Beyond athletics, Title IX a win for women
This month, more than 2,100 players, coaches and support staff arrived in San Antonio for the women’s NCAA Tournament. What a great way to commemorate the second half of Women’s History Month.
If you watch college games on TV, you know that previews of this tournament centered around the theme “The Road to San Antonio,” and you might assume travelers are from places like Palo Alto, Calif., Storrs, Conn., Raleigh, N.C., or Waco.
However, I want to challenge that notion. I’m currently steeped in women’s athletic history, having spent the past year working on a book about the history of women’s sports at Trinity University. Since the school just celebrated 150 years, there’s a lot of ground to cover.
In my research, I’ve learned that the women’s basketball journey started long ago — and it had a pretty bumpy ride for almost a century.
When Senda Berenson adapted James Naismith’s rules in 1892 to introduce basketball to the ladies at Smith College, she was conforming to the myths of the day: Women were too fragile to participate in the rougher men’s version.
Until 1978, Texas high school girls were still playing a modified six-man “half-court” game with players constrained to one side of the midcourt stripe.
Since Texas colleges switched to five-man full-court for women in 1971, many girls graduated to the college game with no skill sets in offensive shooting or defensive techniques and often were not in the physical shape needed for a full-court contest.
Then Title IX arrived, finally paving this long and winding “road” by expanding opportunities for women in education. Most people think of Title IX in terms of women’s sports, but its overall impact was much more significant.
The 1972 act addressed the rampant sex discrimination in schools, bulldozing roadblocks like gender restrictions or admission quotas. Even when a female earned a degree, her prospects in the workforce were minimal.
The struggles of Patsy Mink, one of the co-authors of Title IX and for whom it is now named, illustrate the situation for women in the postwar years. This is one of my favorite stories from our research.
After being denied admission by a dozen medical schools, the Hawaii native applied to law school and was erroneously accepted as part of a “foreign” student quota, even though her home was a U.S. territory at the time.
Then, with a law degree in hand, she was rebuffed by large firms, either because of her ethnicity, her “biracial” marriage or the fact she had a child who most certainly would prevent her from logging long hours.
Mink opened her own practice, ran for office and was sworn in as the first woman of color in Congress in 1964. There she would collaborate in writing the game-changing legislation in 1972.
The positive results of the law are indisputable. These two examples after just 20 years would certainly make Mink smile: In 1992, the percentage of women earning law degrees improved from 7 percent to 44 percent — and medical degree attainment for women moved from 9 percent to 41 percent.
Also, the number of women in Congress started inching toward more equal representation. When Title IX was signed, only 11 representatives and two senators were women. Today, those numbers are 142 and 24.
While sports wasn’t the primary focus for the legislation, the downstream impact of Title IX has been substantial. Only 30,000 women participated in college sports in 1972; that number is now more than 216,000.
However, many would argue it’s about more than the numbers. The character lessons gleaned from the camaraderie and competition will enhance the future for these young women wherever they end up in the workplace. One 2017 study found 94 percent of businesswomen in the corporate suite played high school sports and 52 percent had participated in intercollegiate athletics.
After decades of predictions of doom from male-oriented programs, it’s obvious that both men’s and women’s athletic programs have benefited from equal opportunities. Yes, the games may not be identical, but the skillsets, dedication and confidence levels of these young women will follow them throughout their lives.
Only one women’s team will lift a trophy in glory at the Alamodome. But everyone will leave a winner, thanks to the dedication of those who paved the long road to San Antonio.