Title IX and the Expectation of Equity

Abstract

This essay gives a personal viewpoint of the environment for girls’ and women’s sport in the years surrounding the origination of Title IX and the organizational impacts unleashed by this legislation. Particular attention is given to the, somewhat surprising, degree to which men in power positions in sport benefitted from Title IX’s uneven pattern of enactment. A cautionary note suggests that advocates in future work take careful steps so that language and protocols of potential legislation assure benefits to the intended beneficiaries rather than others. A concluding assessment asserts that one of the strongest positives of Title IX is a shift in stance of female athletes from being “grateful for banquet leftovers” to an expectation of equity in treatment and benefits.