Title 11 Effects On Sports

Words: 1988
Pages: 8

The “Unintended” Effect of Title IX On Sport

In the United States, discrimination has oft been a problem in every arena. Whether it be race, religion, gender, or lifestyle, discrimination has plagued this great nation for centuries. The racial and religious issue was “solved” in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the gender issue? Not so much. However, one piece of legislature in 1972 was able to bring about the winds of change in this country, winds that would blow out the smog of discrimination and bring about the freshness of equality. That legislature was Title IX, which stated “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination
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While Title IX was meant as a sweeping change to the scholastic and university systems, the connotations it had for women’s sport was tremendous. Title IX, ultimately and unintentionally, helped create the high profile multi-gendered sporting culture in America that we know and love today.

The origins of Title IX are very similar to the origins of the civil rights conflicts in the 60’s regarding race. Women had been competing in sport for a long time, nearly as long as men had in some sports such as basketball. Regardless, Title IX came as a result of the great change brought about by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, giving minorities, African-Americans in particular, the right of protection from discrimination in both hiring and in programs funded by the Federal government, Titles VI and VII to be precise. One important note is that Title VII did include gender, race and religion as being protected, but Title VI did not offer such a wide swath of
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Schools tried everything they could to find loopholes to keep things as they were. Universities like Richmond argued that Title IX solely applied to programs in the school receiving federal funding, which in their case was the students receiving Pell grants. They argued that since this was the only area that federal funds were involved in then that was the only area that Title IX could be enforced and Richmond was free to discriminate in other programs, including their sports program. Another obstacle arose around the financial implications of Title IX. Senator John Tower of Texas proposed an amendment to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that would exclude money-making sports from Title IX regulation. He argued that by giving women equal athletic opportunity it would damage the cash flow to big-money sports like basketball and football. This damage would then upset the whole athletic financial system as the financial base was taken away from the university. Senator Tower then claimed that Title IX was not intended to include women’s sport and that a separate piece of legislature should be passed in that regard. Until the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 this was the common attitude towards Title IX, that it applied to most everything but women’s