Title IX History: From Law to Equality

Imagine a world where girls aren't allowed to play, and women in general or just an afterthought. In one single law changed everything. In nineteen seventy two, a quiet revolution began, one that would shatter the class ceiling and rewrite the rules of the game forever. From the halls of Congress, the Law of Title nine sparked a movement of empowerment for millions of women and girls to not only have equality, but have the chance to take the field, the courts, in the world stage. But the fight for equality was not over there. It was just the beginning. Join us today as we dive into the history of Title nine and the impact had not only on women, but in sports as a whole. Today on Daily Sports History, Welcome to Daily Sports History. I meanthan Reese your guide because my love language is breaking down a zone defense terrific. So let's go back to the nineteen sixties and seventies. At that time, women's rights was a movement gaining momentum. Women had to faced significant barriers throughout the years in education and athletics, and at the time, only about three hundred thousand girls participated in high school sports compared to three point six million boys and Back in nineteen sixty seven, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order that prohibited federal contractors from sex based employment discrimination. And this was kind of the catalyst for women's rights in the Title nine movement, and there were women in Congress at the time who were trailblazers pushing for these equalities. Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii had faced sex discrimination herself. She was the first women of color and the first Asian American who was elected to Congress, and she was pivotal in co authoring the Top nine bill. In Birch May, the Senator from Indiana, led the effort on the Senate side in negotiating the hurdles for Title nine. See. After many failed attempts to amend the existing laws, Congress created a new statue called Title ninth and was included in the Educational Amendment Act of nineteen seventy two, designed to prohibit sex discrimination in all educational programs or activities receiving federal financial aid. It stated that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation, or be the nine benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. Now you heard that it didn't say anything about sports, but Title men became about sports. It's what we know Title nine to be in most cases. But part of the educational program is sports receiving financial aid, and so it was lumped into this. And on June twenty third, nineteen seventy two, President Richard Nixon signed Title nine into law, and it didn't go into effect right away. It took some time. High schools and colleges were given three years till nineteen seventy eight to comply the new standards, and elementary schools were given one year. And in nineteen seventy six the NCAA filed a lawsuit actually challenging the application to athletics, though the suit would be dismissed in nineteen seventy eight, and there were actually many other lawsuits that came into being just for this law, and so they actually developed a three pronged tests for places to comply. First was substantial portionality, meaning the athletic department needed to offer the same amount of athletic opportunity to the men and women given the proportion of the school. So if it was fifty percent female male, then fifty percent of the athletic opportunity needed to be female as well, or at least within a five percent range. And the number two a history or continuing practice of the program expansion. The school must show that they are showing a history and ongoing expansion of the athletic opportunity the underrepresented sex. And then three a full and effective accommodation of the interest and abilities, meaning if there's demand by the population, whether female or male, they needed to be given the opportunity for that demand. Now, this has been in place in nineteen seventy nine and it is still used to this day. But that didn't mean people didn't go to court. And the most significant court case was Gross City College versus Bell and basically Gross City College was saying that only specific programs receiving the financial funding should be entitled to Title nine, not the entire school. But the Supreme Court rejected this offer, and then Congress passed the Civil Rights Restoration Act to even further include the institution wide. If they're receiving federal funds, then all programs, including athletics, must comply. Then half universities would go saying the budget and scholarships should be equal and match the participation rate for each program. Now, this is the only harder and most debated topics because it's very difficult because football and basketball on the men's side, really represent most of the money that comes into any athletic department, and those programs actually have to go to pay the other programs, not only the men, but the women as well. And just to understand the impact of this law, before Title nine, three hundred thousand girls played high school sports, just about seven percent of girls in the country. By two thy and eighteen, it was three point four million, representing forty three percent of high school athletes, and college jumped from thirty two thousand women athletes just under sixteen percent do in two thousand and they represented forty four percent of NT DOUBLEA athletics. But that doesn't mean it's completely done. There's still some issues going on. Boys are still given more opportunity in sports than girls, and women are still very underrepresented in the coaching aspect. Only about twenty five percent of the NT DOUBLEA head coaches and athletic directors are women, and nearly sixty percent of women's teams are coached by men. So why is this, Well, women aren't given the opportunity to lead as much. They've been given more and more, and that number has been growing. But if you look at college basketball, you've got men's and women's roughly similar games, play on the same court, same amount of athletes, so good one versus one. The salary of the head coach is almost identical. They try to get it almost identical because of Title nine, which is great, but men use that avenue of coaching women's sports because it's quote easier, and women aren't given the same opportunity. Now, hopefully that continues to change as more women are getting into the sport and after they're done with their playing days, want to get into coaching as well to hopefully we have equality in the coaching atmosphere. This has continued to grow and show great success. Title nine has been great for the advancement of women in sports, but it doesn't mean it hasn't had its threats, not only with the lawsuits, but in March of twenty twenty five, an executive order was aimed to dismantle the Department of Education, which oversees Title nine, which would make it harder to keep it in compliance. Another issue under Title nine is the biological sex at birth with LGBTQ plus athletes being included in Title nine. It's a delicate subject and one that we really haven't figured out. We've gone back and forth in what's allowed and what is possible, but it's a big struggle. Another struggle that is happening is the NCAA itself is struggling to maintain its equality as it's battling with name, image and likeness and athletes being able to be paid, and now athletes are going to be allowed to be a part of revenue sharing, and how does that go into Title nine. There's so many things that have come up because Title nine exists and it complicates things, Yes it does, but it also makes a better chance for women to have success because women, unfortunately are not given the same thing as men. I have daughters, and I want them to have the opportunity. So I hope that Title nine continues to grow in success to include equality, because not only men should enjoy what we get from sports. The question is how far can Title nine take us. I want to thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please make sure you like and subscribe wherever you're listening. 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