Race and Gender Equity in Sports

Abstract

Males have been the dominant focus of sports participation in America since the 19th century. Serious examination of women’s participation in sports did not begin to receive substantial treatment until the early 1970s, when social and legal forces led to the enactment of Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The purpose of the present study is to address the question of whether Black and White women have benefited equally from Title IX by (a) examining Post–Title IX trends in Black and White females’ sport participation in high school and college, using data from national longitudinal surveys; (b) assessing the effect of race on sport participation opportunities for high school girls based on these data:, and (c) examining legal cases involving Title IX to assess the extent to which legal challenges have improved access to and participation of Black women in sports relative to their White female counterparts. The findings of the current study reveal that this benefit has not been shared equally by White and African American females. High schools attended by African American females do not offer the same range of sports as those available in schools attended by White females.