Female Referees in College Basketball

Title 9 is a federal law passed in 1972 which prohibited sex discrimination in any educational program or any activity at any educational institution. In athletics Title 9 is applied in these 3 ways:

Participation: requires that women be provided an equitable opportunity to participate in sports as men (not necessarily the identical sports but an equal opportunity to play).
Scholarships: requires that female athletes receive athletic scholarship dollars proportional to their participation (e.g., if there are 100 male athletes/100 female athletes and a $200,000 scholarship budget, then the budget must be split $100,000 to men/$100,000 to women)
Other Benefits: requires equal treatment in the provision of (1) equipment and supplies, (2) scheduling of games and practice times, (3) travel and daily allowance, (4) access to tutoring, (5) coaching, (6) locker rooms, (7) practice and competitive facilities, (8) medical and training facilities and services, (9) publicity and promotions, (10) recruitment of student athletes, and (11) support services.

As a female athlete in college I cannot stress enough how grateful I am that women were allowed this great opportunity. But, recently this law and society’s stress on giving women equal opportunity has given many Division 3 basketball players some problems.

This year Division 3 Basketball is encouraging women to get involved in basketball across the nation. In that push, women referees are at almost every game. This year alone, the Emerson Men and Women’s Basketball teams have had the same two women referee our games. Sadly, the two women are AWFUL at refereeing. They make questionable calls and seem to be the focus of many discussions in our locker rooms.

I am all for Title 9 but I feel like the best people should be doing the job regardless of their sex. I also believe that if Division 3 wants to get women involved they should be offering tutorials for them. I feel like because they want more female referees they are giving any of them jobs, even the ones who aren’t as experienced and qualified.

Don’t get me wrong, bad referees are all over and they aren’t just women. I just find it funny how no matter where Emerson Women’s Basketball travels the same two women find their way there. This past Saturday we had a game at home verse Saint Josephs of Connecticut. It was a league game and they fall at the bottom. We were up by almost 30 and they began to get very “chippy”. At one point a girl on the opposing team screamed “I swear to God you effin bitch”. The woman referee was standing only 3 feet from us and completely ignored what she said. A technical foul was appropriate but nothing was given. Minutes later the same girl was pushing and grabbing me and the women referee whispered to me, quote “She’s frustrated give her a break.” A foul should have been called again but wasn’t.

A referee is a referee they call what they see regardless of the situation. The referee was wrong in not doing so. But, as a female athlete I really do feel that this is a great opportunity to women who want to get involved in basketball. My only suggestion is that the best referees should call college games and leave the less experienced referees for high school games.