Before 1972, women athletes in the United States could still qualify for the Olympics, despite the fact that there were no colleges and universities in the United States that had athletics programs for women, until the Title IX law that was created during the Nixon administration and signed by President Nixon himself, that would allow colleges and universities to create athletics programs for women.
The bill originated in the US Senate in June 1972 by Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN), who's son was former US Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana. It was despite pressure from certain groups such as NOW (which doesn't really represent women, like other groups 'claim' to represent a certain population of society), and as a result more women's athletic programs at the collegiate level were created. Also professional level sports for women would also be created as well-including the WTA tour, LPGA, WNBA, and now-defunct leagues like the WUSA football and ABL basketball, which started around the time the WNBA was in its infancy. Even the Lingerie Football League.
But keep in mind, before Title IX, you had such dominating women figures in sport, including Olympian Babe Zaharias Dickson, just to name a few.
As Title IX law in effect, some schools have faced a lot of decisions regarding the slashing of programs. For example, throughout most of the southeast, not one NCAA Division I, II or III school has wrestling, but wait. If schools in the southeast and south central US such as Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, North Carolina State and Duke have wrestling programs, why not the rest of the southeast? The real reason is that most are too risky about it, and wants to abide to the standards as prescribed to Title IX, even though there are female collegiate wrestlers too.
So that's just a short little tidbit to share with you about this day, the 40th anniversary of Title IX. So what does Title IX mean to you? Give me some feedback and share your thoughts by posting a comment!
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