A new playing field

Forty years ago this month President Nixon signed into law legislation that prohibits educational institutions that receive federal funding from discriminating on the basis of gender. The legislation, which came to be known as Title IX, was intended to cover a range of issues—discrimination in recruitment, admissions, financial aid and academic programs—but it has largely come to be associated with opening doors for women in athletics. By requiring schools to give women the same opportunities to play sports as men have, Title IX revolutionized sports at the scholastic and collegiate levels. The Women’s Sports Foundation reports that over 3 million girls now participate in high school sports, compared to under 300,000 four decades ago.

The results show up not only on the playing field. A recent issue of Sports Illustrated reports that “girls who compete in sports get better grades, graduate at higher rates and have more confidence. The vast majority avoid unplanned pregnancies, drugs, obesity, depression and suicide.” One study showed that teenage female athletes are less than half as likely to get pregnant as female nonathletes, are more likely to never have had sexual intercourse and are more likely to postpone having it. Female high school athletes do better on average in science classes than nonathletes, and women who participate in stereotypically male sports do better in science than athletes who participate in traditionally female sports. Girls who play high school sports are more likely to complete a college degree.

Fathers of female athletes are among some of the most ardent supporters of Title IX. Recently the California Assembly was discussing a resolution to recognize the law’s 40th anniversary. One assemblyman, a former high school coach, admitted that originally he opposed the law, thinking it would harm men’s sports. All that changed, he said, on the day his daughter was born.