This week we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the legislation known as Title IX.
Before Title IX, fewer than 300,000 high school girls — one in 27 — played sports; there were less than 32,000 female athletes at the collegiate level. By 1974, just two years after the passage of Title IX, the number of high schoolers participating in sports had skyrocketed to 1.3 million, reports Toledoblade.
Now more than 3 million high school girls — one in two — play sports. More than 191,000 females played NCAA sports in 2010-11. And unlike their mothers or grandmothers, who were often limited to basketball and softball if they did get a chance to play, women are now participating in everything from squash to skiing, rugby to wrestling.
Title IX never mentioned sports, but helped eliminated the exclusion of girls, which opened doors in every aspect of education.
“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
In an op-ed piece published in Newsweek magazine on Saturday, President Obama said the legislation known as Title IX, signed in 1972 by President Richard Nixon, fostered a spirit of competition that has also helped girls and women succeed off the sports fields.
“Today, thanks in no small part to the confidence and determination they developed through competitive sports and the work ethic they learned with their teammates, girls who play sports are more likely to excel in school,” he wrote.
The President also mentioned the growing self-confidence he has witnessed in his own 11 year old daughter, Sasha, and her school teammates as he coached them in basketball, Obama said that Title IX had opened the door by banning gender discrimination in public schools.
What do you think of Title IX? Are you a girl/woman who plays sports? Which sport do you love to play most??
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