By Patrick Bohn
Title IX, a landmark piece of legislation prohibiting any education program receiving federal aid from discriminating on the basis of sex, was passed into law 39 years ago this past June. And nearly four decades later, its impact on the landscape of sports is undeniable.
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Kathryn Olson, CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation in San Francisco told the Telegraph: "The largest impact of Title IX is in terms of participation and perception. Before Title IX, there were one of 27 girls playing high school varsity sports. Now, you have two in five playing them. And participation in women's college athletics has increased 500 percent."
Olson also pointed out that the law has changed the way women perceive their bodies. "You learn about what you can do with your body. There's a misconception that a girl who plays sports isn't feminine," she told the Telegraph.
In March of 2010, Athletic Management wrote about other positive impacts of the law, including an increase in women's education and employment figures.
Angela Ruggiero, a member of the 1998 U.S. Women's Ice Hockey Olympic gold medal team, thinks that Title IX has done such a good job of providing young women with athletic opportunities that its impact can been overlooked.
"Title IX has worked so effectively that a lot of these girls don't know what it is,'' Ruggiero told Boston.com. "They don't even recognize that there's a discrepancy between boys and girls. In their heads, they really believe girls are better than boys and they can beat them and so on."
But Title IX's impact can still be felt by today's athletes. At Ball State University, a recent investigation by the Muncie Star Press found that the school may be violating Title IX, and as a result, the women's softball team will get a new locker room.
For athletic administrators, Title IX's impact has a wide reach. It can even impact the booster clubs. In 2009, Athletic Management illustrated how one school handled the issue within their booster clubs.
Unfortunately, some schools struggle with compliance. Recently, nearly 100 Oregon high schools were named in a complaint by the Office of Civil Rights for failing to provide adequate opportunities for girls. In one case, a school with a student body that was 50.5 percent female had an athletic population only 21.7 percent female.
But even Ruggiero remains cautiously optimistic, stating, "At the same time, there's still a long way to go." Indeed, even after 40 years, it's sometimes hard to calculate how far Title IX has come.
Patrick Bohn is an Assistant Editor at Athletic Management.