Patsy Mink Gender Discrimination

Title IX states, “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 educational program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” This law was formed around sex discrimination in 1972. It prohibits discrimination based on gender in educational programs and activities. Patsy Mink’s encounter with gender discrimination contributed to the idea of creating Title IX which highly affected the way women live today by giving women many opportunities for pursuing their education as well as providing them with a safe and comfortable learning environment, giving them the same opportunity as men for admission into schools, and gave

As schools started to accept women, all classes were available for anyone to take; specifically meaning this gave women the choice to choose what classes they want to be enrolled into, rather than automatically being placed into home economics because it was “suitable for women.” Women could actually explore the realm of math and science which was usually a class for men. “Between 1987 and 1997, the percentage of women taking AP calculus increased by 6% and the percentage taking AP physics increased by 10%” (Math). This shows how women wanted to pursue math as well as science; they just never had the chance to. Women would stray away from those classes because there was a widely held stereotype that girls didn’t like math and science, so when wanting to pursue science or math, girls would feel discouraged because it wasn’t the “girly” option to

The acceptance rate of women into schools wasn’t very high in the 1970’s. Most medical and law schools would limit the amount of women admitted to at most fifteen or fewer per school (Report). Many colleges and universities had higher standards for women in comparison to men. Women were required to have higher test scores and better grades than men in order to receive admission, as for men, all applicants got accepted. Universities in Virginia rejected about 21,000 women, but no men (The Real). After the passage of Title IX, the amount of women enrolled into schools has increased to the point where there are more women enrolled in college than men. For example, Cornell University admitted just two women a year, and now 70-80% of the students are women (The Real). This shows that women are starting to outnumber the amount of men enrolled in colleges. As Title IX got passed women have been booming with their education, fully taking advantage for the fortunate opportunity they were given. During 1973, 43% of women were enrolled in college, but by 1994 it grew to 63% (Title). This shows that women are actually utilizing this law and taking advantage of it. To add on to that, the percentage of women earning medical degrees increased from 9% to 43% and bachelor’s degree earned by women went from 44% to 57% (Walsh). Women’s involvement with