Jacket worn by gymnast Amy Cohen while at Brown University

Dark brown, long sleeve satin jacket with white and red striped cuffs and waistband worn by gymnast Amy Cohen while at Brown University. Cohen was the co-captain of the 1992 Brown University’s Women’s Gymnastics team and one of twelve plaintiffs in a Title IX lawsuit against the school. As explained by Cohen, "In 1991, Brown University cut funding for four varsity teams including women’s gymnastics. The university thought it was complying with Title IX because it was cutting 2 men’s sports and 2 women’s sports. However, women were underrepresented before the cuts and disproportionately affected by the cuts, In a precedent-setting ruling, which set the standard for determining a school’s compliance with Title IX in the area of athletics, the court mandated that Brown create a plan to comply with the law. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court declined Brown’s petition to hear the case, all four teams were restored to university-funded status, and Brown promoted four additional women’s teams to varsity status. Cohen v. Brown was the first Title IX case of its type to receive an appellate court decision. The Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the plaintiffs in the appeals court."

In the March 15, 2019 issue of the Brown University’s, College Hill Independent, “Cohen v. Brown would go on to define how athletics departments manage participation opportunities at Brown and surrounding universities. Almost 30 years later, “following recent federal announcements of changes to the ways universities must interpret Title IX.... , this case exemplifies the complexity of the law’s impact on gender equity in higher education.”

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