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Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid”. That is the law that was established in 1972 in order to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs. The law has been very controversial in terms of how fair the system truly is. Although athletics is not directly referenced in the law itself it has had a huge impact on athletics in Universities. Title IX has especially had a large impact on women in collegiate athletics. Since the law has been past female participation in sports has increased dramatically due to equal opportunity between male and females. While woman have benefited greatly many male teams have been cut in order for females to participate. This is necessary in order to make equal opportunity for each sex. Before Title IX was passed males had many more opportunities than females in terms of collegiate athletics participation.

History

Athletics is usually the main discussion when talking about Title IX, but some people don’t realize what kind of great affect the law has had for women in education. Before the law was passed many universities refused to admit women and if they did admit them there was strict limits as to what they could do. In 1972, woman had 9 percent of all medical degrees as opposed to achieving 38 percent in 1994. In 1972, women got 7 percent of law degrees as opposed to 43 percent in 1994 So as one can see the advancements in the most prestigious degrees have went up a great amount for women since the 1972 law Title IX. As well as achieving great things in the classroom Title IX has had a great impact throughout the years as to how woman have had an opportunity to get more involved with sports. In 1971, the year before Title IX was passed, 29, 972 females participated in collegiate athletics as opposed to 170,384 men participating. In 2001 however the amount of females participation was 150,916, which is a 403 percent increase from 1971.

Timeline of Events

• 1971- 295,000 high school girls play sports in comparison to 3,600,000 boys.
• 1972- Congress passes title IX on June 23, 1972 by President Nixon, but the law makes no reference to having gender equity in athletics. .
• 1975- The official reference to equal funding in athletics is added to the Title IX amendments..
• 1984- A case against Title IX happens and won the right to remove Title IX in athletic programs..
• 1988- The Civil Rights Restoration Act is passed which stated, “All educational institutions that receive any type of federal funding, whether indirect or direct, were to comply with Title IX restrictions.”.
• 1999- 2,400,000 high school girls are participating in sports programs. .

Benefits For Women

More women are participating in sports because Title IX has given them the opportunity to do so. Because these women are participating in sports they have benefited in terms of being a lot healthier and having a better psychological state of mind.

• “Girls who participate in some kind of sport experience have a higher than average level of self-esteem and lower levels of depression.”.
• “Teenage female athletes are less likely to elicit drugs, less likely to be suicidal, less likely to smoke and more likely to have positive body images than female non-athletes.”.
• Women who participate in sports are more likely to volunteer in the community, vote, be able to feel comfortable when giving a public statement, and watch the news. All these aspects women have more of a chance of acting upon than a non-female athlete..
• “Team sports participation is associated with a lower prevalence of sexual risk taking behaviors for young women.”.

Impacts On Men's Athletics

While Title IX has had a great benefit for women over the past 35 years it had a negative impact on men’s athletics. Over the years many non-revenue men’s teams have been cut due to having to provide equal opportunity for both male and female. “What happened is that the government told universities that the only way to abide by Title IX was to achieve what’s called proportionality. That means that if half the student body is female, half the athletes should be as well.”.This leaves the college in a tricky situation because if the university has to many athletes it has only two options, either it can add more women’s teams, which would require a lot of money, or it can cut back on the number of men..An example of Title IX affecting males is a gymnast Steve McCain. He was ranked number 3 in the nation at UCLA and was training for the Olympic games when in 1994 the school decided to drop men’s gymnastics. UCLA had one of the top gymnastics programs at the time and they dropped the team out of nowhere to comply with Title IX. That is just one example of many of male student athletes being told to clean out there lockers and move to another school.

• Men’s Teams that have highest risk of being cut

1. Gymnastics
2. Tennis
3. Track and Field
4. Swimming
5. Wrestling

These sports are in jeopardy at all division 1 schools of being cut because they are in the category of non-revenue sports. Non-revenue sports do not generate money for the school and are at risk for being dropped in compliance with Title IX. CBS news states, “The number of men’s teams are dwindling because colleges are dropping what are called minor sports, the ones that don’t draw crowds or make money, and investing more and more in just one sport-football.” “Twenty-three years ago, there was 107 men’s gymnastics teams in this nation, ‘says Lewis, Now there are 20 teams left.”

External Links

• NCAA Compliance Statistics

• Benefits Of Playing Sports