Title IX

Physical education is aimed to educate students about the necessary skills and values of living a healthy lifestyle from childhood to adulthood. This is true for everyone regardless of age, sex, or ethnicity, or so we think. In some instances woman can be victimized by having unequal opportunities inside the physical education setting. Female athletes of the 1970’s went through a completely different experience then the female athletes of today’s generation.   Today, we do not see these inequalities as much as we did approximately twenty to thirty years ago. Laws similar to Title IX have been issued in order to make major steps into making the physical education and sport settings much more equal. The Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Education enforces Title IX, prohibiting specific discriminatory activities; however, some men and women believe Title IX its self was discriminatory.

This act known as Title IX was an Equal Opportunity in Education Act which was enacted on June 23, 1972. The law states, "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”(Wikipedia).   According to a poll, from 1971-1972, the amount of female athletes in high school was 294,015; in 2007-2008 where there was 3,057,266(AAUW). These figures show an increase of approximately 940%. This increase has a direct correlation to the issuing of Title IX; the lack of increase in male high school athletes provides further proof in this theory.  In 1971-1972, the amount of male athletes in high school was 3,666,917 compared to 2007-2008 where there were 4,372,115(AAUW); this is an increase of only about 19%. In the NCAA setting there was also dramatic changes; from 1971-1972 there was 29,972 female athletes compared to 2004-2005 where there was 166,728, an increase of 456%. In conclusion you can see that the increase is in favor of females dramatically, with Title IX being the primary reason for this increase.

Although the issuing of Title IX, made drastic increases in the opportunities set forth for women in sports, it also could be said it drastically changed men’s sports.  Slashing programs was just one of the many ways men felt they were treated unfairly by the new Title IX law.