Running News Daily

50 Years After Title IX: The landmark legislation has had a profound impact on gender equality but it hasn’t fixed everything

It’s been a year of celebration for women in sports, but particularly for women in running. We honored the first women to officially enter the Boston Marathon 50 years ago. We marked the 50th anniversary of the Mini 10K in Central Park this summer— “the world’s original all-women’s road race.” It’s also been 50 years since the “six who sat” protested at the starting line of the New York City Marathon, fighting for the right to compete in the same race as the men.

But perhaps the biggest anniversary of all is 50 years of Title IX, the bill that in 37 succinct words changed everything:

“No person in the United State shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to other discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

A half century ago, on June 23, 1972, President Richard Nixon signed the civil rights legislation into law, and the effects have rippled ever since. It altered education significantly across the country, barring sex discrimination in schools, creating opportunities in sports, and, ultimately, allowing women to enter careers that were once completely dominated by men.

It seems unfathomable to today’s youth that, not long ago, these were not guaranteed rights. At the same time, Title IX has been far from perfect in its execution and its results. It continues to leave people of color and those of lower socio-economic status behind. The inclusion of transgender rights under the law is still under review as a dozen states seek to ban transgender women and girls from participating in women and girls’ sports. Today, 75 percent of high school boys participate in sports compared to 60 percent of girls. Women make up 44 percent of all NCAA athletes (compared to 13 percent before 1972), but still have 60,000 fewer athletic opportunities than men, according to the NCAA.

“The biggest lasting legacy of Title IX has been the understanding that it’s a civil right to be able to participate in school sports, because there’s education in getting to use your body to achieve various goals, working as a team, pushing yourself, testing your limits,” says Victoria Jackson, a sports historian and assistant professor at Arizona State University and the 2006 NCAA 10,000-meter champion. “That is pretty radical and has resulted in all sorts of consequences beyond the world of school sports, for individuals and for society. That’s really important.”

Title IX is a story of many chapters—continually revised politically, judicially, and culturally. In order to strengthen and sustain it, the law will always need guardians and defenders. In the middle of this year-long commemoration, for example, the Supreme Court is poised to overturn another 50-year-old ruling, Roe v. Wade, a decision that will strip women of their reproductive rights and ban abortions in several states—a devastating blow to the progress women have made in attaining education and achieving career advancement as a result of the ability to choose when and if they become pregnant.

“We want to celebrate the wins, as we are doing with Title IX, but we also want to be aware that the fight is not over,” said Nicole LaVoi, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, during the espnW Power Summit in May. “A lot of gains have been made. And there’s a lot of work still left to do.”

It’s impossible to adequately capture the scope and reach of 50 years of Title IX in a single swoop (we’ve got a comprehensive timeline here), but the milestone deserves reflection. Female runners and track and field athletes have always been on the forefront of pushing change. Whether they realized it or not, during the decades leading to the law, the simple act of showing up and running when their presence wasn’t welcomed or recommended was an act of advocacy that pushed the movement forward. Here are four reflections on Title IX honoring its past, present, and future.