ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one of the strategies of the movement against sexual violence in higher education: using Title IX as a legal recourse by expanding the definition of sex discrimination and reframing sexual violence as a civil rights issue, and not just a criminal one. The chapter first shows how, in the 1970s, students and lawyers conceptualized sexual harassment as a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, before explaining how this interpretation of Title IX was legitimized by court interpretations and the guidelines published by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the federal agency tasked with enforcing Title IX. Then, the chapter describes how, during the Obama presidency, a powerful student movement against campus sexual violence leveraged OCR’s 2011 guidelines to push higher education institutions to establish grievance procedures, remedies for survivors, and prevention. Finally, the chapter analyzes the limits of this strategy, which faced strong conservative backlash during the Trump presidency and suggests different avenues to better address sexual violence in higher education in order to achieve Title IX’s promise of gender equality in education.
