Title Ix Usa

Title IX was passed by the United States Congress in June of 1972 and signed by President Richard M. Nixon a month later. It states that: “"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.” It essentially gives men and women equal rights at all college and high school institutions that have federal funding. Unfortunately, there have been many current misconceptions about Title IX over the past couple decades. For example, many people believe that it has a negative impact on males in college sports and increases opportunities for female athletes. However, Title IX makes it so that women have the same amount of money in scholarships as men, thus Title IX does not state that both men and women get the same amount of revenue spent on women’s and men’s sports

The “mother” of Title IX, and well-known for her contribution to gender equality is Patsy Mink. She was the first Asian American to serve in the United States Congress, and constantly battled gender discrimination and racism. When Title IX was enacted in 1972, most women's teams were coached by women. And as of now, women barely hold over half of the paid assistant coaching jobs within the women's National Collegiate Athletic Association intercollegiate programs with under half of the unpaid positions. Although Title IX achieved great progress for women’s sports, it has negatively affected women coaching sports as well as women in athletic administrative positions because of the lack of enforcement by government officials. Women have made great strides in sports and society due to Title IX but we still have some ways to go. However, the number of women coaches have been falling, from 90 percent in 1972, down to 40 percent today, according to the NCAA. Even the number of women coaching men’s teams have been at its lowest, with less than 2 percent nationwide. Some researchers have found that women coaches have more to handle on their shoulders, such as balancing work, travel, and taking care of their children. Also, they have found that most qualified candidates for a coaching position is often a male, even though they are specifically looking to hire a female. Sexual orientation still plays a large role in hiring and firing women coaches and is a prominent reason why women do not have opportunities to get coaching jobs. Moreover, stereotypes for hiring homosexual women as coaches still holds negative stereotypes as they may seem to be “masculine, aggressive, and harmful towards children.” They are still perceived as a bad image for women’s sport and would rather hire heterosexual men and women with a family as a coach.  Yet, despite the lack of enforcement of administrative female participation, more girls are encouraged to participate in sports and other activities today.