Media Coverage
Washington Times: Female Athletes warn NCAA to ‘keep women’s sports female’ or face lawsuit
The following letter was delivered to the NCAA on January 12, 2023.
National Collegiate Athletic Association
NCAA Office of Legal Affairs
——-@ncaa.org
January 12, 2023
To Whom It May Concern:
We write as attorneys on behalf of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), a network of current and former collegiate and professional women athletes and their families, to put you on official notice that your practice of allowing male athletes on women’s teams constitutes illegal discrimination against women on the basis of sex. We hereby demand that you take direct and immediate action to establish rules to keep women’s collegiate sports female.
In the world of college sports, it is impossible to provide equal opportunities for both sexes (as required by Title IX) without female-only teams. Yet the NCAA implements and perpetuates a policy of allowing male athletes on women’s teams, even as sports governing bodies and federal courts increasingly reject these unjust and inequitable policies that exclude young women from their own teams.
Female athletes do not accept this; nor do groups representing their interests such as ICONS and women’s rights groups across the political spectrum; nor do many parents, schools, states, governors, and lawmakers.
ICONS has worked with sports governing bodies and legislative authorities to help them protect female athletes from discrimination and exclusion on the basis of their sex. ICONS is willing and able to also share its expertise with the NCAA – if the NCAA wants to renew its commitment to providing equal opportunity for female athletes.
The NCAA’s discriminatory policies and practices violate state and federal law, directly and proximately resulting in foreseeable and avoidable harms, damages, and losses to female athletes.
The NCAA is not above the law.
If you do not protect female athletes from discrimination on the basis of sex, we will embark on legal action to compel you to do so.
To avoid legal action, the NCAA must comply with civil rights law immediately by:
- Repealing all policies and rules that allow male athletes to take roster spots on women’s teams and/or compete in women’s events;
- Establishing and enforcing rules to keep women’s sports female;
- Requiring colleges to provide single-sex locker rooms for female athletes.
We look forward to working with you to reach an acceptable resolution of these claims.
Sincerely,
Lauren Adams Bone
Candice Jackson
Jackson Bone LLP
On behalf of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS)
These organizations join ICONS in backing and supporting this demand letter.
Mahri Irvine, PhD, Executive Director Women’s Liberation Front | Jennifer C. Braceras, Director Independent Women’s Law Center |
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Kara Dansky, President Women’s Declaration International, USA | Christiana Kiefer, Senior Counsel Alliance Defending Freedom |
Penny Nance, CEO and President Concerned Women for America | Nancy Hogshead-Makar, CEO ChampionWomen |
International Consortium on Female Sport | Women’s Sports Policy Working Group |