The federal gender-equity law known as Title IX turns 35 on Saturday, and several groups have published reports and organized events over the past few months to mark the anniversary. Today the Stanford Center on Ethics released a report on a conference it held in April. Conference sessions are also now available as podcasts.

The report says that Title IX has transformed women’s sports, but that disparities persist in opportunities for male and female athletes. About 80 percent of institutions are out of compliance with Title IX, it says, and the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, the agency responsible for enforcing the law, has inadequate oversight. Women are still cheated out of participation opportunities, budget dollars, and, increasingly, coaching jobs.

While men’s athletic opportunities have increased by 30 percent over all since Title IX’s enactment, in 1972, more than half of men’s sports have seen declines in the numbers of teams, according to the report. Athletics departments have cut scholarships or capped rosters for other men’s sports. But Title IX is a “scapegoat” for those decisions, which reflect institutional priorities more than anything.

The report recommends, among other things, that athletics officials be held more accountable for gender equity at their institutions, that the Office for Civil Rights perform more compliance reviews, that colleges cap expenses in football and men’s basketball, and that Congress rescind the civil-rights office’s decision, in 2005, to allow institutions to demonstrate compliance through an online survey of female students’ interest in sports. —Sara Lipka