Updated: June 1, 2023
Center for the Women of New York celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX in 2022
June 23, 2022 marked the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. This is an important milestone in the history of both civil rights and higher education in this country, and one well worth celebrating. – Pace University
On June 23, 1972, Title IX of the education amendments of 1972 is enacted into law. Title IX prohibits federally funded educational institutions from discriminating against students or employees based on sex. It begins: “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.” As a result of Title IX, any school that receives any federal money from the elementary to university level—in short, nearly all schools—must provide fair and equal treatment of the sexes in all areas, including athletics. – History.com
How Title IX Transformed Women’s 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 men, 40 percent of the scholarship budget was also earmarked for women. – History.com
Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act
Title IX, also called Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, clause of the 1972 Federal Education Amendments, signed into law on June 23, 1972, which stated that “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.” In 2002, following the death of its coauthor, U.S. Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink, Title IX was officially renamed the Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act. – Britannica
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
NCAA kicks off Title IX at 50 celebration
Title IX at 50: Celebration Website
Title IX Frequently Asked Questions
50th Anniversary of Title IX Coming in June of 2022 – National Federation of State High School Associations
Celebrating Half a Century of Varsity Women’s Athletics – Yale Daily
Title IX – Legal Manual – U.S. Department of Justice
The 14th Amendment and the Evolution of Title IX – U.S. Courts
Title IX Protects Students from Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity – U.S. Department of Education
National Women’s Law Center
Education & Title IX
Women in Sports: The Good, The Bad, The Sexist
Know Your IX
Empowering Students to Stop Sexual Violence
Exercising Your Title IX Rights
Title IX and Gender Equity in Education – Video – CWNY’s Women’s Issues Think Tank – Center for the Women of New York
CWNY’s National Girls and Women in Sports Day Resources – Center for the Women of New York (CWNY)
Proposed Change to Title IX Regulations on Students’ Eligibility for Athletic Teams – April 6, 2023 Press Release
The proposed regulation would be in the Title IX regulations at section 106.41(b)(2):
If a recipient adopts or applies sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity, such criteria must, for each sport, level of competition, and grade or education level: (i) be substantially related to the achievement of an important educational objective, and (ii) minimize harms to students whose opportunity to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity would be limited or denied. – U.S. Department of Education
Proposed 2022 Amendments to Title IX Regulations would:
- Clearly protect students and employees from all forms of sex discrimination
- Provide full protection from sex-based harassment.
- Protect the right of parents and guardians to support their elementary and secondary school children.
- Protect students and employees who are pregnant or have pregnancy-related conditions.
- Require schools to take prompt and effective action to end any sex discrimination in their education programs or activities – and to prevent its recurrence and remedy its effects.
- Require schools to respond promptly to all complaints of sex discrimination with a fair and reliable process that includes trained, unbiased decisionmakers to evaluate all permissible evidence.
- Protect LGBTQI+ students from discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.
- Clarify and confirm protection from retaliation for students, employees, and others who exercise their Title IX rights.
- Improve the adaptability of the regulations’ grievance procedure requirements so that all recipients can implement Title IX’s promise of nondiscrimination fully and fairly in their educational environments.
- Ensure that schools share their nondiscrimination policies with all students, employees, and other participants in their education programs or activities.
– U.S. Department of Education
Threats to Title IX – 2020 Changes to Sexual Harassment
In May 2020 the Department of Education completed the process of creating new regulations detailing how educational institutions must comply with Title IX as it relates to sexual harassment … gender equity experts and those working with victims of sexual harassment have criticized the new regulations. These experts argue that the regulations will limit both the types of sexual harassment students are protected from under Title IX and the rights afforded to survivors of sexual harassment. In response to the regulations, four groups filed lawsuits against the Department of Education in an attempt to stop the regulations from going into effect. Emily Young, a Feminist Majority Foundation Intern, compiled a report analyzing both the 2020 regulations and the lawsuits against them in order to spread awareness about the impact of the new regulations and the work being done to stop their implementation. The report, titled “The 2020 Title IX Regulations and the Lawsuits Against Them: An Analysis and Comparison“, provides background on why the new regulations were created and breaks down many of the changes the new regulations make to previous Title IX policy. – Feminist Majority Foundation
More than four-in-ten women familiar with Title IX say it has not gone far enough when it comes to increasing opportunities for women in sports. – Pew Research Center
What’s at Stake in the Coming Title IX War – Institute for Family Studies
Title IX revolutionized female athletics but advocate say it’s been a constant fight – National Public Radio (NPR)
“A Title IX Conundrum: Women in Coaching” – New-York Historical Society
Women’s Sports Expert Nicole LaVoi Talks Unintended Consequences of Title IX – The Springfield Student: Springfield College Online News
Title IX and Sex Discrimination
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforces, among other statutes, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. Title IX states:
“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.” — U.S. Department of Education – Office for Civil Rights
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a comprehensive law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in all programs or activities in all federally funded educational institutions including high schools and middle schools. Since the enactment of Title IX, there has been a dramatic increase in interscholastic and intercollegiate athletic opportunities for girls and women. Few laws have influenced high school sports more than Title IX. — National Federation of High School Associations
The senior woman administrator is the highest-ranking female in each NCAA athletics department or conference office. The purpose of the SWA designation is to promote meaningful representation of women in the leadership and management of college sports. — National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)