Title IX

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Categories: Education | Civil rights legislation | Education legislation

Title IX Amendment of the Education Amendments of 1972 (formally known as the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act) is an Act of Congress that 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."

Title IX, as it is commonly known, was enacted on June 23, 1972. Although the most prominent "public face" of Title IX is its impact on high school and collegiate athletics, the legislation actually covers all academic activities, and complaints under Title IX alleging discrimination in fields such as science or math education, or in other aspects of academic life such as access to health care and dormitory facilities, are not unheard of.

The American Association of University Women has argued that while the ideas behind Title IX were fundamentally sound, the U.S. government has not effectively instituted the amendment. Enforcement has been driven primarily by complaints, and too many schools who did not meet the guidelines slipped have through the cracks. In addition, the federal government was notably uninterested in enforcing compliance with the law throughout much of the 1980s.

Some groups have opposed Title IX, claiming that it has caused schools to spend more money on women's sports programs and less money on men's sports programs, or, in some cases, to end some traditional male sports programs all together. In response, supporters of Title IX point to statistics (from a GAO study) which indicate that male collegiate sport participation has actually increased since the inception of Title IX, and that so-called "non-revenue" sports were being eliminated frequently even before Title IX.

In 2002, Secretary of Education Rod Paige created the "Commission on Opportunity in Athletics," a panel charged with reviewing the effects and implementation of Title IX. The panel (and the process) was heavily weighted towards opponents of Title IX, and produced a report including many recommendations which were expected to have the effect of watering down Title IX by making it significantly easier for intransigent educational institutions to claim compliance with the statute. The efforts were derailed by panel members Julie Foudy and Donna de Varona, who issued a strongly-worded Minority Report dissenting from the panel's recommendations, and who mobilized widespread public and institutional support (including NCAA president Myles Brand [1]) for retaining Title IX as it stood. As a result, Secretary Paige eventually declared that he would only implement recommendations from the panel which were unanimous.

Overall, Title IX has been instrumental in the development of women's sports and it can be said that it helped the public prepare for today's women's professional sports leagues such as the Women's National Basketball Association and Women's United Soccer Association. A few non-college sports leagues have opened competition to men and women in the same events, such as equestrian competitions, auto racing, sailing, a few golf tournaments, and inline skating under the so-called "Fabiola rule," named for Fabiola da Silva.

The law was renamed on October 29, 2002, upon the death of the legislation's author, Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink.

External links

• Text of the original Title IX
• TitleIX.info, a coalition of groups defending Title IX from continuing political assault keeps updated news and data about the act.
• "The Case for Requiring a Proportionality Test to Assess Compliance with Title IX in High School Athletics", Northern Illinois University Law Review, vol. 23, No. 1 (fall 2002)
• "A Hero For Daisy", a film about a Title IX demonstration at Yale University in 1976.
• 29-year long longitudinal study, tracking the status of women and collegiate sport.
• Intercollegiate Athletics: Four-Year Colleges' Experiences Adding and Discontinuing Teams, GAO-01-291, March 28, 2001