Gender equity at selected National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III institutions

The purpose of this study was to compare the perceptions of NCAA Division III male and female athletic administrators regarding gender equity in athletics at their institutions. A further comparison of perceptions was made between the administrators of this study and administrators of similar studies, Finally, a comparison was made between the perceptions of current athletic administrators and data presented by the most recent NCAA gender equity study. Data on individual perceptions of equity were obtained through a mail-out survey sent to a random sampling of 270 individuals in 135 NCAA Division III schools. Of the four hypotheses tested, two were rejected and two failed to be rejected (Alpha = .05). When a series of T-tests and an analysis of variance were performed, significant differences were found at the .05 level. Results indicated that 71% or more of the respondents perceived equity in 13 of the 14 individual items surveyed. No significant difference was found for age. Females perceived less equity than males in all factors. For changes over the last two or three years, both genders indicated females were favored. For all other tested items, when an advantage was perceived, the advantage favored males. Seventy-eight percent of the athletic administrators in this study indicated that they perceived their programs to have attained overall gender equity. The most recent NCAA gender equity data, while indicating some progress toward equity, does not support the perceptions of the administrators in this study.