An Uneven Playing Field: Title IX and Women’s Athletics
Feature Story by Tanisha Jones - 7/2/2002
June 2002 marked the 30th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that transformed women’ amateur athletics. Thirty years later, disparities persist in the funding of women’s athletics, according to many observers.The National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has organized a series of studies dealing with women and sports to commemorate the anniversary.
Since Title IX’s passage in 1972, women have made swift progress in all aspects of society and especially in the athletic arena.
Statistics tell some of the story. NWLC reseach documents that he number of girl’s high school athletes has increased an astonishing tenfold since Title IX, from 300,000 to slightly less than three million athletes. Women in intercollegiate sports have increased fivefold, from a little less than 30,000 to now more than 150,000 athletes. Yet the figures show that this growth did not eliminate all disparities. Females comprise 53 percent of the collegiate student body, yet only account for 43 percent of athletes.
Financial resources are even more disproportionate. According to the NWLC, the gap between male and female athletic scholarships is $133 million annually. Scholarships, recruiting and operating budgets for males are more than double the amount for women athletics.
Marcia D. Greenberger, NWLC co-president, says that "sex discrimination in athletic scholarships has a harmful and practical impact on female students and their families who are trying to make ends meet while also paying for college tuition. ... We hope these schools will come forward to fulfill their legal obligation to their female athletes and treat them fairly."
NWLC documents that women in sports are invaluable for the progress of athletic competition and that they take from the field intangible qualities. Several reports document that female athletes have higher levels of self-esteem, a lower rate of teenage pregnancy and fewer health-related problems as a result of improved access to-athletic opportunities.
Under Title IX, extreme difference in the financial equity of men and women’s athletics is illegal. The largest difference allowable for women athletic scholarships is to be no more or less than one percent of the total proportion of female athletes--still a distant goal 30 years later.
