Title IX Celebration- Watch Party for “37 Words”
Tuesday, June 21 @ 6:30pm
with special guests: Rep. Debbie Dingell, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Heather Booth
Starting at 6:30 pm in WNDC’s Whittemore House enjoy cake, bubbly, and appetizers as Title IX leaders— Rep. Debbie Dingell, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Heather Booth— offer remarks.
Afterwards, the celebration continues with a showing of 37 Words, ESPN’s docuseries on Title IX, along with our special video introduction by the Executive Producer, Dawn Porter.
37 Words, a four-part docuseries, chronicles the hard-fought battle for equal rights in education and athletics. We will show “Part 1: Too Pushy for a Woman” at 8:00 pm and “Part 2: These Are Our Bodies” at 9:00 pm.
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Title IX 50th Anniversary Panel
held on Thurs, May 12 @ 6pm
In May, we recalled the early years of the women’s movement and how women leaders made history with Title IX by prohibiting sex discrimination in schools and other educational programs that receive federal funds. We learned where Title IX stands today in every aspect of our lives—employment, education, and beyond—and where we need to go to reach Title IX’s full potential. Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), our moderator, was joined by longtime women’s advocate Margaret Dunkle, Emily Martin (National Women’s Law Center), Thalia Charles (Lafayette College & Know Your IX), and Clare Marash (writer & “37 Words” documentary producer).
Click Here to Watch Panel
Equal Pay for U.S. Women's National Soccer Team!
By Joe Hernadez with NPR | Published Wed., May 18th
The U.S. Soccer Federation announced Wednesday [May 18th] that it has reached a deal to pay the U.S. Men’s National Team and the U.S. Women’s National Team equally, eliminating a contentious pay gap that saw female players earning less.
The new collective bargaining agreements will run through 2028 and include the “equalization” of World Cup prize money, the organization announced.
In February, the governing body and the women’s team announced a settlement to resolve the longstanding pay dispute, with the federation agreeing to pay the two teams equally in the next union contract and give the women’s team $22 million in back pay.
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Articles from Title IX Activists
Title IX pushed progress, but not equally
By Sherry Boschert, journalist and author of 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination
In 1972 Congress carved a set of tools for girls and women who already had been demanding fairness when it passed Title IX of the Education Amendments, prohibiting sex discrimination in education. Barely more than sturdy poles at first, these rough instruments helped activists steer on the flowing waters of the women’s movement. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) 1979 Policy Interpretation on Intercollegiate Athletics honed one pole of Title IX’s regulations into a more effective shape, and women paddled furiously toward equity in school sports. Then OCR’s Dear Colleague letter of 2011 gave survivors of sexual harassment a set of oars. They rowed hard into a churning confluence of rivers that accelerated flow in a number of social justice movements—against sexism, racism, and sexual violence, and for LGBT rights and more.
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Title IX and Feminist Advocacy—the Critical Element
by Holly Knox, Founder of Director of PEER, the Project on Equal Education Rights of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund
It all started in the 1970s, during the height of the women’s movement. By 1970, Congresswoman Edith Green, one of the few women in the US Congress at the time, had enough seniority to chair an education subcommittee. She held an unprecedented set of hearings on the extensive discrimination women faced in higher education.
Green’s hearings highlighted the findings of Dr. Bernice “Bunny” Sandler, who had filed over 250 discrimination complaints against colleges and universities for the Women’s Equity Action League (WEAL). In fact, sex discrimination was rampant at all levels of education:
- Some universities gave women PhDs but refused to hire any women—and didn’t mind saying so.
- In 1964, the state of Virginia rejected college applications from some 21,000 women—and not a single man.
- In public schools, most teachers were women—but virtually all principals were men.
- Two whole states had no interscholastic high school sports competitions for girls.
- The New York City public schools made all girls take home economics—but only boys could take classes preparing them for paid jobs as chefs.
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Title IX, 50 Years after Passage
by Kate Tully, Student organizer for Know Your IX
From Stanford to UMass Amherst, swaths of students across the country are demanding action on campus sexual violence. As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX, we turn toward the trail-blazing activists who have worked to actualize a more equitable educational landscape. However, it is just as imperative to interrogate the gap between the current status quo of Title IX, and a Title IX that has realized its full potential to provide equitable access to an education free from violence. Our work is far from over.
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Title IX 50 Years Later
By Morgan Nguyen, Girls Inc. participant
The original objective of the Education Amendment’s 1972 Title IX was to prohibit sex discrimination in all federally funded educational institutions. The decision resulted in a substantial expansion in women’s access to education. Today, many girls and young women have lived their entire lives in a post-Title IX world of opportunities—a huge difference from women just 30 or 40 years their senior. Because Title IX afforded rights and opportunities now seem as commonplace, many of us are uninformed about Title IX, its impact, and its historic significance. Even as a long-time participant in Girls Inc., who has supported this legislation since its inception, I didn’t realize how different my life would have been if Title IX hadn’t been passed.
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Tributes to the Leaders of Title IX
Tribute to Bernice “Bunny” Sandler, Godmother of Title IX
By Marty Langelan, past president of the National Woman’s Party
Tribute to Edith Green, Mother of Title IX
by Margaret Dunkle, the first Chair of the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education
Tribute to Birch Bayh, The Protector of Title IX
by Barbara Dixon, Legislative Assistant to Sen. Birch Bayh from 1974 to 1979
Further Reading
Bernice R. Sandler, “‘Too Strong for a Woman’–The Five Words that Created Title IX,” About Women on Campus, Spring 1997, National Association of Women in Education, pp. 23-28.
Sherry Boschert, “Title IX Still A Mystery to Most.” April 22, 2022.
Sherry Boschert, “Abortion controversy altered Title IX history” May 9, 2022.