TITLE IX

Title IX

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion and Analysis1

Conclusion3

Title IX

Introduction

Advocates for full rights for girls and women in publicly funded schools achieved that goal in 1972. 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.

Discussion and Analysis

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 (Zurn, 2005).

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 ...