A LOOK BACK Title IX at 40


JUNE 23 MARKED THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY of the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. It 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 education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, Title IX has resulted in growth of girls participating in high school sports from 1 in 27 in 1972 to about 2 in 5 in 2012. Title IX has not only made its impact felt in terms of athletic participation, but in educational opportunities for girls and women, as well. According to several studies, the combination of the two has produced significant long-term educational, health, and economic benefits for women. (Source: womenssportsfoundation.org.)


Mimi Murray, Ph.D., professor of physical education and faculty member since 1968, was involved in advocacy for the passage of the legislation. She also gave testimony at a subsequent informational hearing when implementation guidelines were being established. An instrumental supporter in later years, Murray again testified before the U.S. Congress in the 1980s during hearings on the Civil Rights Restoration Act, following the 1984 Supreme Court ruling on Grove City College v. Bell which weakened the law’s original intent.


Asked to reflect on the effort to pass and to later make sure that the legislation was not gutted to the point of ineffectiveness, Murray quotes Molly Yard, the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) with whom she became acquainted while advocating for the bill. “Molly Yard said, ‘The world needs men who are brave enough to care and women who care enough to be brave.’ “We had to be brave and speak up,” Murray said. “We knew that this was something that was extremely significant. “The opportunities that girls and women have in sport today is phenomenal,” she says. “Of course, there is plenty of room for further growth.”


Murray has served as president of the international and national organizations in health, physical education, recreation, and dance, and of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport. The Women’s Sports Foundation named her one of the five Pioneers in Women’s Athletics. Springfield College currently has 1,088 undergraduate women on campus, 267 female student-athletes of a total of nearly 600, including numerous multiple sport student- athletes, 12 women's sports, and one female wrestler, according to Kiki Jacobs, associate director of athletics.1 —Jane Johnson Vottero


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