EDITORIAL: Title IX worth the fight

Published 5:24 pm Sunday, June 26, 2022

This week marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark law that changed the face of women’s athletics and so much beyond.

With the words, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance,” Title IX was born. 

The landscape was forever changed. 

While today we often think of the law with regard to athletics, that wasn’t solely its original intent. The law barred gender discrimination at schools receiving federal funding, including K-12 schools, but it was not limited to sports but in the classroom as well. In 1972, the year Title IX became law, females lagged significantly behind men in high school graduation completion and only 8% of females had college degrees. That’s difficult to fathom today but at the time, it was the reality. The impetus of this law was to break down barriers hindering equal access on playing fields across the board, to ensure that women had equality in all walks of life, and also to protect women and offer recourse in sexual harrassment claims, not just in athletics.

But athletics is where we often note the impact.

According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, women now make up 44% of all NCAA athletes, compared to just 15% in 1971. Nearly 3.5 million high school girls play sports, compared to less than 300,000, or 4%, in 1972. 

Yet, there’s still more work to do that goes beyond the law itself. 

It wasn’t until recently that the U.S. women’s soccer team achieved equal pay as the men’s team after a long fight to close the pay gap despite their overwhelming success on the field. 

We’ve seen numerous instances in recent years where social media has shined a light on disparities between women’s sports marketing and media coverage compared to their male peers. Take for instance the 2021 Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments when it took videos posted on social media to expose the disparity in facilities and prompt change. And it wasn’t until this year that the women’s college basketball tournament was allowed the “March Madness” brand by the NCAA as the men’s tournament has used for years.

And although Title IX is utilized to enforce misconduct laws on college campuses, some believe the process is long and difficult to the point that the risk is too great. 

And while the number of women in front offices helping oversee sports operations as athletic directors, team owners, general managers and beyond has improved, these roles are still overwhelmingly filled by men. 

Still despite the work that remains, the benefits of Title IX transcend sports. This law has enacted change and inspired generations of young girls to go after their goals. When they are lifted up they become women who open doors and lift up others. Achieving parity on the field helps better ensure parity in the workforce and beyond. 

This law paved the way for role models to be developed — for both girls and boys. 

There is still work to do but it’s no doubt worth the fight.