Now there's something worth being thankful for! And I've always loved that photo...

Title IX came along too late for me, but I'm delighted at what it's made possible for newer generations of women and girls.

I was the captain of my high school tennis team. Our coach had been coaching women's tennis since the 1970s but never got to benefit from Title IX herself. She used to hit us overheads, a bucket at a time for each girl, and yell at us the whole drill about how lucky we were to get to play tennis, about Title IX and how she had to cheer and play field hockey to get on a team. She also never let us play in just a sports bra-- even on the hottest days of early September. We couldn't figure it out then but I think she didn't want us comparing or obsessing over our bodies. Ms. Foster ruled.

ROCK ON!!!

As a former athlete for 6 1/2 years I was so very appreciative of Title IX! I was a cross country and track athlete in high school for four years and college for 2 years. Unfortunately burn out gold a hold of me and so my career is behind me now. I have many wonderful memories, achievements, glories, let downs and accomplishments that make me nostologic of my running days.

Check out the amazing female runners than are aruond today. It makes my heart soar to see such grace and committment in athletics!

~~I am PROUD of all lady athletes~~

My mom was a kick ass tennis player when she was younger but her high school only had a boys team. She was friends with a lot of the guys and they convinced the coach to try to get them to let her play on their team but it didn't work out. She was so happy and proud when I played in high school since she never got that chance.

I've played soccer from the time I was four years old, and in 1999 I had an opportunity to go to the first Women's World Cup in the US. It was brilliant, it was fun, and we won! It was one of the best memories I have with my dad, cheering for the USA ladies. I was even a little feminist back then, with a sign that said, "Score one for the girls!" It was wonderful to see the women of sports up there on a national stage.

Rock on indeed!

While I'm not the most athletic person in the world anymore, I'm grateful that girls and women have the opportunity to play tennis, hockey, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, and all of the other team and individual sports that can shape a person's life as an adolescent and young adult.

I played soccer on a local co-ed - I was one of two girls and they didn't treat me any differently than the guys, to the point of masculinizing my real name - "little league"-like team when I was younger. The county either didn't have or didn't use funding for all-female teams.

I had the opportunity to meet Bernice Sandler this past summer and I was literally speechless for quite some time. I was a three-sport athlete and some of my greatest memories were around sports. Title IX really changed things, just ask anyone before it, so I am incredibly thankful.

When I was 8, I quit my Saturday gymnastics classes so I could join AYSO soccer. In high school, I started playing tennis too. It never occurred to me to wear a boyfriend's letterman's jacket because I wanted (and got) one of my own. Despite a sexist high school coach who promised to bench me senior year and succeeded in scaring me away from college soccer, I now play twice a week and can't imagine life without soccer, or the women with whom I play.

I was also a season ticket holder for all the WUSA games when that league was still around. There were so many little girls at those games, and little boys un-selfconsciously cheering for the women. I got teary more than once. Please support the relaunching of the league.
http://www.womensprosoccer.com
Buy tickets, or just friend the league on one of the social networking sites.

I hated high school and generally dreaded every day. Athletics and soccer were the outlets I had to battle depression. Also, it taught me the benefits of working with other young women to achieve common goals (ha, punny).

So thank you, Bernice Sandler, Title IX literally saved my life.

"I used to hear my grandmother's stories about only getting to bounce the ball three times in gym class and laugh my ass off. I--a two-sport captain--couldn't imagine such a limit! Sports were where I learned resilience, teamwork, risk-taking, and discipline, among so many other lessons."

Why would you laugh at this? Your grandmother was probably being drilled on the rules that used to be in place for women's basketball, where the number of dribbles per person was limited, but the "resilience, teamwork, risk-taking, and discipline" were certainly not. Being limited to three dribbles helps train the body to obey the rules of the game much like drills that only allow you to hit the tennis ball once when it's coming at you. You were only allowed to dribble three times by the rules of the game, so that is what was practiced.

Women's basketball used to have different rules to allow women to play and still adhere to the clothing norms of the day. Also, the rules forced teamplay to encourage nonathletic women on the team to be involved.

If you think it was any less of a sport or something to laugh at, check out Netball, an Australian derivative of early women's basketball.

I started ice hockey when I was 5 and had to play on boys teams until high school. In high school I helped start a girls team with some of my friends, which was never recognized by my high school and remained a club team. The rational was that cheerleading was a sport, so therefore there were already an equal number of boys and girls sports so we couldn't have a team affiliated with our high school. Fucking Christ, do I hate cheerleaders. I'm sure the real rational was that the school would rather pay to look at pretty girls in tiny skirts than hairy-legged bull dykes (since that was the stereotype about us). But in the end we showed them all because a lot of us, including me, went on to play college hockey when none of the guys did. Fuckers.

I should also point out that just as I entered high school the high school boys team changed the age requirement so that I couldn't try out for the team. This was easy to do - I was the first girl to play hockey in my town and thus the oldest, and my birthday is at the end of July which meant I was near the cut-off point anyway. Have I mentioned that I'm a little bitter about the whole affair?

Title IX has been a great success. The difference between sports opportunities for high school women from my year '69 to now is night and day. The woman in my h.s. class voted most athletic was a cheerleader because she could do back handsprings. The increases at the higher levels has filtered down to the youth leagues.

Continuing debate exists on how to implement it at the college level and whether disparate interest levels between men and women should affect the balance. See this article from Inside Higher Education for the outline of the debate. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/05/14/civilrights
I haven't heard anything recently.

The other controversy is over the use of men for practice against the varsity college teams. This has been pretty common in basketball. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics publised a position paper in 2005 or 2006 recommending against the practice because it limited participation of women who could play on the practice teams. Big programs like Duke screamed bloody murder because there just aren't many women both as tall and as athletic as their Alison Bales (6'7") who are available for practice competition. The NCAA put out recommendations last summer here which did not ban the practice as long as it was for the benefit of the women athletes and their program. See http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/kcxml/04_Sj9SPykssy0xPLMnMz0vM0Y_QjzKLN4g3NPUESUGYHvqRaGLGphhCjggRX4_83FR9b_0A_YLc0NCIckdFACrZHxQ!/delta/base64xml/L3dJdyEvUUd3QndNQSEvNElVRS82XzBfMTVL?New_WCM_Context=/wps/wcm/connect/NCAA/NCAA+News/NCAA+News+Online/2007/Division+I/Division+I+sets+expectations+for+practice-player+use+-+07-16-07+NCAA+News

Sports were where I learned resilience, teamwork, risk-taking, and discipline, among so many other lessons.

Exactly!

Every so often some subject comes up where there seems to be a double standard in how women are judged vs. how men are judged and feminists get very frustrated with the sexism in society that "people don't see their double standards".

But the fact of the matter is that often, a large component of the "double standard" is that the woman involved really is behaving in a way that is different than the man involved ... because her early socialization was very different than the man involved, and she never learned the same "resilience, teamwork, risk-taking, [...] discipline" and assertiveness as her male counterparts because she never was given the opportunity to learn.

And speaking as a passive-aggressive by nature, nerdy anti-sporty kinda guy, I can tell you that sports are a big part of that socialization. Even though by the time I was a kid (1980s) a lot of the opposition to girls in sports had faded, if you were a girl who had certain not-so-beneficial for the world at large traits, it would be dismissed as (to adapt a phrase) "girls will be girls" ... but if you were an ackward, clumsy, passive-aggressive boy, you would be dragged, kicking and screaming into sports at some level. And you would be better for it!

At the very least, by appreciating sports, it gives you a subject for small talk, which is very important in life.

This completely un-sporty nerd cannot help but to sing the praises of exposing kids to sports at some level. The skills you learn are indeed invaluable.

And by having the opportunities and encouragement for girls to get involved in sports, it really does change the way girls act and how they will act as women and how women will be perceived (based on more girls growing up to have the same social skills, honed on the playing field, as we men are socialized to have).

The sports aspect of Title IX is actually one of the greatest triumphs of feminism, and I think it has yet to fully show its full potential in achieving equality between the sexes.

Perhaps that is why the forces of regressiveness and reaction are so keen to reverse it?

Three big reasons I appreciate Title IX:

1) As an engineering student, I don't have to leave the building to use a women's restroom.
2) When Brandi Chastain scored that goal, I was waiting in between games at a national softball tournament. There were about a hundred of us cheering for her around a small TV near the snack bar.
3) I have some legal support to back me when sexism compromises my education.

I was never an athlete, but as a female chemistry student, who still in the late nineties had to deal with a bio prof who thought girls shouldn't be pre-med, I'm very grateful for the women's restrooms (there were several!) in the science building.

And, you know, the ability to take the stupid biology class anyway.

Yay for Title IV. I played two sports in H.S., and participated in lots of other activites. I think what Title IV did for me was teach me women are strong, intelligent and capable of doing everything men can do.

My aunt told me when she play basketball in high school during the 60s they played with 10 on the court, five players on each half because "girls weren't strong enough to run the full length of the court".

"girls weren't strong enough to run the full length of the court".

Oh. I'll have to keep that in mind during my next marathon.

I wonder when women went from being full-time farm workers, doing the plowing, animal care, etc. alongside the men (as well as bearing children) to being unable to run fifty feet.

I'm still waiting to see if the awesome growth in women playing sports leads to more people in general watching womens sports. Most fans I know at some point played the game they like to watch now. I hope that this will lead to greater viewership though I'd have to count myself out as I'm a football/basketball guy and I dont enjoy the WNBA, different kind of game but hopefully the numbers will grow.

There's a book coming out soon--I would have to dig around to remember who it's being published by, and when--that blames Title IX for harming girls. It's (shockingly!) written by a man, who says that too much focus on sports by young girls is causing an "epidemic" of injuries.

I never played sports. But after reading that, all I could think was, don't MALE HS and college athletes get injured all the time? As much or probably more than girls? And why didn't he write a book about THAT?

As someone who was on the losing end of Title XI (mens wrestler) I'll admit that I have mixed feelings about it. It has prevented me from getting a susbstantial scholarship to any of the schools that I may have 20 years ago.

That said, I still appreciate what it did for women's sports. It's done a great deal for female friends of mine who have opportunities that they didn't before.

I grew up in the era of this Title IX. I was a poor poor kid, home-sewn hippy clothes and all. The only activity my parents could afford were local city park league sports, for both my sister and myself. Because of Title IX, I spent so many days and nights after school learning valuable lessons about myself, my resolve, and about how strong my body could be. It wasn't always easy- they didn't have girls leagues for many sports at my park so I had to play 4-pitch and soccer with the boys, who did NOT appreciate it at all. Other girls made fun of me, not only because of the hand-sewn clothes but also because I was a "tom boy" for learning and being very good at soccer, baseball, and other sports.

Sometimes I wish I had had the dance lessons that every other girl my age had, because I would love to be a professional dancer at this point in my life and find that I'm much more dance oriented than sport, I am very grateful that I had the opportunities I did. I didn't get into trouble a lot or spend a lot of time in front of the computer, as so many of my 2-working-parents peers did.

"The most celebrated benefit has been women's involvement in sports (amazingly, an unintended side effect of the original foremothers)."

Yeah, I heard that other benefits like letting both girls and boys in both woodworking and cooking classes, letting pregnant students stay in school, etc. don't get remembered as often when people say "Title IX" because so many take *those* for granted.

"I was never an athlete, but as a female chemistry student, who still in the late nineties had to deal with a bio prof who thought girls shouldn't be pre-med..."

WTF? As if there would be just as many bio prof jobs without all the women who take those classes?

"...I'm very grateful for the women's restrooms (there were several!) in the science building.

"And, you know, the ability to take the stupid biology class anyway."

I can relate - I'm not that athletic either.

Title XI changed my life.

In fall of 1972 I entered high school in Manitowoc, WI just as my high school was "forced" to add a girl's sport because of Title XI. That sport was girls basketball, the sport I had been obsessed with since I was old enough to walk.

Our high school athletic director was furious and did not want to take any money away from the boys teams to pay for a girls varsity basketball team. So we made do with what we could get. We got the warm-up jackets the Freshmen boy's team was going to throw away (they got new ones) and our assistant coach's mother sewed navy blue shorts for all of us. The school did splurge and bought us sleeveless light blue polyester tops with giant dark blue numbers - no team or school name however.

During the next four years this same athletic director (who was also the coach of the boys basketball team) cancelled our practices once a year so the boys team could have a professional photographer come and take team and individual photos (our team photo was taken by the yearbook staff); he banned girls from the weightroom; and at the year end athletic banquet the girls basketball team had to eat early before our parents and the boys sports teams so we could stand during the keynote speaker (there wasn't enough rooom for the girls to sit and eat with everyone else).

So of course we noticed the second class treatment but we were SO happy to have the chance to play on a real team, it was really secondary. And we had lots of support from our parents, families, classmates - they thought it was cool.

The best part? In 1975 our team, won the first girls state basketball championship in Wisconsin.

Thank you Title XI!

Does anyone know where I can find more Title IX statistics?

Oops - I got so excited to write my post - I know it's Title IX not XI.

Carry on.

Title IX helped me way back in 8th grade. Okay, so I am only a freshman in college but, still it seems like forever ago. In 8th grade I decided that I wanted to play football...on the boys team. So I signed up and went to practice. Most of the boys that were in my grade weren't too happy, but I had a few supporters...mostly mothers of the boys that I played with. I played guard and nose guard...and on second string. My proudest accomplishment was sacking the quarterback.....twice! Oh...and I accidentally stepped on a kid and broke his leg....oops!(He is fine now) Anyways, my assistant coach wasn't too happy that I was on the team so one day in school the principal handed me a piece of paper to give to the assistant coach. I found out later that it was a copy of Title IX. That coach didn't give me any problems anymore. After the season was over I was honored to be the first female in the school's history to play football.

In high school I didn't continue the sport but I did play soccer. I learned so much through my time on the football team that I carried that enthusiasm over to the soccer field and ended up being Captain my Junior and Senior year!

Thanks Title IX!!!!

The idea and original implementation of Title IX was great.... however I think the way the courts enforce it is problematic.

Revenue-generating sports should be exempt from Title IX. If a college makes enough money from its football program to pay for non-revenue mens and womens sports, then the 85 male players should not be included in the quota system that the courts use to determine compliance. For schools in which football does not generate revenue, then that would not apply and they would be subject to the quota rules.

Ultimately as far as women have come in sports, I still think there's an inherent discrepancy (created by both biology and gender roles) in which men have more interest in sports than women do, and I dont like the quota rules that try to force some arbitrary 50/50 split between male and female sports participants.

"After the season was over I was honored to be the first female in the school's history to play football.

"In high school I didn't continue the sport but I did play soccer."

You can say you switched to real football. ;)

bbluhring,

I figured you were just being emphatic. Swim72 added 3 extra exclamation points, you added 2 to the title's number.

Swim72's story about being a girl playing football reminded me of a story I heard.

Apparently, some of the high school football coaches at my school were talking openly about Title IX and what to do if a girl wanted to play football. One coach said that he would put her at center, the position that hikes the ball (often into the waiting hands of the quarterback between his/her legs). This coach thought that after being felt up, the girl would never try to claim any more rights of equal treatment on the football field.

What an asshat.

med,
its not a 50/50 split, its representative of the student body. Thats why you have the situation of some schools offering women athletic scholarships when they may never have played that sport before. They have to get the people to be in compliance. With a lot of schools drifting toward 55/45 or even a 60/40 or higher female/male split its causing problems trying to fill all the slots. Hopefully they will find a way to make this work as tremendous strides have already been made so it would be great to see that keep going.

The only bad experience I had with this was some of my classmates in high school wanted girls to be able to play baseball so that got passed. A few girls made the team, taking spots from the poorest male ballplayers but when the guys who got cut asked to play on the softball team they were told they could not, seemed strange to me though as far as I know its not really a title ix related issue.