Gender gap in high school sports

Women have made dramatic gains since Title IX was signed into law, but in many local high schools, a gap remains between the opportunities available to boys and girls to play sports.

Girls receive only about 42 percent of the roster spots on high school sports teams in Massachusetts, according to data collected by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The gender gap has remained nearly the same since 2000. In fact, more team positions were added for boys than girls during the past 14 years, according to the MIAA’s annual participation surveys.

The dashboard below allows readers to explore sports participation at each high school in Massachusetts. It uses data from the U.S. Department of Education, which monitors compliance with Title IX. The dashboard accompanied a story I wrote for The MetroWest Daily News in 2014 looking at the disparity between opportunities for boys and girls. The project was created in Tableau.