Imagine a science classroom with no women or a school where only boys are allowed to play sports. How long ago was it that women couldn't go to some colleges if they were married? Or that girls couldn't play basketball or soccer in high school? If you're thinking 1910, then you'd be right. But if you were thinking over sixty years later, you'd be correct as well.

Until 1972, academic and athletic opportunities for women were limited. High schools and universities had the ability to discriminate against female students based on their gender. Many colleges even refused to admit women who were married because of the popular belief that the role of a wife was only that of a homemaker. Young women were rarely encouraged to pursue professions in science or mathematics, let alone higher education.

In the late 1960s, Edith Green, an Oregon House Representative, noticed that there were programs to keep boys from dropping out of school but nothing to keep girls from doing the same. With the assistance of Representative Patsy Mink (Hawaii), Senator Birch Bayh (S. Dakota), and community leaders, Green succeeded in co-creating the legislation that led to Title IX of the Education Amendments, signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972.

This law prevented discrimination on the basis of gender in education. It applied to all aspects of education in any school receiving aid from the federal government. Most people remember Title IX, however, for the impact that it had on sports. Schools were mandated to give young women the same opportunities in athletics that male students possessed, including their own sports teams. Football operations were excluded from Title IX, however, because of the lobbying of universities. In 1975, Washington State added a law that required Title IX compliance for all schools receiving state funds as well.

More legislation soon followed. Where Title IX punished schools that didn't comply with the new law, the Women's Educational Equity Act (1974) gave incentives and guidance to help schools and community groups find ways to encourage women to succeed and to open up fields that had traditionally been closed to female students.

In 1971, only 18% of all women had completed four years or more of college. Today, women make up the majority of students in American colleges and universities. Over 100,000 women participate in college athletics, a number four times larger than before the passage of Title IX. Women's gaining the right to vote in 1910 opened the doors for them to demand equal rights in other areas of public and private life. Like the right to vote, Title IX is another powerful legacy of the suffrage movement.

Key Points About Title IX

  1. For students, the passage of Title IX declared that discrimination in schools that received federal funding was illegal. It changed the face of athletics by granting equal sports access to female students in high school and college.
  2. Washington State enacted similar legislation to Title IX for state-funded school activities in 1975.
  3. The landmark 1987 Washington Supreme Court decision in Blair vs Washington State University determined that football operations should be included in calculating equity for women's sports. This lawsuit made a tremendous difference in funding for women's college athletics in Washington.