EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN MAKES US STRONGER

TITLE IX AND THE ASCENT OF THE AMERICAN FEMALE ATHLETE 

Without women, the United States Olympic team would have been in a world of hurt.  The Tokyo

games ended recently and the world now assesses the meaning of a COVID-19 marred Olympiad, while looking forward to next year’s winter games and the 2024 summer games in Paris.

One thing stands out about the American effort in

Tokyo. U.S. women made their presence felt. They captured over 58% of the medals Americans won. That didn’t just happen. It directly resulted from action American legislators took almost 50 years ago. The success of U.S. female athletes shows what can happen with a dedicated commitment to equal opportunity. It offers lessons that apply across society.

The Governmental Action was Title IX

Mostly without anyone looking, Congress in 1972 amended the 1964 Civil Rights Act with a

provision that said, “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.…”  Before that enactment, one in 27 girls participated in school sports. Now that number exceeds two in five. Despite grudging compliance by school districts and universities with the requirement of equal funding for women’s sports, over the 35 years after Title IX’s passage, female involvement in high school sports jumped 904 % and college participation increased 456%.

We shouldn’t forget the opposition Title IX encountered in its early years, much of it from the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The

NCAA feared loss of power and control over lucrative men’s sports, especially football and basketball, if colleges and universities had to fund women’s sports programs. The NCAA first argued for exemption of college athletic departments from Title IX requirements, contending the departments

didn’t receive federal funds. That argument ignored the fact college athletic departments are part of institutions of higher education, nearly all of which receive federal money. They also argued equal sports funding for women would mean a loss of opportunities for men (a few men’s programs did get cut at individual schools, though overall men’s participation increased). Finally, the NCAA asserted Title IX equity formulas should exempt college football. 

Ultimately, courts and government agencies charged with enforcing Title IX rejected these contentions. The NCAA decided it couldn’t beat the women’s sports movement, so it took it over. In

1982 it forced out of existence the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), the organization that had promoted women’s college sports while the NCAA was doing everything it could to undermine support for women’s programs. Even today, though, the NCAA often treats women’s sports teams as second-class citizens, as last winter’s weight room fiasco demonstrated. It provided men with state of the art weight training facilities at basketball tournament sites while giving women a few dumbbells. 

The Olympic Dividend

We can’t say Congress knew it was birthing an Olympic medals bonanza for the United States

when it passed Title IX. The law passed because of the efforts of a small, determined group of women (and a few men) who, in the late ‘60s, began agitating for federal and state legislation assuring women equal rights in education. As noted, few people paid much attention when it passed, though the NCAA soon perceived a threat. Then something funny happened.

By the early ‘80s, U.S. women began excelling in international competition in sports, like track and

field and basketball, previously dominated by the Soviet Union and eastern European countries like East Germany (many of those eastern Europeans probably were on steroids, but that’s a subject for another day). All of a sudden U.S. women who’d gone through college and university programs started winning championships.

By the ‘80s and ‘90s, the U.S. was producing female stars, like Florence Griffith-Joyner and Jackie Joyner-Kersee in track and field and basketball greats like Cheryl Miller and Dawn Staley. In 1996, the U. S. women’s basketball team kicked off a gold medal streak that has reached seven and shows no signs of ending, despite the likely retirements of five-time gold medalists Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.

In Tokyo, the American team won 113 medals (China finished second with 88). Women won 66 of

the U.S. total. Had the American women been a nation, they would have placed fourth in the overall medal count. Since 2012, American women have won the majority of U.S. Olympic medals.

 

Pride and Inspiration– for all Americans

Women can take great pride in what U.S. women

athletes have accomplished in the Olympics, as can men. Those are our sisters, daughters, granddaughters, nieces, even wives, winning those medals. Their achievements should inspire everyone.  We’re reminded of what Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman told his players after the Arkansas women’s basketball team upset perennial power Connecticut last winter. “They wear the same logo on their uniforms we do,” Pittman said. “Let’s be like them.” 

We also can take pride in the progress American women have made in Olympic sports since the advent of Title IX because of what that progress says about our country. The law’s role in the development of American female athletes shows what can happen when a nation decides it will treat

all its citizens fairly and equally. Title IX, especially when juxtaposed with the NCAA’s obstructionism, stands as an example of what happens when societies don’t engage in zero-sum game thinking. Every time someone gains something doesn’t mean someone else must lose something. The rise of the American female athlete lifts US all and serves as a model for the world.