The Gladys M. Kammerer Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best book published during the previous calendar year in the field of U.S. national policy.
Citation from the Award Committee:
Equality Unfulfilled: How Title IX’s Policy Design Undermines Change to College Sports stands out this year as the best book in U.S. policymaking for its courage in taking on such a universally lauded public policy and asking readers to consider its shortcomings. Comprehensive in its approach, Druckman and Sharrow present original survey data of 7500 student-athletes, coaches, administrators, citizens, and sports fans in addition to decades of financial, participation, and human resources records. They take on a difficult challenge to show why inequality persists despite significant public policy intervention and public support for equality in college athletics. The result is a compelling case for their argument that “college sports operate as a segregated, economic industry overseen by and largely for the benefit of men” (166). They document how structures within sport in higher education create hurdles for bottom-up, top-down, or outside-in demands for change and ultimately call for institutional change if equality is to be achieved. This work is an impressive piece of scholarship about an important and relevant subject that is sure to incite wide conversation.
Elizabeth (Libby) Sharrow is Associate Professor of Public Policy and History, and Director of Faculty Research in the Institute for Social Science Research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Their scholarship focuses on the history and impacts of U.S. civil rights policy, and the intersectional politics of gender, race, sexuality, and class from the 1970s-present. They are published in multiple social science and interdisciplinary peer-reviewed outlets and public-facing forums. Dr. Sharrow’s research is funded by the National Science Foundation, the American Association of University Women, the Social Science Research Council, and others. They have received awards from the Western Political Science Association, the Women’s Caucus for Political Science, and the American Political Science Association. Sharrow also collaborates with non-profit groups, including the Women’s Sports Foundation and Athlete Ally, using the tools of social science to support the rights and access to sport for women and gender diverse athletes. At Title IX’s 50th anniversary, they appeared in the 4-part ESPN docuseries (“37 Words”) on the history of the law. Druckman and Sharrow are currently writing a second book, under contract with Cambridge University Press, on the politics of transgender inclusion in college sports. Equality Unfulfilled won the 2024 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award from the American Education Research Association. Sharrow is working on a book that traces the politics of sex segregation under Title IX since the 1970s, among other projects. They hold a PhD in political science and a MPP from the University of Minnesota.
Jamie Druckman is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester. He is also an Honorary Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University in Denmark. He studies public opinion, inter-group relations, and survey/experimental methods. He is currently a co-PI of the Civic Health and Institutions Project (CHIP50) and Time-sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences (TESS). He also sits on the boards of the Russell Sage Foundation and the American National Election Studies. His interest in sports, gender, and politics (the topic of this book) began in 2000 due to conversations with Libby Sharrow.
APSA thanks the committee members for their service: Dr. Anna Mahoney (Chair) of Dartmouth College, Dr. Andrew O’Geen of Davidson College, and Dr. Emily Pears of Claremont McKenna College.