Concerned Women for America (CWA) leaders were honored to be invited to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House yesterday for Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s historic announcement that the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) has agreed to revoke their rules that allow men to participate on their women’s athletic teams. This is a huge victory for you as you have fought alongside us for many years for fairness in women’s sports!
As part of the agreement, UPenn will apologize to the women they discriminated against by allowing Lia Thomas (formerly William) to compete on their women’s swim team and will restore all stolen titles to their rightful female holders.
On March 17, 2022, CWA filed a federal civil rights complaint with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights against UPenn for allowing a male athlete to compete on their women’s swim team. This was a blatant violation of their Title IX non-discrimination obligations. Meanwhile, Young Women for America (YWA) leaders rallied at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center where the NCAA handed this athlete a women’s national championship.
The visual of Thomas standing on the podium sparked a movement that grew all the way to the White House. Within his first few weeks in office, President Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” Executive Order and began investigating an array of Title IX complaints that the previous administration left pending. Among these was the historic UPenn case, and yesterday’s announcement solidified the weight of his commitment.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced a Resolution Agreement with the University of Pennsylvania, including:
- UPenn will restore to female athletes all individual UPenn Division I swimming records, titles, or similar recognitions which were misappropriated by male athletes allowed to compete in female categories;
- UPenn will issue a public statement to the University community stating that it will comply with Title IX, specifying that UPenn will not allow males to compete in female athletic programs or occupy Penn Athletics female intimate facilities;
- The statement will specify that UPenn will adopt biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” pursuant to Title IX and consistent with President Trump’s Executive Orders “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism” and “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”;
- UPenn will post the statement in a prominent location on its main website and on each of its websites for women’s athletics;
- UPenn will rescind any guidance which violated Title IX, remove or revise any internal and public-facing statements or documents that are inconsistent with Title IX, and notify all staff and women’s athletics of all such rescissions; and
- UPenn will send a personalized letter of apology to each impacted female swimmer.
This isn’t just a pursuit of future fairness; it is restorative action that recognizes the female athletes they forced to change in front of a man 18 times a week deserve an apology.
This is just one of the many cases female athletes have filed.
In another case last week, ED found the California Department of Education (CDE) and the California Interscholastic Federation violated Title IX by discriminating again women and girls on the basis of sex. It is no surprise these findings arise from an investigation claiming California was replacing women on sports teams with men.
Similar to the UPenn case, the ED offered California an agreement; they must comply with Title IX, restore records rightfully held by women with an apology from the CDE, and more. California was given ten days to comply before the Department of Justice intervenes. This period expires at the end of this week.
No longer are Title IX violations left on the backburner. Under the Trump Administration they will be met with decisive, uncompromising action. CWA members are thankful! The University of Pennsylvania agreement is the strongest marker to date—President Trump is committed to fairness for women, and female athletes can have hope going forward.
