On June 23, 1972, Title IX was enacted in the United States. Title IX requires that education institutions receiving federal funds not discriminate on the basis of gender. It applies to a range of practices, but has been most controversial in college sports.
Before Title IX, few opportunities existed for female athletes. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), which was created in 1906 to format and enforce rules in men’s football but had become the ruling body of college athletics, offered no athletic scholarships for women and held no championships for women’s teams. Furthermore, facilities, supplies and funding were lacking. As a result, in 1972 there were just 30,000 women participating in NCAA sports, as opposed to 170,000 men.
Title IX was designed to correct those imbalances. Although it did not require that women’s athletics receive the same amount of money as men’s athletics, it was designed to enforce equal access and quality. Women’s and men’s programs were required to devote the same resources to locker rooms, medical treatment, training, coaching, practice times, travel and per diem allowances, equipment, practice facilities, tutoring and recruitment. Scholarship money was to be budgeted on a commensurate basis, so that if 40 percent of a school’s athletic scholarships were awarded to women, 40 percent of the scholarship budget was also earmarked for women.
Since the enactment of Title IX, women’s participation in sports has grown exponentially. In high school, the number of girl athletes has increased from just 295,000 in 1972 to more than 2.6 million. In college, the number has grown from 30,000 to more than 150,000. In addition, Title IX is credited with decreasing the dropout rate of girls from high school and increasing the number of women who pursue higher education and complete college degrees.
It’s a common misconception that Title IX requires schools to cut men’s athletics in favor of women’s programs, or that Title IX requires schools to give women’s sports the exact same funding as men’s sports. In fact, Title IX is measured in three different ways: “participation,” “scholarships,” and “other benefits.” The participation aspect requires that opportunities for women to play sports must be equal to opportunities for men. The scholarships portion requires that athletic scholarship dollars should be proportional to the athletic participation of each gender. Other benefits, such as coaching, travel expenses, equipment, and facility quality must also be proportional. But Title IX doesn’t require that the number of female athletes be proportionate to the number of women in the school (although that’s the goal); schools just have to show that they are trying to provide equal opportunities for female athletes. And if they can’t show that, they can still be in compliance by demonstrating that they have accommodated the skills and interests of both genders.
In fact, most public schools aren’t in compliance with Title IX (although schools have obviously made terrific changes). Female undergraduates receive on average only 36 percent of athletic operating budgets and 32 percent of money spent on recruiting. But as far as I know, no school has ever lost federal funds for non-compliance. So the argument that Title IX forces cuts in men’s sports programs is pretty disingenuous.
All of that said, though? Title IX is awesome. I grew up playing sports in part because Title IX helped to make women’s athletics mainstream and valued. Playing sports as a girl didn’t just teach me about teamwork and the necessity to show up and work hard when other people depended on you, but also helped me to view my body as something powerful, and as something that didn’t exist just for other people to look at. So thanks, Title IX. And happy birthday.