It seems every group that wants something special for itself uses the a particularly effective tactic here to get it. That would be, "I am being discriminated against, so do what I want". In most cases the discrimination is imagined and there are both laws and social norms that stop the discrimination that the special interest group imagines to be present. A good example of perceived discrimination is right here in the Oregon public schools where sixty Oregon school districts have been named in a complaint filed with the United States Justice Department for allegedly failing to provide high school girls with equal opportunities as boys to play sports, a violation of law passed in 1972 called, Title IX.
Title IX is a federal law that requires equal opportunities for males and females at institutions that receive public funds. That would mean that the schools must spend equal amounts of money on girls and boys sports teams. They have been doing that for many years, but sometimes a lack of interest by girls in a school in sports means some sports teams fold and there is no "opportunity for the ladies to participate in a particular sport.
The lawsuit lists the schools from largest to smallest in disparity as to who is violating the law. This calculation is the difference between the percentage of girls who are athletes compared to the percentage of overall female students. So in effect, when schools offers girls a sport and not enough of them show up to have a team, the litigants claim the schools are "discriminating" against females. How stupid! It is a fact that the role of girls and boys in society differs and that, not discrimination, is often why the two sexes behave differently. That's why there are so few boys who participate in cheer leading teams or in home economics cooking classes in schools (so, for example, does that mean there should also be a lawsuit against the schools for discriminating against boys?).
It is hard to blame a school system when it offers sports to females, but too few girls want to participate in them and they fold as a result. In fact, statistics show that most public high school and colleges in the U.S. actually spend more money on girls sports than on the boys, in order to keep them operating. Too, female sporting events are often poorly attended, meaning that there are fewer ticket buyers. And ironically, the boys sports, which sell well and make a profit, have funds taken from their teams to pay for the girls teams who are not self supporting. Seems to me that is a kind of discrimination against the male teams.
This kind of politically correct imagined discrimination is rife in the U.S., and the example I am giving in one this case shows the problem that is systemic in the U.S. When people imagine discrimination that is not there it hinders the entire society by disrupting the natural flow of the participants' interests. In many universities men's athletic teams have been disbanded, even when profit making, in order to create and pay for money losing female sports, a typical reverse sexual discrimination men are suffering here in school sporting enterprises. If one suggests to the universities that only those sports that can finance themselves with ticket sales should be allowed to operate, howls of protest arise because almost all female teams would have to disband if that were the case. Most university female athletic programs are paid for or heavily subsidized by the sales of tickets to male athletic events.
Here in Oregon and in other high schools across the nation, school systems work hard to keep female sports programs operating, and they currently have about the same number of participants as the boys sports teams do. Schools in the U.S are constantly surveying the girls and adding sports that girls want to play when a female sports team loses enough team members to continue to operate.
As society is structured today one would expect fewer females than males would participate in athletics, just as, for example, one would expect more females than males to like sewing clothes. The demonstration for prowess in sports is a stronger determination for male status because that is what society sees as the male role. I wish people here would stop playing the "discrimination game". That's one only suitable for losers.
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