WASHINGTON, D.C. — Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Law Center celebrate the 49th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark sex equality law passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. Although many people associate Title IX with women’s sports, the law is, in fact, a simple non-discrimination mandate that bans sex discrimination in all federally funded education programs.
The passage of Title IX in 1972 ushered in a period of unprecedented educational opportunity for women and girls. Today, women earn the majority of bachelor’s degrees (57.7%), master’s degrees (61.4%), and doctorates (53.3%), and women today outnumber men in both law school and medical school.
Title IX has also led to an explosion in women and girls playing sports, with the number of women playing college sports increasing 545% between 1972 and 2016 and the number of female high school athletes increasing by 990% during the same time period.
Jennifer C. Braceras, director of Independent Women’s Law Center, said, “Title IX has been an incredible success. As a mother of three daughters, two of whom are Division 1 athletes, I am grateful for the opportunities that this landmark legislation opened to me and my daughters. Unfortunately, however, the law that was intended to break down barriers for women and girls is today being misused to impose a radical gender ideology on students and to prevent schools from ever taking into consideration relevant biological differences between males and females.”
In recent years, activists have misused Title IX to:
- shut down and punish opinions that some women find “triggering.”
- investigate, without due process, the murky he-said/she-said of drunken hook-ups and intimate relationships.
- redefine the term “sex” to include gender identity, meaning that that biological males who identify as female will now be entitled to play on women’s sports teams and share dorm rooms with female students.
Braceras continued, “Rather than twisting the statute beyond recognition, the Department of Education should to focus its efforts on enforcing the statute’s prohibition against sex discrimnation.”
Carrie Lukas, president of Independent Women’s Forum, added, “Schools must, of course, treat gender non-confirming students fairly and find ways to reasonably accommodate them. But redefining ‘sex’ to include gender identity pits transgender students against biological females, the very group that Title IX was passed to protect. American women and girls deserve better.”
Read more about Title IX and due process HERE.
Read more about Title IX and women’s sports HERE.
For more information, contact Meghan Agostinelli at [email protected].
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Independent Women’s Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren’t just well intended, but actually enhance people’s freedom, choices, and opportunities.
Independent Women’s Law Center advocates for equal opportunity, individual liberty, and respect for the American constitutional order.