate and Unequal'

For Immediate Release
Contact: Lisa Bennett, 202-628-8669, ext. 123; cell 202-641-1906

NOW Opposes Single-Sex Public Education as "Separate and Unequal"

October 24, 2006

Tomorrow the Department of Education will release new Title IX regulations easing restrictions on single-sex education in public schools. Despite the fact that the Department's own review of the available studies did not conclude that sex segregation actually increases learning, beginning on Nov. 24 the public schools will be allowed to implement single-sex classes, activities and schools so long as they are "implemented in a manner that treats male and female students even-handedly."

"I don't know how the Department of Education plans to define 'even-handedly,' but in our decades of experience with gender discrimination, separate is unequal," says NOW President Kim Gandy. "Claims of a 'boy crisis' in learning and achievement have been used to push for single-sex education, and this tactic appears to be succeeding despite the facts."

By changing the guidelines of Title IX, the 34-year-old law that prohibits sex discrimination in classes and activities that receive federal funding, the U.S. government is advancing the ineffective and unlawful practice of separating the sexes. Since the implementation of Title IX, public schools have been permitted to separate girls and boys only in limited circumstances -- such as physical education or sex education classes, or for remediation.

"Because school is the 'workplace' of children, this kind of segregation is likely to increase sex stereotyping in adulthood by depriving both boys and girls of the opportunity to interact daily as peers during their formative years. Separating our daughters from our sons is an ineffective response to a complex problem, and it pulls resources away from dealing with a broken public school system," said Gandy. "It doesn't prepare boys and girls for the real world, where they will have to interact with and work alongside each other. Instead, we should expand the use of methods we know will improve learning by both girls and boys, together -- like increased funding to schools, smaller class sizes, more resources and training to teachers, and more attention to students."

"'Separate but equal' has never really been equal for girls, and that has been true of recent experiments with single-sex schools. Segregation was wrong in the past, and it's wrong now," said Gandy. "It advances one group while the other is 'left behind' -- to use a Bush administration term. Women have made great advancements in our society, thanks in part to Title IX, and we must not abandon that commitment to ending discrimination against women."