Title Ix Effects On Women

Prior to 1972, the landscape of collegiate athletics was heavily favored toward male athletes. The amount of women on athletic scholarships was nearly non-existent. To try and counter this trend, lawmakers came up with a potential solution: Title IX. In a nutshell, Title IX was created to bring about equality in educational opportunities for both men and women, focusing mainly on athletics ("Title ix ," ). Since it’s inception, Title IX has been responsible for impressive growth in the amount of women competing in collegiate athletics ("Title ix ," ). However, the changes have not benefitted the amount of opportunities available for male athletes. In some more extreme cases, the amount of available opportunities to males has been dramatically

By 1997, the value of scholarships given to women had increased over $195 million ("Title ix ," ). This has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of female athletes competing at NCAA schools. In 2010, the number of women competing at Division I schools had risen to over 193,000; as compared to less than 30,000 in 1972 (Maya & Jaeah, 2012). Despite these large accomplishments, Title IX still has a ways to go to achieve it’s intended goals. With women making up about 53% of the undergraduate population, they only receive less than 40% of the athletic funding (Maya & Jaeah, 2012). While large strides have been made to bring equality between male and female athletes, there are still significant gaps between

Opponents of this prong system claim that, because of the difference in the amount of athletic interest presented by men and women, there should be a certain allowances for differences in participation rates and funding ("Title ix ," ). The discrepancy in interest level is created because of the higher participation rates of boys than girls at the elementary through high school levels ("Title ix ," ). While the Supreme Court has disagreed with this idea, it continues to be a large point of contention among those opposed to Title IX ("Title ix ,"