Title IX: Its History and Impact

By Sophie Chang

Title IX. 

It’s one of the most important pieces of legislation ever written, and it’s had a huge impact on women’s athletics. In this article, we’ll discuss the history of Title IX, the significance behind it, as well as its effects today. 

Before we dive into the details, let’s first answer this question: what is Title IX? Title IX is a “federal civil rights law [that was] passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972,” according to Harvard University’s Title IX Office. If you’re wondering, the Education Amendments of 1972 were a series of laws that were passed to amend a few acts passed in earlier decades, such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It also created some new laws regarding education, with Title IX being one of the most prominent and well-known of those laws. This important law prohibited any discrimination based on sex in educational institutions receiving federal funding or aid. There were multiple reasons Title IX was passed, the chief one being that gender inequality was rife in sports, with female athletes receiving little to no opportunities or funding when compared to male athletes. The law did end up accomplishing its goal, with the number of female athletes increasing from 29,977 women before Title IX to 166,728 in 2006, a 456 percent increase, according to Insight into Diversity. This massive increase in female athletes is one of Title IX’s greater achievements, and it’s certainly a very good thing since the gender barrier in sports is slowly being broken down. 

However, although Title IX has had some good effects, in recent years the law has been coming under a lot of heat, with something alleging that its effects aren’t as beneficial now. For example, Title IX requires educational institutions to have a Title IX coordinator on campus to deal with situations related to gender inequality in sports, as well as reinforce the regulations of Title IX. However, it’s been shown that even though these coordinators are present, “more than 100 colleges and universities are currently under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for violations of Title IX” (Taylor). This reveals that Title IX likely isn’t being enforced well enough, which presents us with a bad situation, as female athletes are the only ones hurt by that situation. 

Additionally, this is further supported by other pieces of evidence. For instance, one of the provisions of Title IX states that federal funds can be taken from schools if they fail to meet the requirements of the law. However, “since Title IX was passed, no school has lost federal funds due to a violation of the statute. Instead, federal funding has reportedly been made conditional on institutions remedying identified problems through resolution agreements with the OCR” (Taylor). This once again reveals that Title IX’s enforcement is greatly lacking, as one of the most important parts of the law has yet to be enforced. 

Ultimately, Title IX is an extremely important law, and although it has had some beneficial effects on gender equality, its effects are starting to slow. At the end of the day, it’s up to us as women’s rights activists and feminists to continue fighting for gender equality within sports and continue pushing the government to enforce the laws put in place to protect women’s rights. 

Sources: 

https://www.insightintodiversity.com/evaluating-the-varied-impacts-of-title-ix/ 

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/title-ix-enacted#:~:text=On%20June%2023%2C%201972%2C%20Title,1972%20is%20enacted%20into%20law.&text=Title%20IX%20was%20designed%20to,enforce%20equal%20access%20and%20quality

https://titleix.harvard.edu/what-title-ix