Today marks the fortieth year of Title IX, which for you LSU students out there is pronounced “nine.” Title IX changed the face of education in this country and added “daughters” to “sons,” though one really shouldn’t try and sneak that in to the fight song, okay?
Rather elegantly, Title IX (20 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1688) provides that “no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance… .” The law then goes on to lay out a host of exceptions where one can be excluded from participation on the basis of sex, but its effect on gender-equality in our country and at the University of Notre Dame was extraordinary.
I don’t know that it’s possible to underestimate the ways in which coeducation makes Notre Dame a better place, a more vibrant place, a more diverse place. By opening athletics, specifically, to women, Title IX increased the educational opportunities available to women who would not otherwise have had the chance to be Irish. Personally, I am proud to count at least one “Title IX baby” as a friend of mine. While I am loathe to suggest that anything other than her intelligence and charm got her into ND, she did wield a wicked epée.
Since Title IX was passed, the football team has won precisely one national championship. (Author’s Note: We won national championships in 1973 and in 1977. I totally blew this. I wanted to get the article out and even though I proofed it, I didn’t catch this clanker. Very sloppy on my part and you deserve better.) Since Title IX was passed, the men’s basketball team has won precisely zero national championships and has played in precisely zero final games. Since 2010 alone, ND’s women’s basketball team has played in two finals, the women’s soccer team (2010) and the fencing team (2011) won a national championship each. And how many men’s hoops players lost their arm to an RPG and soldiered on?
Where are your athletic supporters, now, boys?
So, thank you Title IX, and happy birthday. You’ve made America a place where my little girl can not only wear a Golden Tate jersey on a Saturday morning and dream of shaking down the thunder, she can also dream of running on similar sod and nodding home the winner over Duke in about thirteen years.
Hating Hurricanes Since 1990.
Bayou Irish is a Jersey boy and Double Domer who fell under New Orleans' spell in 1995. He's been through Katrina and fourteen years in the Coast Guard, so we cut him some slack, mostly in the form of HLS-subsidized sazeracs. But, when he's not face down on the bar and communing with the ghosts of Faulkner and Capote at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone, he's our man in SEC-land, doing his best to convince everyone around him that Graduation Success Rate is a better indicator of success than the number of MNC's won in the last five years.
- Finding Flaws in a Diamond: Clemson’s Rushing Offense - December 17, 2018
- Why Nobody Will Cotton to Notre Dame - December 3, 2018
- Irish Finish Regular Season Perfect 12-0 - November 26, 2018
While I would agree that Title IX has helped give some more women opportunities. It did come with some casualties. Because there had to be equal opportunity for Men and Women, many colleges chose to cut men’s programs, such as wrestling, rather than add women’s programs.
What a crock: if there were ever a shining example of bloated federal overreach, the law of unintended consequences, and morally neutral results tarted up as the most important thing since the Incarnation, it would be Title IX. It’s a bane, and your daughter, my daughter, the University, and the rest of the world would be better without it.
If we view college sports as an extension of the school’s educational mission, then applying Title IX to sports is entirely logical and appropriate. Without Title IX, schools could and in some instances would continue to not offer equal educational opportunities to women – whether in sports or in any other area of education. If you do not like Title IX, then don’t take the federal funding.
If you instead view college sports as an extension of the entertainment industry, then it makes sense to allocate resources to those sports that make the most money or generate the most PR, and to view Title IX as a hurdle to that goal.
Have there been unintented consequences? Sure. But the question is whether Title IX has done more good than harm. I think so.
40 years, 1972 right? ND football national championships since 1972 – 1973, 1977, 1988…….. three not one by my count.
Squire: you’re totally right and I have corrected myself. I am sorry.