"In one generation, young girls have gone from hoping there's a team to hoping they can make the team." -Mary Jo Kane

In America, we’re all about the scores, the highlights, and the numbers…. So let’s take a look at some Title IX numbers:

• In 1972, the average number of women’s sports teams offered per school was about 2… now, 38 years later, it’s 8.34
• In 1972, approximately 1 in 27 girls participated in sports... today, it’s 1 in 3.
• In the ’84 Olympic Games, women participated in only 13 of the 24 events. In the ’08 Olympics, women participated in 28 of the 32 events.
• Six years after Title IX was created, the percentage of girls playing sports multiplied six-fold, from 4% to 25%
• From 1971 to 2005, female participation in collegiate sports increased 456%
• A study in 2007 proved that playing high school team sports increases a young woman’s chance of graduating from college by 41%.

Today is a day to celebrate because of all the successful changes that have been made. Basketball used to be a sport in which women had to stay on either the defensive, or offensive end of the court, because we wouldn’t want a woman to get too tired running the full length of the court. Today, a woman can earn a living playing basketball (running the full court). Women’s soccer leagues in Europe began in the 1930’s, but it took Title IX for America to even have teams. Today, we can look back and remember that in 1999, the U.S. Women’s soccer team filled the Rose Bowl, captivated the country, and beat China for a World Cup victory.

But it’s not only in athletics that we’ve seen improvements. If you re-read it, Title IX actually makes no mention of athletics…. “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”. Thankfully, it was pointed out that one of those activities should include sports, because if it weren’t for sports, who knows where women would be today. “82% of businesswomen played organized sports after elementary school” according to the Oppenheimer report completed in 2002. Women being allowed to play sports encouraged women to succeed in other aspects of life as well. For example:

-   eBay CEO Meg Whitman was on both the lacrosse and squash teams at Princeton.

-   Debbi Fields, the founder of Mrs. Field’s Cookies’ is an equestrian.

-   Spherion CEO Cinda Hallman, one of six women who are CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, was a 5’6” basketball guard at Ashdown High School in Arkansas.

-   Sue Wellington, president of the Gatorade division of Quaker Oats, was captain of Yale’s swim team.

-   And, Melissa Payner was a gymnast at Ohio State and Arizona State, and is now CEO of Spiegel Catalog.

 All of these things have proven that women’s sports has come a long, long way, but that’s not to say we don’t have a long way to go. For the most part, we should celebrate today’s anniversary of Title IX, but I also want to make you aware of what else we should be thinking about.

•  Only 44% of women's college teams and less than 2% of men's college teams are coached by women. In 1972, more than 90% of women's team coaches were women.
• Only 17.9% of women's athletic programs in colleges are headed by a woman. In 1972, more than 90% were headed by women.
• 18.8% of women's athletics programs have no female at all anywhere in the athletic administrative structure.
• Of the 361 new women's head coaching positions created between 2000 and 2002, only 35 of those hired were women. 90% of the positions were filled by men.
• 854 institutions have full time Sports Information Directors. Only 12.3% of full time Sports Information Directors are women.
• Male athletes annually receive $133 million more athletic scholarship dollars than female athletes!

Even though there’s a whole generation of girls who can’t even imagine a world without high school sports for females, watching college and professional women’s sports on TV, and seeing women in powerful roles in sports… we can’t become complacent. We should celebrate today for all that Title IX has accomplished in its 38 years, but we can’t stop now.

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• Filed Under:  
• Sports, Discrimination/Title IX

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• 38th Anniversary of Title IX

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Dr. Nicole M. LaVoi

the quote in your title is a saying that Tucker Center Director Mary Jo Kane has coined.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 at 12:43pm PDT