Title IX Part 1

"No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or will be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial Assistance".

Title IX

This year celebrates the 50 year anniversary of Title IX. The bill signed into law in 1972 was huge in the fight for women's equality in the United States. The bill was called the Education Amendment Act and was passed in 1972 and it opened many doors for women that had been closed for years.

On the other hand, also in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was created with much promise. The ERA was supposed to be an Amendment to the Constitution. It simply provides women with protection against sexual discrimination under the law. Believe it or not, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) has not passed and has never been entered as an Amendment to the Constitution. It was first introduced in legislation in 1923 and was voted down for the next 49 years. Finally in 1972 it passed both houses and was sent to the States for ratification. The Bill needed to be ratified by 38 states by 1982. Virginia was the 38th state to comply, but not until 2020. A bit too late. Incredibly, 5 states have actually tried to rescind their ratifications since first passing it. This whole thing to me is just plain shocking.

It seems so obvious that this should be so, but the struggle to get to this point was very real. It continues, after 50 years, to be real. In the sixties in was very difficult for women to even get accepted into college, let alone find employment at one after graduation. But in a brilliant move, early leaders in the equal rights movement took a page out of the playbook of the civil rights movement. The Commission on Civil Rights  states that if universities have federal contracts, which many do, then they are forbidden to discriminate based on creed, color or national origin. And in an amendment to that, it includes by religion and sex. Suddenly a closed door was open.

Nowhere has the benefits of Title IX had more influence than in sports. In the world of sports, women had a hero waiting in the wings to champion their cause. She is an athlete whose strength and character could bear the weight of such a challenge. Her name was Billie Jean King. In the late 1960's, Billie Jean King was fed up playing second fiddle to men's tennis so she got together with fellow player Rosie Casales and business woman Gladys Heldman to start their own professional tennis league. It went on to become the Woman's Tennis Association (WTA) and it still represents women's tennis today. This was also the first year congress held the first hearings on sexual harassment in the workplace.

When I speak of the power of the people and how if we unify, our voice can carry a lot of weight. This is another great example of that. Holly Knoz, an early leader in the equal rights movement is the founder of PEER (Project on Equal Education Rights). Through her work with this group  and many other groups around the country, she was able to help establish the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education. She says,

"But we represented through all these different organizations that were formally part of the coalition - millions literally millions - and that made us a force."

Other central figures in this story are Representatives Edith Green of Oregon and Martha Griffiths of Michigan and Senator Birch Bayh of Indiana. They are all heroes in the fight for Equal Rights for women. Together they fought the fight in the hallowed halls of Washington DC and were key figures in getting Title IX into law.

It should be noted that Senator Bayh was one of few if not the only male member of congress, initially, to openly support women's rights. Senator Bayh's wife tried to enter college and was rejected. Never forget that "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". And the fight gained momentum as times changed and other members of Congress had daughters and did not want them to not to have the same opportunities as young men in this country. It got real when people like the Kennedy's did not want their daughters stuck in a kitchen for the rest of their lives.

Of course there were so many other women who were central to the fight which continues on today.Did not the women's National Soccer Team just win equal pay to that of the men? Unfortunately, the saga has yet a long way to go.