Legacy of Title IX: A history of winning for women
The number of girls participating in high school sports in the United States has increased more than tenfold since the advent of Title IX in 1972.
1972: 294,015.
2019 (the last year it was reported): 3.4 million.
Girls made up 7 percent of the high school varsity athletes in 1972. In 2019, that number was 43 percent.
The number of women participating in college sports also has surged since Title IX was implemented.
1972: 2020-21:
29,977.
215,486. Women made up 15 percent of collegiate athletes in 1972. In 2020-21, that number was 44 percent.
TITLE IX TIMELINE 1960:
Wilma Rudolph becomes the first U.S. woman to win three gold medals at the Olympics and goes on to become a civil rights advocate.
1964: The Civil Rights Act includes sex as one of the things that employers can’t discriminate against. It also establishes the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Patsy Mink of Hawaii becomes the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House; she later co-authors Title IX, the Early Childhood Education Act and the Women’s Educational Equality Act.
1971: The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) is founded to govern collegiate women’s athletics and administer national championships.
1972: On June 23, Congress passes Title IX, which is signed into law by President Richard Nixon. Title IX 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.”
1973: On May 7, the University of Miami signs Homestead golfer Terry Williams to an athletic scholarship, becoming the first major university in the nation to offer an athletic scholarship to a woman. UM signed 15 female athletes for the fall 1973 semester. Also in 1973, Billie Jean King beats Bobby Riggs in straight sets in the “The Battle of the Sexes” tennis exhibition match and founds the Women’s Tennis Association.
1975: President Gerald Ford signs Title IX athletics regulations, which give athletic departments up to three years to implement, after noting “it was the intent of Congress under any ... interpretation to include athletics.”
1976: NCAA challenges the legality of Title IX regarding athletics in a lawsuit that is dismissed two years later.
1982: Louisiana Tech beats Cheyney State for the first NCAA women’s basketball title. Two months later, the AIAW folds, putting top women’s collegiate sports fully under the NCAA umbrella.
1987: Pat Summitt wins the first of her eight women’s basketball national titles at Tennessee.
1996: Female athletes win a lawsuit and force Brown University to restore funding for women’s gymnastics and volleyball after saying the school violated Title IX when it turned both teams into donorfunded entities. The Women’s National Basketball Association is launched
and begins play a year later.
1999: Brandi Chastain’s penalty kick gives the U.S. a win over China in the World Cup final that was attended by a sellout crowd of 90,000 at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
2019: U.S. women’s national soccer team files a gender discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation, demanding equitable pay.
2022: South Carolina’s Dawn Staley becomes the
first Black Division I basketball coach, male or female, to win more than one national championship.
The U.S. women’s national soccer team reaches a milestone agreement to be paid equally to the men’s national team.