Sandler, Bernice Resnick, 1928-2019

Bernice Resnick Sandler (March 3, 1928 – January 5, 2019) was an American women's rights activist born in New York. Sandler is best known for being instrumental in the creation of Title IX, a portion of the Education Amendments of 1972, in conjunction with Representatives Edith Green (D-OR) and Patsy Mink (D-HI) and Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) in the 1970s. She has been called "the Godmother of Title IX" by The New York Times.<p>
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Sandler wrote extensively about sexual and peer harassment towards women on campus, coining the terms "gang rape" and "the chilly campus climate."
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Bernice Resnick was born to Abraham Hyman and Ivy (Ernst) Resnick on March 3, 1928, in New York City. The second daughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Germany, Sandler spent her childhood living in Brooklyn, New York. She was intended to be named Beryl by her parents, but a doctor's error led to Bernice being written on her birth certificate instead. The nickname "Bunny" is derived from a Yiddish translation of Bernice, Bunya.
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In 1952, Resnick married Jerrold Sandler and had two children with him, Deborah Jo in 1954 and Emily Maud in 1956. The two later divorced, in 1978.
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In 1969, Sandler received her Ed.D. from the University of Maryland in Counseling and Personnel Services.
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Following her unsuccessful attempts at applying to tenure-track positions at higher education institutions, Sandler joined the Women's Equity Action League (WEAL) as the Chair of the Action Committee for Federal Contract Compliance from 1969–1971. The Women's Equity Action League, was an organization active from 1968–1989, was primarily focused on utilizing legal action and lobbying to enhance the status of women across the country. The now defunct organization is best known for its work overseeing the implementation of, "the contract compliance executive order as it applied to sex discrimination."
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In between her time as Chair of the Action Committee at WEAL she was also hired as an Education Specialist for the Special Subcommittee on Education, Committee on Education and Labor for the U.S. House of Representatives. It was during her time on the Special Subcommittee on Education that Sandler helped to support hearings that had a direct focus on gender discrimination within education and employment matters.
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In 1971, Sandler became the Deputy Director of the Women's Action Program within the Department of Health’s Education and Welfare section. While at the Department of Health, Sandler worked on sex discrimination in education issues.
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After a brief stint in the federal government, Sandler helped found the Project on the Status and Education of Women (PSEW) in 1971. The Project on the Status and Education of Women was an organization that focused on gender equality issues within the education system. While serving as Director and later Executive Associate with the PSEW, Sandler was instrumental in shaping the organization's direction during her time there from 1971 through 1991.
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From 1991–1994, Sandler was a Senior Associate at the Center for Women Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. The Center for Women Policy is a non-profit organization that focuses on a diverse range of issues affecting women, currently, the group is focused on addiction issues and recovery efforts.
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Sandler was a senior fellow at the Women's Research & Education Institute where she focused on sexual harassment, the chilly classroom climate, and women's issues on campus. The Women's Research & Education Institute, founded in 1977, is a nonpartisan, non-profit, independent organization that works to, "identify issues affecting women in their roles in the family, workplace and public arena and to inform and help shape public policy."
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Immediately following the completion of her Ed.D. from the University of Maryland, Sandler applied to a variety of teaching positions that she was qualified for, but was continually turned down for a variety of reasons. In one interview she was told, "she came on too strong for a woman."[25] As a self-proclaimed, "believer in bibliotherapy,"[17] Bunny Sandler turned to reading to help come to terms with her employment situation.
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While reading a report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, she discovered an executive order that prohibited federal contractors from discrimination on a variety of factors that was recently amended to include sex discrimination.[25] In 1965, President Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, which was originally focused on, "equal employment opportunity in Government employment, employment by Federal contractors and subcontractors and employment under Federally assisted construction contracts regardless of race, creed, color or national origin."[26][27] In 1967, President Johnson, amended Executive Order 11246 through Executive Order 11375 which specifically added sex discrimination as a category protected by the previous Executive Order.[28] This minor amendment by President Johnson, paved the way forward for Sandler, providing her with the legal footing necessary to bring legal complaints against non-compliant higher education institutions.
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Through this discovery, Sandler worked with the Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance at the Department of Labor, Vincent Macaluso, and through her position with the Women's Equity Action League, she began to file class-action lawsuits against colleges and universities nationwide.[17]
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Although the barrage of over 250 lawsuits against higher education institutions was successful in generating attention toward the issue, it did little to generate significant federal enforcement on the issues at hand. Prior to the lawsuits, the federal office in charge of overseeing enforcement of the executive order, the Office for Civil Rights under the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, had been slow to implement an enforcement program and had generally failed to provide adequate protection for those affected.[19]
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Simultaneously, Representative Edith Green (D-OR) and Representative Patsy Mink (D-HI), both members of the House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor, were attempting to address the lack of legal coverage that was focused on sex discrimination within the education field. Using the data compiled by the Women's Equity Action League, Sandler was able to provide Rep. Green and Rep. Mink with the material they needed to hold hearings on gender discrimination in education and to draft potential legislation addressing the issue. The hearings held in June 1970 by the Committee were successful in generating a wealth of materials to be used in supporting an effort to end gender discrimination in higher education.
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With the legislation passing with little notice by the media and educational institutions, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was passed by the 92nd Congress and was signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It had a dramatic effect on the higher education field to include a significant effect on collegiate athletics.
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Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, "as a means of correcting sex discrimination at the college and university level." In addition to ending sex discrimination in education, the act also extends to athletics, sexual harassment and employment discrimination. Title IX has had a significant impact on female collegiate athletics throughout its 46-year history, dramatically increasing the number of women in college athletics, increasing minority representation and increasing overall equity and diversity within the NCAA.