Title IX

Advocates for full rights for girls and women in publicly funded schools achieved that goal in 1972. In that year Title IX of the Educational Amendments passed and simply stated 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.” This act is codified as Title 20, United States Code, Chapter 38, Sections 1681–1688. The Act was also amended by the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1988. While prohibiting discrimination based on sex, it was the evidence of bias against girls and women that motivated feminists to push for this legal protection during the 1960s women's movement. A brief history of Title IX is presented along with stories of reformers who were important to its passage and eventual impact on public education within both the K–12 and higher education communities over the past 35 years. Legal challenges to the law have continued through these 3 decades and selected ones are highlighted here.

Presidential Executive Order 11246 that had, since 1965, prohibited job discrimination on racial, color, national origin, or religious bases was amended by President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 to include sex. Several reformers on the scene succeeded, unknowingly at the time, in building the link that ensured that Johnson's amendment would grow into a stronger protection against sex-based discrimination in schools—ultimately in the form of Title IX.

First, in 1969, Bernice R. Sandler, a part-time lecturer at the University of Maryland, knew the university had contracts with the federal government and was the first to point out the connection to employment of women; that is, that the university could not discriminate by sex in university employment. Following Sandler's move, for the first time a congressperson addressed the House of Representatives about discrimination against women in education. On March 9, 1970, Representative Martha Griffiths (D–Michigan) delivered such an address. Motivated by discrimination she had faced in completing her university degree, Representative Patsy T. Mink (D–Hawai'i) drafted the legislation. And, finally, in the summer of 1970, Edith Green (D–Ohio) held the first hearings in the U.S. Congress to address women and education. In addition, Senators Birch Bayh (D–Indiana) and George McGovern (D–South Dakota) navigated the successful passage of the emergent legislation from [Page 895]Representative Green's efforts, legislation that ultimately became Title IX, signed into law on June 23, 1972, by President Richard Nixon.

The Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW) published regulations guiding enforcement of Title IX in 1975. They prohibited restricting any educational activity (in a school receiving federal financial support) to only one sex except under circumstances of classes in human sexuality, contact sports, and activities that were designed to remedy sex discrimination. High schools and universities were given a 3-year compliance window and elementary schools a 1-year timeline. Title IX covered all dimensions of education including facilities, career guidance, financial aid, residence halls, extracurricular activities, academic courses, and athletics. The regulations required institutional recipients of federal funds to designate a Title IX coordinator to monitor enforcement of the law.

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