Woman in Sports

What is Title IX? How does it affect you and the world today? Title IX is one of the most powerful pieces of legislation to concern women’s athletics. On June 23, 1972, President Nixon signed into law, Title IX, which is under the Education Amendments of 1972. “This allows no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjects to discriminate under an education programs or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” (Woolum) Some of the areas that Title IX consists of are whether the selection of sports and level of competition effectively accommodate the members of both sexes, the condition of equipment and supplies, the scheduling of games and practice times and the publicity of it as well. (Schiller)

The effect that Title IX has on us is that there were court cases with the college or university. For example, in the Morris vs. Michigan Board of Education (1973) case, this consisted of a school that did not have a girl’s tennis team and there were girls that wanted to try out for the boy’s team and were denied. But as soon as the new law went into affect they were allowed to try out. They could also try out for the boy’s team even if there was a girl’s tennis team at the school. Many cases now have been handled differently then before we had Title IX. Before this law went into affect, there several schools if not all major ones that were giving very little money to the woman sports. For example, the school board at Syracuse, New York budget for extracurricular sports to be paid $90,000 for the boy’s team and $200 for the girl’s team. Then, when the money suddenly became low for them, they cut the girl’s funding totally. (Guttmann) Some of the recent Title IX lawsuits have been about concerned parents of female athletes has had a great contact on girl’s athletics at the high school, junior high and elementary level. (Schiller)

In the 1800’s, woman did not play sports, they were to tend to the children, cook, and clean. The men would go do all the work and “bring home the bacon” and would sometimes go out and play sports but the woman were not an allowed too. But as time passed by and with woman getting more involved in the society, for instance, having the right to vote and getting jobs outside the home, they slowly became involved in sports. In the 1970, about three hundred thousand female athletes participated in interscholastic athletics, according to the information that the National Federation of State High School Association had. However, after Title IX was passed in 1972 there were practically 800,000 female participants. For girls in high school, the participation rate jumped about six hundred sixteen percent in just eleven years, from 1971 to 1982. During the same time span, the women’s athletic budget grew from one percent to almost twenty percent and the participation rose one hundred fifty percent. In 1970, American colleges and universities received about one percent of the whole athletic funds. Beings that the women involvement was increasing along with the funds as well, the women got better training facilities, equipment and knowledgeable trainers and coaches. (Woolum)

In the mid-1970’s, the women’s sports grew in popularity and gained more television coverage and media coverage as well. Suddenly, television discovered that there were women’s sports and the number of events began to rise more and more. Live reporting began to capture the attention of the public, especially at the Olympics. (Woolum)

Senda Berenson of Smith College introduced basketball to her female students in 1892, just a year after the game was invented. In the beginning, the women wore long skirts to their ankles and long sleeves; the only skin showing was their hands, neck and head. Shorts and tank tops were a thing of the future and were defiantly “inappropriate” at the time. But as time moved on, the style changed and so did the game. For instance, the court for the women was divided into three parts, the players had to stay in their designated area. This was so that they don’t overexert themselves by running the extent of the court, although, later the court was divided into half in 1914. Some of the other rules that they changed for women were that they could only dribble three times before they could shoot or pass, hold the ball for three seconds, and they could not take the ball from another player. Just eleven months after the start of women’s basketball, the first game took place between University of California-Berkeley and Miss Head’s school. In two years, the game was being played across the country. There were a lot of flaws in the game because the rules varied; it depended on what location you were at. Men’s regulations were used or other techniques of Smith’s Institution were used sometimes. As the game began to develop more and as time went on the game got rougher and more aggressive and physical. (Woolum)

Teams began to develop more and more in colleges and high schools across the United States. It was becoming more popular as time went on and the woman did not have the National Basketball Association (NBA) like the men, at least not yet. So what did the women have to do to pursue their career in basketball? Well there was no choice but to go over seas to play, they had professional teams were developing there. The only professional team that the United States had at the time was the US Olympic team, which consisted of about fifteen players. Now just four years ago the first Women National Basketball Association (WNBA) started, in 1997. I believe, that it all started with the US winning the gold medal in the Olympic in Atlantic. Just a year later, the first players that signed were Rebecca Lobo and Sheryl Swoopes. In my opinion they were two of the best players in the league. Then six months later, eight cities are selected to be homes of WNBA teams, and just two months later, a draft was held for college players and veterans. Everything began to take place and advance to what it is today. (Woolum) & (Jenkins)

Sports are very important to women; it touches people in different ways and at different stages in their life as well. Sports have generated role models for many and will continue to do so as time goes on. Women athletes have provided great chances for the youth in the future and have made vast advancements to create this. The woman athletes have done more then what is expected to make themselves known to the public and yet this is just one hurdle in the road to success in making woman more known in sports. (Yanity) & (Binford)

As many people do believe that these women do not only play for the WNBA, they also believe that they have other jobs as well. For instance, there are several players that are going to graduate or undergraduate school to become either lawyers or judges or are already have attend law school and are just not sure where they want to go. Playing professional basketball and juggling a job is hard to do and few of the players actually do this. These woman are determined to be successful on the basketball court or in court, regardless the rigors of attempting double careers as a professional basketball player and a lawyer. (Reavis)

Participation in sports in college was not common in the early years, like it is today. According to Sandra Baldwin, who is the president of United States Olympic Committee (USOC), there weren’t scholarships for woman in the 1950’s so this made girls not want to participate in sports after high school. Unlike the boys, the reasoning for that is because there was lack of opportunity. When she was asked about the equality of men and woman at the Olympics, she responded that it is getting better all the time and there is only two sports that men have that women don’t and those are wrestling and boxing. Baldwin made the comment that when she looked at the Olympic team for Sydney, she realized that half were woman. She commented, “In Atlanta and in Syndey, so many of our shining stars were our female athletes.” (Baldwin) She also highly believes that the progress of women’s sports will become much stronger. (Murray)

As I look back over and think about woman in sports I think of how it has changed tremendously over a short time. When researching I found this statement, it will make you think more about woman in sports. “We should attempt to create a sport environment wherein the values which have been associated with the ‘feminine principle’ are recognized and honored in balance with the celebrate values of achievement, assertiveness, and dominance.”(Oglesby)

Works Citied

Binford, Tracia. The Importance of Sports to Woman. 1, July 2001. <http://www.wnba.com/rockers/ngwsd_bader_binford.html>

Grant. Christine Dr. Title IX and Gender Equity. 1995 NACWAA Fall Forum, Cedar Rapdis, IA, 25, Sept. 1995.

Guttmann, Allen. Women’s Sports: A History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.

Jenkins, Sally. “National Women’s History Month”. 7, July 2001.

<http://www.wnba.com/news/jenkins_feature.html>

Murray, Sarah. The Woman Behind USOC. 1, July 2001. <http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/cgi-bin/iowa/index.html>

Oglesby, Carole A. Ph.D. Woman and Sport: From Myth to Reality. London: Lea & Febiger, 1978.

Pulliam, Kent. Title IX Recasts College Sports Landscape. Knight-Ridder Newspapers, 2001. <http://bailiwick.lib.uiowa.edu/ge/present.html>

Reavis, Tracey. Law and Basketball. 1, July 2001. <http://www.wnba.com/features/law_basketball.html>

Schiller, Samuel & Yasser, Ray. Title IX.

<http://www.schillerlawfirm.com/index.htm>

Woolum, Janet. Outstanding Woman Athletes. Phoenix, AZ: The Oryx Press, 1992

Yanity, Molly. “National Women’s History Month”. 7, July 2001. <http://www.wnba.com/features/molly_nwhm.html>