In 2022, I celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX on my blog. Browse these 100 posts that bring to life the people who advanced the cause of gender equality, often at great personal cost.
Want to read even more about Title IX? Check out my curated list of Title IX Books on Bookshop.org.
From anonymity to NBC
Fifteen years ago, I interviewed Rev. Robert Hartwell for my book of weight loss success stories, “How We Did It.” In it, I share the stories of about three dozen people who lost weight using different plans and programs. This past weekend, I caught up with Pastor Hartwell over lunch. We were having such
Athletic superstar making baseball history
Be honest… when you read that headline about an athletic superstar, you’re thinking baseball player, right? A male… right? But, no, this superstar is a woman! Jen Pawol is a baseball umpire who is breaking ground in Major League Baseball. I watched her behind the plate a few days ago in a Yankees spring
Talking suffrage in Princeton, NJ
“The time has come to conquer or submit. For us there is but one choice. We have made it.” Yes, President Woodrow Wilson said these words in regard to winning World War I. But in 1917, another towering historical figure adopted this battle cry as her own. Suffrage leader (and outspoken Jersey Girl!) Alice
A New Jersey utopia lost
In 1897, real estate huckster Silas “Si” Drake bought up a farm on the outskirts of Plainfield, New Jersey, and broke it up into building lots for a new town, which he called Lincoln. His intentions were lofty — Abraham Lincoln was his inspiration. Obviously not one to shy away from famous people, Drake
Love in the time of suffrage hikes
In 1912, suffragists working for the woman’s vote started a new form of protest: the long hike. In December that year, General Rosalie Jones — a military title conferred on the woman who led many of these hikes — walked with 200 women from New York City to Albany to present a suffrage petition.
Oh, those myth-making suffragists!
The suffragists were heroes, right? They were saints, don’t you think? Well, maybe they were heroes, but they weren’t saints. Researching my books, I’ve found that the suffragists were stellar myth-makers. They weren’t above burnishing their reputations and their actions through exaggeration and outright lies. Take, for example, the famous March 3, 1913 suffrage
Put Suffragists on the Mall!
News flash! There’s a movement afoot to construct a monument to the woman suffrage fight on the National Mall. You know… where all the monuments dedicated to men’s achievements are. I received an email from the National Women’s History Alliance urging me to contact the appropriate congressional representatives about the location of the monument.
Why I Think About War
A few years ago, our family stood shivering in a biting winter wind before the graves of a dozen Revolutionary War soldiers who died at the crossing of the Delaware River. My son, four-years-old then, seemed puzzled. “Mama, are they hiding down there?” Evan asked. Uh oh, I thought. I know what’s coming. “No,
The Title IX 100
Last year at this time, I made a New Year’s resolution. I vowed to write about Title IX this entire year, the 50th anniversary of the gender equality law. And I kept my resolution! Here it is, one year and one hundred blog posts later. Yay me! You can browse through the posts
A coach steps up
Michigan State is the poster child for universities that violated Title IX in the way they treated (or, rather, didn’t treat) instances of sexual abuse. In 2019, it was found guilty of failing to stop Larry Nassar from criminally assaulting hundreds of female athletes in his role as team doctor (not to mention his
Hair’s to Title IX
Is hair a Title IX issue? To cousins DeAndre Arnold and Kaden Bradford it was. In January 2020, Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas, suspended the two Black students for violating the district’s dress code. Their infraction was the length of their locs.* The district’s dress code required that male students
Lawsuits spread like a virus
In my last post, you met Sage Ohlensehlen, a swimmer for the University of Iowa who brought a lawsuit against the school after it cut four sports teams, including the women’s swim/dive team, claiming hardship from COVID-19. As it turns out, the UI lawsuit is only one of many that female athletes have
Title IX meets COVID-19
What do Title IX and COVID-19 have in common? A lawsuit! In December 2020, the University of Iowa announced it would cut its men’s and women’s swimming and diving, men’s tennis and men’s gymnastics programs starting with the next school year, claiming the hardship of the virus. The women were devastated. “When
Thanks but no thanks
Susan Kaplowitz chose an interesting topic for her doctoral thesis: “Guidelines for Establishing Equitable Interscholastic Athletic Programs for Boys and Girls in Public High Schools.” That’s not surprising. Susan was well aware that women were discriminated against as athletes. We met Susan in my last blog post. The Bronx native was athletic
“We do not accept girls”
Susan Kaplowitz grew up in the Bronx in the 1950s and ‘60s. But her baseball loyalty didn’t lie with the Bronx Bombers. Instead, her grandmother turned her into a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. When she was 10 years old, Susan learned that before each Dodgers game, a child was chosen to play catch with
Ohio hears a “who”
Title IX is getting another spin through the washer on transgender rights. In November, a group of inter-faith parents sued an Ohio school district for allowing transgender students to use gendered bathrooms. The parents are suing the Bethel Local School District of Dayton, Ohio, for using students’ stated gender identity rather than their
A walk-on wonder
It’s almost December, that dreary time between the World Series and spring training, and I’m so happy to have a baseball story for you! Last week, Olivia Pichardo made college baseball history. The 18-year-old freshman at Brown University became the first female athlete in NCAA Division 1 history to be named to a
Stemming the bias
Title IX’s most visible impact has been in athletics, but the law dramatically changed the academic universe for women, too. Evelynn Hammonds was in the first wave of women to break through the barriers women interested in science had faced. Born in 1953 in Atlanta, Evelynn was intrigued with science and the physical
Hurdles, what hurdles?
Title IX’s impact on college campuses is well known, but what about life afterward? You only need to look at the life of Benita Fitzgerald Mosley to see that opportunity and success doesn’t stop at the college level. Benita was born in 1961, making her 11 years old when Title IX was enacted.
Can Title IX curb hazing?
In a lawsuit wending its way through the courts, a college student’s grieving parents are testing Title IX as it applies to hazing deaths on college campuses. In 2017, Max Gruver entered Louisiana State University, declaring a communications major. The 18-year-old from Roswell, Georgia, wanted to be a sports journalist. He had published
Watching and waiting
“To my best basketball player in the ninth grade, boy or girl.” That’s what a gym teacher and the basketball coach wrote in Tara VanDerveer’s ninth-grade yearbook. But the words didn’t made Tara proud — they were painful, because Tara hadn’t played on her school’s basketball team. Girls weren’t allowed. In the
Title IX gets failing grade
Earlier this year, the Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism teamed up with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland to assess the level of Title IX compliance at the high school level when it comes to sports. Their four-month study raises concern for the 3.4 million high school
Tragedy at the Title IX Olympics
The 1996 Olympics have come to be known as the “Title IX Olympics.” The 1972 gender equality law created a path to the Olympics for women, but it took another generation before the impact of the legislation hit. The first wave of expertly trained female athletes burst onto the scene at the 1996 Atlanta
The path less trod
A while ago, I wrote about the women of Brown University’s 1992 gymnastics team who brought a Title IX lawsuit when their team was cut. This week, I learned that a coach at the university had a choice to make about this lawsuit — would she support it and risk her job or would
Waves of injustice
Over the years, women (and some men!) have filed thousands of Title IX lawsuits claiming discrimination. It’s safe to say that 99.9999 percent of these lawsuits are settled before they go to court. But one major lawsuit in Hawaii might eventually make it to trial. In December 2018, female athletes at James Campbell
Toni storms the field
The World Series will go on without my Yankees, but here’s one more baseball story for you. Meet Toni Stone, the first woman to play professional ball in the Negro Leagues. Marcenia Lyle Stone was born in West Virginia in 1921, but at age 10, she moved with her family to St. Paul,
Post-Title IX freeze-out
Did Title IX change everything? We like to think so, but in reality, women continued to face discrimination on the playing fields. I thought about that as I read Kendall Coyne’s book, As Fast As Her. Kendall Coyne was born in 1992, twenty years after passage of the gender equality law. She’s well
Wyomia for the W
Wyomia Tyus is a name I hadn’t heard before, and I should have. When you mention Olympic runners from the 1960s, it’s Wilma Rudolph’s name that is remembered. But Wyomia Tyus was an equally accomplished track and field sprinter. In 1964 and 1968, she won the 100-meter sprint in back-to-back Olympics. Only six
What’s in a name
In my romp through the sports world this year, the name of one university has popped up in conversation more than any other — UCLA. Here’s one instance: In 1939, UCLA enrolled baseball great Jackie Robinson. He became the school’s first athlete to letter in four varsity sports. He was one of
A first on the court
All too often, a woman’s reputation as a “first” overshadows her many other accomplishments. That’s the case for Becky Hammon, the first woman to serve as head coach for a National Basketball Association (NBA) team, even if briefly. On December 20, 2020, San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in the second
And yer OUT!
The World Series is on deck and that reminds me of a baseball player I’ve been meaning to write about. Jackie Mitchell — the girl who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Virne Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell was only the second female to play professional baseball.* Born in 1913, she learned the game
Gentlepeople, start your engines
Today I’m talking about something I know nothing about. Could be dangerous! But not as dangerous as auto racing. In the 1970s, one woman broke the gender barrier in this once all-male sport. In 1977, Janet Guthrie was the first woman to qualify for and drive in the Indianapolis 500. The race was
Collegiate fencer parries
Sometimes when your alma mater is in the news, it’s not something to be proud of. This week, I learned of a Title IX lawsuit brought against Penn State by Zara Moss, a student athlete who fenced for the university. In her suit, Zara accuses head fencing coach Wes Glon of abusing her
Rebel in the 1950s
In the 1970s, several dozen determined girls brought lawsuits to play in Little League baseball. But none of them was actually the first to breach the gender barrier there. That honor goes to Kathryn “Kay” Johnston Massar. For her story, we have to go all the way back to 1950. Kay lived
Little League firestorm
The story of how Maria Pepe, a 12-year-old girl from Hoboken, New Jersey, forced Little League to accept female players is pretty well known. I’ve written about it myself. But in reality, the Little League story is not one of a single girl up against a behemoth. It’s more a case of nationwide
A woman of firsts
Like so many parents, I had visions of my kid getting a sports scholarship. And because he’s a boy, that could have happened, even if it were fifty years ago. But if you were a girl back then? No scholarship for you! It was 1974 before the first woman got a college sports
Inaugural Ballers pub day!
It’s pub day for Andrew Maraniss! His book, Inaugural Ballers: The True Story of the First U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Team released today. Congrats to Andrew! The team played in the 1976 Olympics, only four years after the passage of Title IX. That surprised me, because for most women’s sports, it took years,
The pay gap narrows
Elite female athletes are more than aware of the pay gap between them and their male peers. Just ask anyone in the WNBA. Today, I want to widen out the lens to the pay inequity faced by women in any and every profession. The good news is that the picture has improved in
He said what?!?
“Athletic competition builds character in our boys. We do not need that kind of character in our girls, the women of tomorrow.” Whoa! A judge deciding a pre-Title IX case actually said that. We’ll get to him in a little bit. In August 1970, Susan Hollander, a sophomore at Hamden High School
Schlafly v. Title IX
When you hear the name Phyllis Schlafly, what comes to mind? Her battle against the Equal Rights Amendment, of course. But when her name came up in my last blog post, I got to wondering whether she’d also campaigned against Title IX. First, the facts of her life. I had no idea she
Time for time travel
It’s surprising how little attention Title IX got when it was signed into law in 1972. But a lot was happening that year — both good and bad — so the headlines were claimed by events that buried a seemingly insignificant piece of legislation whose impact wouldn’t be realized for years. So, c’mon,
It’s Women’s Equality Day!
Time out! Today we celebrate Women’s Equality Day. On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote was signed into law. If you think Title IX has been a battle, you need to read up on the suffrage fight!* Women fought for 72 years just to have the word
Let’s hear it for the dads
In June this year, the New York Times ran a piece on “Title IX parents”— parents who through the years have filed lawsuits on behalf of their daughters in order to enforce gender parity. The article focused on several mothers who sought redress through the courts.* But it’s not always mothers who are
Serving up a lawsuit
When you look into the history of Title IX, you go down a lot of rabbit holes! My last post, about a lawsuit filed by the San Diego State University women’s rowing team led me to a 42-year-old lawsuit that broke new ground for Title IX. In the fall of 1977, Long Island
Follow the money
A Title IX battle is brewing at San Diego State University. But the university and the students don’t agree on what the issue is. Last year, the university cut the women’s rowing team. It’s rationale? The university has more female athletes than male athletes, so it can’t stay in compliance with Title IX
Food fight!
Sometimes, I play this game where I think of two words I believe I’ll never see in the same sentence. (I know… it gets slow in my head sometimes.) Well, this week, my mind game has come to life. I never thought I’d see “Title IX” and “free lunch” mentioned in the same sentence.
But Susan started it
In my last post, I mentioned that groundbreaking woman’s advocate Barbara Hackman Franklin and I share an alma mater — Penn State. That’s not all we share! We also both have a connection with the woman suffrage movement. Before I began writing about Title IX, I wrote about the women who powered the
A Few Good Women
In Heath Lee’s guest post this week, she recalls a moment in 1969 when Washington journalist Vera Glaser confronted President Nixon at the second press conference of his administration. “Mr. President, in staffing your administration, you have so far made about 200 high-level Cabinet and other policy position appointments, and only three have
Guest Post: Heath Hardage Lee
Recently, I read Heath Hardage Lee’s book, The League of Wives, about a group of determined women who forced the American government to bring their POW husbands home from Vietnam. I loved this book! When I saw that Heath had moderated a Title IX panel at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, I asked if
Suzyn Waldman goes yard
I’ve been listening to Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling on WFAN radio this year while I watch Yankees games on television. (The announcers they’re trying out in the YES network booth are wretched! Give me Michael Kay, David Cone and Paul O’Neill for every game!) Why didn’t I tune in to the radio broadcasts
Why do we put up with it?
For the last few weeks, I’ve been sharing stories of women whose actions expanded Title IX to include sexual harassment and violence as a violation of the law. It got me thinking… Why don’t we recognize sexual harassment when it happens to us? Why doesn’t it make us angry? Why don’t we all speak
Harassment? What harassment?
In my last post, I introduced you to Christine Franklin, whose Title IX lawsuit expanded the gender equality law to cover sexual harassment. Although hers was the first successful such lawsuit, it wasn’t the first. Five classmates at Yale University have that honor. In 1977, Ronni Alexander, Margery Reifler, Pamela Price, Lisa Stone and
Title IX branches out
It took 20 years and the courage of one teenage girl to expand the reach of Title IX into the realm of sexual harassment. In 1986, Christine Franklin was a freshman at North Gwinnett High School in Suwanee, Georgia. She had a boyfriend, played in the school band and eagerly accepted an offer from
Claiming her place in the canon
Title IX is usually thought of as a sports law, so we often forget that its original intent was to increase academic opportunity. In 1974, just two years after Title IX was enacted, a woman who wanted to go to medical school brought a lawsuit claiming gender bias. Geraldine Cannon was a surgical
Vaulting to Title IX success
Gymnastics was one sport available for women long before Title IX. But that doesn’t mean it was free from discrimination. In fact, gymnasts at Brown University brought a precedent-setting lawsuit in 1992, two decades after Title IX became law. In 1991, Brown University cut women’s varsity gymnastics, along with three other teams. It
Let’s hear it for “the girls”
The next Summer Olympic Games aren’t until 2024, so there’s still time for broadcasters to rethink their coverage of female athletes. Broadcasts of the Olympics reach massive audiences, giving athletes a thrilling moment on the world stage. Yet broadcasters often take the opportunity to minimize women’s achievements. This was especially noticeable at the
An athlete turned author
Title IX slashed a definitive before-and-after dividing line. But recently I’ve been reminded that women did play sports long before the 1972 law. Today, let’s go back to the early 1900s. A hundred-plus years ago, golf was one of the few sports “approved” for women. It was a genteel pursuit that didn’t involve
Guest post: Author Kathleen Stone
A time out for Mary Church Terrell Recently, I invited Kathleen Stone, author of They Called Us Girls:Stories of Female Ambition from Suffrage to Mad Men (Cynren Press, 2022), to talk about anything that was on her mind. Kathleen’s book chronicles the lives of seven unconventional women of the 1900s who broke out of
Trans bans reach finish line
Last week, the governing bodies for three sports banned or delayed trans women from competing against biological women. Hallelujah! say those who believe Title IX should protect women’s space in the sporting world. FINA, the swimming world’s governing body, now permits only swimmers who have transitioned before age 12 — the onset of
Happy 50th Anniversary, Title IX!
Today’s the day! Fifty years ago today, President Nixon signed Title IX into law. Let’s step back in time and see what reaction to the proposed law was like in its early days. The good “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied
The Mars to Venus gap
Last week, a national poll found an astonishing split between men’s and women’s perception of the impact of Title IX. Poll results showed that 61 percent of men say that due to Title IX, the country has made a “great deal” or “a lot” of progress toward gender equality. At the same time,
A champion denied
Today, let’s talk about another elite athlete who turned her success into a life of activism. In 1960, 13-year-old Donna de Varona qualified for the Olympic swimming team. She held a world record in her best event, the 400-meter individual medley. The problem? That event wasn’t on the Olympic program. People still
That’ll leave a mark
Recently, I’ve heard several elite female athletes say they want to be more than athletes. They want to use their success — and their position in the media spotlight — to achieve other personal goals. This seems to me like a sign that Title IX is doing its job. For a woman to
Tackling the football ban
Last week, Karen O’Connor Self shared her experience as an 11-year-old girl who wanted to play on her middle school boys basketball team. That made me curious — did any other girls sue for the right to play a sport? Yes, indeed! Thirteen years after the passage of Title IX, one young girl
A lil’ history for you
Did Title IX spring up out of nowhere? Of course not! It was part of a growing awareness of the inequities women faced in society. Today, I’ll share a smattering of the events, laws, books and movements that fueled changing societal attitudes about women. Here we go! The Equal Rights Amendment. Alice
What a difference a decade makes
Kaitlin Calogera traipses around Washington, DC, for a living. Her company, A Tour of Her Own, offers tours of historical sites and events that highlight women and their achievements. So how does Title IX figure into Kaitlin’s story? The law was well in the rearview mirror when she was born in the late 1980s.
Put me in, coach
In the early years of Title IX, one 11-year-old girl and her family took a gender equality case all the way to the Supreme Court. From an early age, Karen O’Connor Self was an outstanding athlete. Basketball was her main sport, but she also played soccer and baseball. She was skilled enough that she
Saved by the game
High school is a memorable time for many of us, but for Melissa Isaacson, it was more than nostalgia that made her write about the girls basketball team that won the 1979 Illinois state championship. Melissa’s book, State: A Team, a Triumph, a Transformation, is about a team of girls who beat not only
Hear them roar
For girls, Title IX brought about more than just the opportunity to play. It disrupted many ways of thinking that had harmed girls for centuries. For my blog last week, journalist and sportscaster Melissa Isaacson talked about her childhood, one that straddled Title IX. Girls sports teams began to sprout up while she was
Goal!
This week, after a lengthy battle that stretched out over years, the U.S. women’s soccer team finally won its fight for equal pay. Under the terms of a collective bargaining agreement, World Cup prize money will be pooled between the men’s and women’s teams and split equally among all players. In addition, the
Aquasprites anyone?
Recently, I talked with veteran journalist, Medill lecturer and former ESPN sportscaster Melissa Isaacson about her athletic experiences on and off the field. Melissa’s life is interesting because it straddled Title IX. She began to see changes while she was still young. “By junior high school, we suddenly saw girls teams starting up,” she
Gold medal lessons
Today, we’re talking track and field. And you can’t talk about that sport without talking about Willye White. White was born in 1939 and raised by her grandparents in Money, Mississippi. The town of Money became infamous 16 years later as the place where Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy, was brutally
Dropping the ball at Ball State
The women whose lives straddled Title IX lost out on opportunities, but created them for the women who came after them. We’ve been following the life of Debbie Millbern Powers, a basketball player who had no path to professional play after college. She chose the closest thing possible — teaching physical education and coaching.
An epic Battle of the Sexes
A Mother’s Day tennis match played 50 years ago set the stage for Billie Jean King, an athlete who made people sit up and pay attention to women’s sports. In 1972, the year Title IX became law, tennis player Billie Jean King ruled the world. That year, she was Sports Illustrated’s Athlete of
Facing the freakin’ boys
Trans women playing women’s sports is a controversial topic today. But who gets to play on what team is not a new dilemma. In the 1970s, Debbie Millbern Powers took a position as a PE teacher and a coach at Muncie Northside (IN) High School. As a female coach, she was required to
Comes the reckoning
We met Debbie Millbern Powers last time, a girl who desperately wanted to play basketball. But at every turn, she was told it wasn’t possible. Couldn’t she just try out for cheerleading and be grateful for it? For a ninth grade essay, Debbie wrote about her dream of being a professional basketball player
In the bleak before-times
In college, Debbie Millbern Powers was a teammate of Tara VanDerveer, today the winningest coach in women’s college basketball. In tournaments, she faced Margie Wright, who went on to a sparkling career as a college and Olympic softball coach. Fellow Indiana University student Jane Pauley interviewed Debbie for a journalism class. Legendary men’s basketball
A forgotten force
Last week, I listened in on a conversation with author Sherry Boschert about her new Title IX book, 37 Words: 50 Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination. She threw out a name I hadn’t yet heard: Margaret Dunkle. Too often, we simplify great movements by choosing one name to ascribe success to and ignore
Undercover marathon women
Yesterday, runners competed in the Boston Marathon, a race that has been run since 1897. Race organizers were inspired by the Olympic marathon of 1896, when the Games were reintroduced into modern times. But, of course, at its inception, women were excluded from the Boston Marathon. It wasn’t until decades later, in 1972,
No crying in baseball this month
The last few weeks have been great ones for female athletes breaking into the male dominated sport of baseball. Four women led the charge, realizing their dream on the diamond. This week, San Francisco Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken became the first woman in Major League Baseball history to coach on the field.
How the fairy tale ends
When we talk about female athletes of the mid-1900s who broke through gender barriers, we tend to make their stories into ones of pure triumph. And triumph they did. But I’ve become curious about their entire lives. What happened when they came to the end of the paltry opportunities they had in pre-Title
The U.S. Not-So-Open
We last talked about Babe Didrickson, an athlete whose accomplishments began to break down the prejudice against women in sports. But it was another athlete who attacked not only the gender barrier, but the barrier of racial hatred as well. In 1950, 23-year-old tennis player Althea Gibson became the first African American player,
We’ll always have Paris
In the 1900s, some sports began to appear as appropriate outlets for women’s athletic pursuits. Still, the Olympics remained elusive. Early women’s sports, like golf and tennis, were approved pursuits of the upper class and an option only for white, upper class women. Who can forget the aloof and alluring professional golfer Jordan
This dress is killing me
When Pierre de Coubertin founded the modern Olympics in 1896, it’s hardly surprising that he excluded women from the Games. The problem, in part, was the clothing that women were saddled with in that era.
Grabbing the Olympic rings
The idea that women shouldn’t compete in sports goes way back. Back into antiquity, as a matter of fact. For instance, the storied ancient Olympic games had no female faces gracing the competitions.
Cookies and punch with the enemy
Sportsmanship… we’ve all heard that virtue extolled. But as worthy an attribute as that is, in some ways it has held back women’s athletic aspirations.
Parents step up to the plate
Central New York State has always been a hotbed of reform sentiment. Abolition, suffrage, temperance, religious reform — you name it, people have always rocked the boat here. When it comes to girls and sports, it’s no surprise that a revolution happened here, too.
Lobbing one at the NCAA
This week, three congresswomen accused the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) of violating Title IX’s spirit of gender equality.
Play ball, girls!
Hoboken, New Jersey, considers itself the birthplace of baseball. The first officially recorded game of baseball was played at the town’s Elysian Fields on June 19, 1846. There’s a plaque honoring this fact — I’ve seen it.
Warning! Fine print ahead
I can hardly hold back on all the Title IX stories I want to share. But first… let’s get the fine print out of the way. Today, we’ll talk about how institutions have been judged on compliance as the law has evolved.
Laying bare the facts
Sometimes, to get attention, protest has to take a dramatic form. The form of a woman, to be exact.
Cutting ties with Uncle Sam
Lest you think Sen. John Tower was the only one objecting to the idea of the government dictating to our nation’s colleges, hold up. Let’s look at more pushback to Title IX, starting with Grove City College.
And the beatings go on
In the news last week, South Carolina State women’s basketball coach Audra Smith was fired the day after she sued the school in federal court alleging Title IX violations and discriminatory practices.
The game ball goes to the women
It wasn’t long after Title IX crossed President Nixon’s desk in 1972 that sputtering opponents tried to break the law’s back. Sen. John Tower (R-TX) immediately began working on a way to leave behemoth male sports programs out of Title IX. With the Tower Amendment of 1974, he tried to win this exemption. And
Thrills, chills and brawling in Atlanta
Margie Wright overcame many objects on her road to the Olympics. Kicked off a Little League team because she was a girl. No scholarships to make college affordable for female athletes. Demonized as a coach for pushing Title IX equality.
Women have to drive the bus
In my last post, I continued the story of Margie Wright, a girl who had been kicked off a Little League team because of her gender. But her father stepped in and started a softball team, so the girls of Warrensburg, Illinois, had a chance to compete at a sport.
Dad gets his marching orders
In my last blog post, we met 10-year-old Margie Wright, a girl who was excited about playing in her first Little League game. She’d made the team, the only girl to make the cut. But as the game got underway, a group of angry women bullied the coach into dropping her from the
Showdown on a Little League field
Let’s take a timeout from the Title IX timeline and tell a story of a woman whose involvement in sport spanned pre- and post Title IX years. It’s a baseball story, and I love baseball. I’ve spent almost 20 years attending my son’s ball games, so I understand the deep desire children can have
You say there is a revolution?
In my last post, we followed Title IX through Congress, until the final bill landed on President Richard Nixon’s desk. He signed the Education Amendments of 1972 into law on June 23, 1972.
Wither Rep. Green?
Title IX actually has another name these days. In 2002, the law was renamed The Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act. And in 2014, forty-two years after Title IX was signed into law, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rep. Mink the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contributions to gender equality.
Democracy demands a pair of pants
Let’s talk about gyms, locker rooms and bathrooms, shall we? Discrimination follows women into the most intimate spaces of public life. Women like Reps. Patsy Mink and Edith Green, who were forging paths in government and drafting legislation to equalize gender equality, found blockades even here.
Women need not apply
When we last left Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI) and Rep. Edith Green (D-OR), they were confabbing with education consultant Bunny Sadler. Now the Title IX bill needed a champion in the Senate. Birch Bayh (D-IN) raised his hand.
Too strong for a woman
In my last post, I introduced you to Rep. Patsy Mink (D-HI), who teamed up with Rep. Edith Green (D-OR) to author the Title IX legislation ending discrimination in educational settings that receive federal funding. Both women had encountered barriers to the goals they had in life — Mink had wanted to be a
Never a lesser being
In my last post, I introduced Olympic track and field star Wilma Rudolph. In 1960, when she was reaching the peak of her athletic career, a political star was making her way to Washington, DC, where she would make history with the Title IX legislation.
No triumph without the struggle
Although Title IX was envisioned as an antidote to gender barriers in education, its most visible impact was in women’s sports. As I noted in an earlier post, pre-Title IX, most women’s sports were either non-existent or unfunded.
“Mrs. Education” or “The Wicked Witch of the West”?
In my last post, you met Rep. Edith Green (D-OR), who introduced the Equal Pay Act in 1955 and saw it through eight years to passage in 1963. That piece of legislation set the stage for more awareness of the unequal status of women in society.
What is Title IX anyway?
I can’t wait to share all the stories I’ve heard about women whose ambitions are in the field of athletics. Pre-Title IX, those dreams were often crushed. Post-Title IX, women soared. Mostly. In real life, discrimination didn’t end abruptly with the legislation.
Cut my hair and call me Bob
In my last post, I mentioned a girl who was invited to play on a boys’ Little League team — but only if she would agree to make herself look like a boy and answer to a boy’s name.
Happy 50th to Title IX!
How did today’s talented female athletes rise to the top of their sport? Athletes like soccer’s Megan Rapinoe and Brandi Chastain. Basketball’s Maya Moore and Sue Bird. Gymnastics’ Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas. How did they attain their Olympic dreams and garner praise the world over?
Suffragette Quartet on the move!
This year has been all about the virus, but even so, I haven’t let it stop me from talking about the suffrage fight. About halfway through the year, a foursome of suffragists joined my payroll — the Suffragette Quartet! Unlike humans, they can pose for the camera without being masked.
Shop Bookshop for your books
In researching my book, I read about 75 books. They’re listed in the bibliography in the back of the book. Now, I’ve curated a selection of them for you in my “storefront” on Bookshop.org.
Take a look inside
Since no one can leaf through books in an actual bookstore or library these days, my publisher and I have decided to give you a visual taste of “Women Win the Vote!”
Guide to “Women Win the Vote”
In my last post, I confidently predicted that my new book could be found everywhere when it released in February. Well, that’s so last month! Now that bookstores, public buildings, stores and libraries are all closed, authors are hard-pressed to find their books in public anywhere. But parents and teachers are in even more
The Countdown to Women Win the Vote!
The calendar has finally flipped! It’s January 2020. I’ve been thinking about this year, writing about this year, waiting for it and dreaming about it, and now it’s here! The countdown has started for the release of my book Women Win the Vote! 19 for the 19th Amendment from Norton Young Readers. The date