The Results of Title IX on Women's Sports
Over two decades have passed since the enactment of Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education, including athletics. As a result of Title IX, women and girls have benefited from more athletic participation opportunities and more equitable facilities. Because of Title IX, more women have received athletic scholarships and thus opportunities for higher education that some may not have been able to afford otherwise. In addition, because of Title IX the salaries of coaches for women's teams have increased. Despite the obstacles women face in athletics, many women have led and are leading the way to gender equity.
In 1995, some legendary tennis players such
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In 1996, the US women's soccer team won the Olympic gold medal and, in the summer of 1999, they faced down the best international competition in the World Cup beating China in the World championship game to win the grueling, month-long tournament.
The latter conquest generated an unseen excitement about Women's sport in the general public. These events moved soccer from the back pages of a few big city newspapers to the covers of Newsweek, Time, People, and front of cereal boxes. Forty million people tuned in to Women's soccer team win the World Cup. This expansion of the U.S. soccer audience benefited not just the women, but the men's national team and Major League Soccer, too. These women showed great skill and determination even when they had not given obsession like Men's Team. The reward for their efforts was a gold medal victory with the winning goal.
At the 1996 Summer Olympics, in Atlanta, Georgia, there were more women participants than ever before (thirty-six percent of the athletes were women in 1996, compared to just 30 percent in 1992). The 1996 summer Olympics new sports and events for women were added, including soccer and softball.
Many national magazines made the connection between women in the Olympics, and the women's movements fight for equality in athletics. "This 2000 summer's Centennial Olympic Games were predicted to be dominated by women athletes," Newsweek wrote. "This extraordinary transformation of
Even when Title IX was first introduced, it was not embraced with open arms and immediately implemented into society. Scholarships and funding toward women’s sports were a huge controversy, as many men’s athletic teams, mostly football, found themselves having to give up funding toward their program to compensate for the new women’s teams being formed. In fact, schools, men’s collegiate sport teams, and the NCAA challenged Title IX countless times for it’s discrimination against men and it’s push for equal federal funding for both men and women. Many male coaches, athletic directors, and particularly members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) feared that women athletes would siphon off too much of their funds. So The NCAA had actively and publically opposed Title IX, trying first to exclude athletics from it altogether in 1975, and then working to exempt revenue producing sports like football.
The literature review of this article focuses on Title IX itself, as well as statistical numbers that provide the reader knowledge about the impact it has had. Title IX is a comprehensive federal law that has removed many barriers that once prevented people, on the basis of sex, from participating in educational opportunities and careers of their choice (Bower & Hums, 2013). Acosta and Carpenter (2012) reported that the number of female athletes playing college sports has risen from 16,000 in 1968 to over 200,000 in 2012. Although the increased number of opportunities has provided women the chance to participate in the sport, the percentage of women coaching women’s teams has decline over time from 90% in 1972 to 42.9% in 2012 (Acosta & Carpenter, 2012). Alongside coaching is the lack of women working in intercollegiate administration. In 1972, the percentage of female athletic directors overseeing women’s programs was 90%, Today, the percentage of female athletic directors is 20.3%, a small increase from 2010
Have you ever wondered why many schools have more women’s athletic teams than the men do? This is due to the fact that universities must abide by the regulations set by Title IX. Title IX in many ways contributes the growth and success of women’s collegiate athletics, but in doing so has a negative effect on the male students and their opportunity to participate in athletics.
Look back at the pictures of all the young faces on that 1991 team, awash with smiles, the glow of a world championship, and athletic glory in its purest form, and it becomes obvious why we play.” (“Hamm, Mariel (Mia) Margaret”). Mai was nonplused that year based on the lack of zeal from the sports world. She did not allow this to lower her morale or affection for the game. She remained focused and steadfast and continued to promote women’s participation in the sport.
This past June marked the 40th anniversary of Title IX, a United States law stating that 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. Although the wide spectrum in which Title IX covers includes many educational issues, its application to NCAA athletics has especially been confounded, because, unlike most educational institutions, athletic programs are gender-segregated by sport. In terms of intercollegiate athletics, Title IX essentially states that that all academic institutes of higher education are
An on going issue facing education today is the growing controversial topic of gender equality in sports participation and it’s so call quota for achieving equality. The most notable action that has taken place as women continue to strive towards equality in the athletic realm is what is known as, Title IX. The basic ideas underlying Title IX are that “if an institution sponsors an athletics program, it must provide equal athletic opportunities for members of both sexes.” (Yoshida p.3) Simply put, Title IX attempts to achieve “equality” of funding for male and female athletes. The problem with this idea of complete “equality” is that no one agrees as to what
This section will outline how, throughout history, the role of Women in Society that has been reflected in the role of Women in Sport.
Many years ago and until recently people did not really accept the fact that women could play sports as well as men, or even play at all. Over the years, people started to accept some women as athletes at some sports, but not all of them. Sports like rugby, football and handball were only played by men. Nowadays, however, you could easily find a women playing football and many other sports they never used to play better than any of the men you know. People changed their perspective of women being involved in sports when they would see how capable the women were of being good at a sport they play. Women were not allowed at the first olympics ever played but
There has been a change in the way certain gender sports were viewed when women/men attempted to challenge the boundaries. Gymnastics for example began as an all-male sport. It was believed that women did not have the build nor strength to compete in this sport. In 1928 were women allowed to compete in the Olympics in
Since women have been allowed to participate in sports, the global community has become a closer knit. Scholars and organizations have acknowledged this and moved their focus to helping women gain equality in several different aspects. One being the passing of title xl, which protects individuals from discrimination under any education program or activity that receives federal funding. This one action has helped shift
In the 1980’s, the women Olympics took a turn when women started to win more medals than men. According to Greg Myre no one will be flying back from the two thousand, sixteen Rio Olympics with more medals than the United States women Olympiads. Women are brought home sixty-one of the one hundred twenty-one medals Team USA won. Two years in a row at the Summer Olympics women have brought home more medals than their male counterparts (Graham 2016). Women just have not been doing this in the United States that have been doing this all over the world. Since 1988 in china women have been performing better than males in events and are still doing it in the past year. Women are making history and breaking boundaries in the
Some factors that shaped the modern Olympic movement from 1892 to 2002 were the increased participation of women in the games due to women’s suffrage, the rising nationalism and superiority over competitors that took place, and the increase in trade and funding.
In 1972 Title IX is passed creating opportunities for girls and women to participate in sport. In 1973 Billy Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in the "battle of the sexes" tennis match. In 1973 the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) awards the first academic scholarships to women athletes at the collegiate level. Jackie Joiner-Kersee sets the new heptathlon world record and wins a second gold medal in the long jump in 1988. In 1991 Judith Sweet becomes the first woman president of the NCAA. Soccer and softball make it into the Olympic debut in 1996. In 1997 professional basketball debuts with the WNBA and ABL. In 1999 the U.S. Women's Soccer team defeats China for the World Cup win in a record seating of 90,185 people (Cohen, viii).
The adverse topic of women in sports stems from society's disregard to viewing women as persons. Women were, and in other parts of the world continue to be viewed as property of men and have no significant role in society. Being allowed into the Olympics was a step in the right direction for women across the world, but it was meager attempt equality. Women were still restricted by what events they were allowed to compete in, how they were trained and coached and even limited as to what they could wear. A woman’s femininity played a large role in the way they were perceived by society; weak. Women were seen as incommensurate to men and it was something that has taken us centuries to reverse. Today, women are given the rights we should have
During this century women have been able to break out of the traditional female mold. Women have broken the chains that bond them to the home and have emerged into all sorts of male dominated arenas, including sports. Women have become athletes in their own right. In the last ten years there has been validation for the female athlete. The WNBA was created giving women a professional league in a mainstream traditionally male sport for the first time since the All American Girls Professional Baseball League went out of existence in the 1950s. And recently a woman made the cut and participated on the professional golf circuit with the men. Today, we see women athletes in the media regularly. Women's college basketball is given airtime on weekends just as men's is.