SPORTS

50 years of Title IX: progress and potential

LINDSAY BUDIN Summer Managing Sports Editor

On June 23, Title IX — a civil rights law forbidding discrimination based on sex — turns 50. And with the half-century that has ensued since the passing of the statute, there is certainly progress to celebrate.

Despite that progress, though, glaring disparities still exist.

In 1972, at the time of the legislation’s passing, Michigan offered 13 varsity sports — all of which were men’s teams. It was clear: many people didn’t believe women belonged in sports.

But in the years since, things have changed. Today, the Wolverines house 27 varsity teams, 14 of which are women’s programs. As society began to prioritize women in athletics, Michigan evolved too.

And the increase of women’s participation in sports at the collegiate level is clear across all NCAA institutions. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Title IX 50th anniversary report, 215,486 female athletes competed at the NCAA level in 2020-21. In comparison, only 29,977 females participated at the college level in 1971-72.

The increase is a sign of progress, but with 50 years of Title IX in effect, changes beyond participation numbers have hardly been made.

In 2021, at the women’s NCAA basketball tournament, the reality of women’s sports came to the forefront as a video from Oregon forward Sedona Prince displayed the inequality in tournament gyms and went viral. In comparison to the large areas filled with exercise equipment and weights that the men’s basketball players were provided, the women’s tournament offered merely a small room with one rack of dumbbells.

As the controversy circulated and people began to speak out about the inequality, important change seemed probable. And while some positive results occurred from this grave inequality in that increased attention, this was only one example of what has hindered female athletes for years. Until 1982 — 72 years after the NCAA was founded and 10 years after Title IX was passed — the NCAA did not sponsor championships for any women’s sports. While progress had been made before Prince’s video, it was clear that the problems were not entirely solved.

One year after the workout equipment controversy, those improvements were seen in the March Madness tournaments. For the first time in more than 20 years, the women’s tournament began with a First Four round, amounting to 68 teams, that matched the men’s tournament.

The changes were also evident at the women’s tournament itself. According to a gender equity review conducted by Kaplan Kecker & Fink in 2021, the NCAA spent $53.2 million dollars on the men’s tournament and just $17.9 million on the women’s in 2019. For this year’s tournament, the budget for both tournaments underwent redistribution and with the monetization improvement, all NCAA Tournament participants — men and women — received the same gifts, had access to hotel lounges and had games officiated by officials paid equally.

In the last year, reaching equity between women’s and men’s sports was prioritized, and with it, changes came about. Was it all because the NCAA got called out and enough

Read more at michigandaily.com US Women’s national team shows how soccer can surpass Title IX

REMI WILLIAMSON Daily Sports Writer

On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, discrimination on the basis of sex and gender remains illegal by law. However, the United States has made little effort to prevent de facto discrimination in sports from institutions receiving federal funding when it comes to fan attendance and viewership.

And those issues exist throughout each and every level of women’s sports.

When I was in high school I played on the women’s soccer team. Our team was great. In the four seasons I spent on the team, we reached at least the semifinals of the city playoffs, and in my final year we made it all the way to the finals.

But every year we lacked one thing: fans.

No one wanted to come see us blowout our opponents 10-0 or beat our rivals in an overtime thriller. No amount of posters, emails, social media posts, or cookie bribes could convince the student body to watch the girls soccer team dominate the competition. Winning games without anyone in the stands except a few enthusiastic parents was disheartening.

When I was little, it didn’t matter — I loved soccer and that was all that mattered to me, it was my favorite hobby. My parents were my cheerleaders and I wasn’t old enough to know what I was missing.

And that’s not uncommon for other girls growing up. Most young female athletes don’t know what it feels like to have masses of screaming fans propel them to victory, and even at the professional level, the majority of female athletes don’t know that feeling.

In lacking that support, female athletes are missing out on a key pillar of sports: the connection with fans.

Part of the joy professional athletes feel in their sports is the exhilaration of the crowd. Hearing fans cheer them on motivates them to play harder and better. It’s a luxury that’s not afforded to female athletes.

Often at Michigan, fans must be bribed with free t-shirts and hats for the first 100 attendees on top of the already free entry tickets. At the No. 23 women’s tennis teams regular season finale, you were hard pressed to find any fans aside from parents.

Even the Wolverines’ women’s basketball team — who made the Elite Eight for the first time in program history – offered all students free attendance to fill the stands and enact real home court advantage in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.

If colleges fail to improve viewership for women’s sports – especially at Universities with student bodies riddled with school spirit – it’s no surprise that professional sports face a similar lack of support.

Female athletes are paid significantly less — which is often attributed to a lack of viewership and fanbase — than their male counterparts. Christian Pulisic makes more in a single month than the highest paid United States Women’s National Team player, Alex Morgan, makes in a year.

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