Celebrating 37 years of Title IX

Today we celebrate the 37th anniversary of the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the landmark civil rights law which banned gender discrimination from all education programs and extracurricular activities in federally funded schools.

I don’t think I need to go into a huge description all that Title IX has done, but for the sake of discussion I’ll just outline two:

1). Although the law did not originally make any reference to athletics, it has since become famous for altering schools’ athletic policies to increase female participation in sports and establish gender equality in athletic budgets and competitions. Before its passage girls made up only 7 percent of high school sports participants; that number now stands at more than 40 percent according to data from the National Federation of State High School Associations.

2). Title IX also vastly improved educational opportunities for women and increased their participation in higher education across the US. Before it was passed, 42 percent of college students were women; that number now stands at around 57 percent of the students in universities and colleges.

While Title IX has opened many doors, there are many left to break down. I just thought we should take a minute and think about how much progress has been made since 1972.

Also, in the interest of advancing feminism are there questions we should be asking ourselves at this point that we aren’t? Do we still need Title IX? Does it go far enough? Would women in collegiate athletic and educational programs be on equal footing with their male counterparts if Title IX was taken away? If not, how much have we really progressed?