SPJ Opinion
First, a simple fact that is often not well understood: Title IX is not all about sports. The landmark law revolutionized U.S. education by mandating gender equality across the board, not just on courts and tracks and fields.
The broad impact of the law was described well in a 2002 essay by journalist Lynn Sanders: “Since Title IX became law in 1972, girls cannot be discouraged from taking science classes or prevented from joining the math club. Boys may sign up for cooking classes. Law schools and medical schools were forced to stop using quotas limiting the number of women students and could no longer refuse to admit women by claiming they’d get pregnant and waste their education.”
The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point last month kicked off a lecture series on Title IX that will lead up to the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Final Four Tournament, hosted by UW-Stevens Point in March. The series will cover the politics of the law, its impact on changing gender roles and lots more, and it promises to be enriching.
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