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.
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Category Archives: Title IX
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.
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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.
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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.
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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 doctor and Green a lawyer.
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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.
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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.
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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