This year marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the groundbreaking U.S. statute that protects individuals from gender discrimination.
No person in the United States should, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation, denied benefits, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance,” the law states*.
A story in four acts
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited employers from discriminating based on race, color, sex, nationality, or religion.
Title VI of the same act established that federally assisted programs, such as those in education and sports, could not discriminate based on race or national origin — but did not address gender discrimination.
This is what Title IX accomplished less than a decade later.
Thanks to the work of Congresswomen Patsy Mink and Edith Green, as well as Senator Birch Bayh, Title IX became part of the Education Amendments of 1972, signed into law by President Richard Nixon. It ensured that organizations receiving federal funding could not discriminate based on gender in any educational program or athletic activity.
In the year prior to the enactment of Title IX, only 1% of college sports budgets went to women’s sports. In high schools, male athletes outnumbered females by 12.5 to 1.
Since Title IX came into effect 50 years ago, female participation in college sports has increased by 630% and by 1,057% in high school sports, according to the New York Times. Women’s professional sports are thriving, and in some cases, women’s teams — such as the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, which has won four World Cups and four Olympic gold medals — are outperforming U.S. men’s teams in world competitions.
In addition to sports and education, Title IX protects anyone with any gender identity from discrimination in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields, in standardized testing environments, in cases of sexual harassment, and in employment generally.
“Equal educational opportunities for women and girls are essential to achieving parity in all aspects of our society,” Patsy said in 1997 during the 25th anniversary celebrations of Title IX**.
How it stands today
In October 2002, Congress voted to rename Title IX as the “Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act” following her death.
Early in his administration, President Biden signed two Executive Orders reinforcing Title IX, including Executive Order 14021**, titled “Ensuring a Safe Educational Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity.”
This order stipulates that all students must have “an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including discrimination in the form of sexual harassment, which encompasses sexual violence and including discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Source: share.america.gov