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.
Continue reading
Category Archives: Women in Sports
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
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 team, because she was a girl. The year was 1962 — ten years pre-Title IX.
Continue reading
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 to play the game.*
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading
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.
Continue reading