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.
But before we go any further, let’s talk about Title IX. What is it, anyway? If you’re younger than, say, 40, you might not even have heard of it. It’s not an amendment to the Constitution, like the 19th Amendment that granted women the vote. It’s not a law that governs athletics exclusively. In fact, the words “sports” and “athletics” aren’t even mentioned.
Here’s what Title IX says:
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 part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It addressed a weakness of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Civil Rights Act targeted discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin and sex, but only in the fields of employment and public accommodation. A parallel law, Title VI, also enacted in 1964, prohibited discrimination in federally funded private and public entities. It covered race, color and national origin but excluded sex as a protected class.
But in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a new consciousness surrounding women’s rights was swirling around the nation. Feminists like Betty Freidan and Gloria Steinem challenged society’s view that women belonged in the home. In her book, The Feminine Mystique, published in 1963, Freidan examined the lives of her former Smith College classmates and concluded that women weren’t finding total fulfillment as wives, mothers and household managers. In 1966, the National Organization of Women (NOW) was founded by 28 women, including Friedan and Shirley Chisholm, who two years later became the first black woman elected to Congress. Steinem’s Ms. magazine got its start in 1971 as an insert in New York magazine and quickly became a must-read for women whose concerns weren’t being addressed by the popular women’s magazines of the day, which were focused on fashion, food, husband hunting and child raising.
In Congress, legislators began to look at the inequity women faced in society as a whole. In 1955, Rep. Edith Green (D-OR) introduced the Equal Pay Act to Congress. It took eight years, but the law finally passed in 1963, calling for employers to pay male and female workers the same wages for the same work. It didn’t cover all working women, and equal pay still isn’t a reality for all women, but the 1963 act was a start. People were becoming more aware of women’s unequal status in society.
Rep. Green saw the inadequacies of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title VI. In particular, she saw the discrimination female students and faculty members faced in the academic world. They were being denied the same educational opportunities, scholarships and salaries that their male peers enjoyed. So, she went to work.
But here’s a mystery. How did sports enter the picture and why, in 2002, was Title IX renamed The Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act? Well, those are stories for another day!