The 50th Anniversary of Title IX
It’s about more than girls and women in sports
Issue #92 Education July 27, 2022 (about 5 minutes reading time)
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Title IX and the 14th Amendment
Since the repeal of the Roe v Wade decision in June 2022, a lot of attention has been paid to the meaning and application of the 14th Amendment that was ratified in 1868.
After the right to an abortion was struck down by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), the right to marry someone of a different race or of the same sex, the right to contraception, and the right to have intimate relations with someone of the same sex are now in danger of similarly being destroyed. All of these rights were decided on the basis of the 14th Amendment that, among other things, guarantees equal protection under the law and also the right to one’s privacy: saying that no state “…can deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
2022 is the 49th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, and this year is also the 50th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.” Title IX, as the act is called, specifically prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
The actual wording of Title IX is: “No person in the United States, shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any academic, extracurricular, research, occupational training, or other education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In the case of Title IX, the term “sexual discrimination” also includes discrimination because of pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity. It is considered to be part of the larger Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was signed into law on June 23, 1972, by President Richard M. Nixon.
In 2002, in recognition of her work as the primary author of Title IX, the act was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act. Patsy Mink (D-HI) was the first Hawaiian woman elected to Congress, the first woman of color elected to the House, as well as the first Japanese-American woman member in Congress. She also served as an Assistant Secretary of State.
Title IX is still the only law that grants women any kind of equality in the United States. (The 19th Amendment granted women citizenship, but not necessarily universal equality.)
What are some examples of sex discrimination protected by Title IX?
Denying admission of a person into an educational or training program on the basis of sex.
Disqualifying a person for a research position on the basis of sex when it is irrelevant to the ability to perform the job.
Providing unequal educational resources to students of one sex compared to another.
Engaging in gender-based or sexual harassment such as making unwelcome sexual comments, advances, and/or name-calling on the basis of sex.
Sex-based harassment, including sexual harassment, when such harassment is sufficiently serious as to limit the ability to participate in and benefit from a program or activity.
Many of you may remember that Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast in history, and other gymnasts have filed a $1B lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), claiming that their reports of sexual abuse by Dr. Larry Nassar in 2015, who was the official doctor of the United States Gymnastics Association, were either ignored or mishandled.
The FBI is the investigative arm of the Department of Justice and the Bureau is charged with investigating all violations of Federal law, including Title IX.
How Title IX Changed Educational and Sports Opportunities for Girls and Women
The explosive growth in sports participation by girls and women since the enactment of Title IX is the most obvious positive result. Prior to 1972, only 1% of college athletic budgets went to women’s sports programs, and at the high school level, male athletes outnumbered female athletes 12.5 to 1. Female participation in sports at the high school level has grown by 1057% and by 614% at the college level since Title IX.
Now, thousands of women are able to turn their sport into their careers, and collegiate and professional coaching opportunities have increased as well.
On the education front, prior to Title IX, many colleges and professional schools limited the number of women who could attend or even excluded them entirely. It was thought that the primary goals of women were to become wives and mothers, so they would drop out of school and/or didn’t need higher education anyway.
Now, women can study any field they desire, instead of being steered only towards “women’s careers” such as teaching, home economics, or nursing, and away from science, engineering, and medicine.
On the other hand, since the text of Title IX contains neither the words “woman” nor “female,” opportunities for men in careers formerly limited to women such as nursing and caregiving are now available to men, and the current president of the American Nurses Association is a man with a doctorate in nursing—the first man to hold that position. Male nurses are no longer thought of as “unusual.”
Women also have greater opportunities to train in the trades, including in high-paying fields such as construction, electrical, carpentry, and even truck driving.
In 1950, only one-quarter of American undergraduate students were women; today women are the majority of enrollees and undergraduate degree holders. This level of educational attainment also gives women increased career achievement opportunities, which makes the SCOTUS decision to erase the rights of women over their own bodily autonomy and family planning choices all the more destructive.
There is still a long way to go
The improvements and opportunities for women have been admirable since Title IX, however, there are still many gaps and incidences of underrepresentation in many areas, including leadership, due to gender biases, social expectations, and the challenges of balancing a career with family caregiving.
Studies show that globally, the societies and economies that allow women to succeed flourish the most.
What do you think about increased opportunities for girls and women in education and sports since 1972? Let us know in the comments.
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