{"id":1041,"date":"2022-07-20T18:50:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T18:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/?p=1041"},"modified":"2025-02-13T18:56:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-13T18:56:36","slug":"title-ixs-50-year-impact-on-womens-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/2022\/07\/20\/title-ixs-50-year-impact-on-womens-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Title IX’s 50 year impact on women’s sports"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cNo 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\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments into law, a measure that included the above language and in the 50 years since, has radically altered the course of girl\u2019s and women\u2019s athletics across America; Title IX also provides legal redress for girls and women who are victims of sexual harassment or rape on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to gender equity in sporting activities, while girls and women had been playing sports at schools and colleges across the country long before Title IX, there were gross inequities in both the number of sports\u2014and funding\u2014prior to its enactment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Howard University\u2019s women\u2019s rifle team circa 1937\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Title IX and Ol\u2019s Hobbs are both now 50, I distinctly recall that by the time I started playing t-ball and basketball as a first grader in Maryland in 1978, I remember that the Allentown Boys & Girls Club, where I played, had sign-up sheets for the boys as well as for girls who wished to play softball or lead cheers during basketball games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time I enrolled at FAMU High School (K-12) in the 80\u2019s, during the fall the Baby Rattler boys played football while the girls played volleyball or led cheers; during the winter, our boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 basketball teams were dominant and, in the spring, the boy\u2019s and girl\u2019s track teams were equally dominant as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, such equity in opportunities was not always the case but thanks to Title IX, today, sports like flag football, swimming, golf, tennis, beach volleyball, and crew provide girls and women the same opportunities to exert themselves in physical competition\u2014while developing skills that translate well to future professional endeavors as far as discipline and desire to succeed for a common team goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I certainly grew up knowing all about Althea Gibson, the Florida A&M University alumna who became the first Black woman to win Wimbledon, and Wilma Rudolph and the Tennessee State University \u201cTiger Belles\u201d who dominated track & field for over a decade during the late Jim Crow era, it is clear now that these legendary women were still in the minority on campus during their student days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, their success paved the way for the likes from Chris Evert to Venus and Serena Williams, from Florence Griffith-Joyner to Allyson Felix, from Mary Lou Retton to Simone Biles, to countless other women\u2019s basketball, soccer, track, gymnastics, and golf pros who find themselves featured regularly on ESPN and the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine for their achievements!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet, with all that Title IX has done over the past 50 years to create gender equity in scholastic sports, there remains a significant gap in professional sports opportunities and pay for women\u2019s players. Each year, I watch at rapt attention during the NCAA women\u2019s softball tournament, but there is no paying equivalent to Major League Baseball\u2014and its multi-million-dollar salaries\u2014for the game\u2019s star players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ditto for the WNBA, a disparity that has been in the news of late due to Brittany Griner\u2019s work to earn money in the Russian professional leagues because the WNBA salaries are but a fraction of NBA salaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Title IX legislation bridged the gap at schools and colleges, I am not convinced that any Federal legislation would ever bridge the gaps in professional sports offerings and pay due to one word\u2014capitalism. Sports, like any other business, are guided by basic principles of supply and demand and with the exception of women\u2019s tennis, track, and the LPGA tour, there is little evidence to show that the buying public is as invested in women\u2019s professional team sports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, attendance at many WNBA games pales in comparison to the NBA and for skeptics I ask, do you have a favorite WNBA team? Do you own WNBA jerseys, t-shirts, or hats? If your answer is \u201cno\u201d to those questions, then such is the starting point that needs to be addressed so that women can get paid in full for playing the sports they love long after their student days are done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stay tuned for Part II: Title IX\u2019s impact on sexual harassment and rape on campus!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobbservation Point is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chuck Hobbs is a freelance journalist who won the 2010 Florida Bar Media Award and has been twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.<\/em>
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\u201cNo 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\u2026\u201d In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments into law, a measure that included […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[417,522,521],"class_list":["post-1041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-howard-university","tag-title-ix","tag-womens-sports","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1041\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}