Title IX

Title IX, part of the 1972 Education Amendments Act, is a United States law that prohibits gender discrimination in “any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” In 1988, Congress affirmed that it applies to entire institutions, not only to specific programs that receive funding. Women and girls have made dramatic gains as a result of Title IX, but those gains have not created equality, nor have they been uncontested. Title IX was designed to remedy gaps in the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which exempted education from gender equity guarantees, but its farthest reaching impact has been on sports.

Although women's athletic opportunities likely would have increased in the wake of the women's movement, Title IX greatly facilitated that expansion. In 1971, 7 percent of ...