Imagine that you live in a society where girls and women are virtually excluded from playing sports and there is no such thing as a women’s athletic scholarship — and even if there were, there is no legal framework in place to protect girls and women against discrimination when it comes to equal access to resources that help sports programs thrive, including facilities, equipment and coaches.
Astonishing, right? That is what the U.S. looked like for girls and women pre-Title IX — limiting and stifling.
It took bold action from members of Congress such as Reps. Patsy Mink, Birch Bayh and Edith Green, and advocates like Bernice Sandler and Billie Jean King, to demand more for girls and women in the United States. Thanks to the tenacity and grit of the trailblazers who preceded us, Title IX was signed into law on June 23, 1972, paving a path to progress in sports and education that we continue to champion and protect so girls and women can play, compete and lead — in sports and beyond — without barriers.
The landmark legislation’s seismic impact on society is undeniable. If you look around high school gymnasiums, collegiate stadiums, professional arenas and boardrooms, you will find girls and women reaping the benefits of its 37 words, smashing records, shattering glass ceilings and crushing outdated assumptions.
In 2023, we saw 9.9 million viewers tuning into the NCAA Women’s Basketball March Madness Tournament, more than 1.5 million tickets sold to the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the Nebraska Cornhuskers volleyball team drawing a crowd of 92,003 fans. We also saw women coaches secure multimillion-dollar contracts, and women at the executive level continue to make their mark as CEOs, presidents, commissioners, general managers and owners.
These strides towards equity that are allowing girls and women to live out their athletic and professional dreams today would not be possible without Title IX. Though its impact has been transformational, its full promise has yet to be met.
According to the Women’s Sports Foundation’s (WSF’s) research report, “50 Years of Title IX: We’re Not Done Yet,” girls’ participation in high school sports, while almost 12 times higher than it was 52 years ago, has still not reached the same level of boys participation pre-Title IX. Even today, girls miss out on an estimated 1 million sports participation opportunities in comparison to boys. This opportunity gap is widest among girls and women of color, LGBTQ+ youth and those with disabilities — all of whom consistently have fewer opportunities than their peers.
The inequities persist beyond sport participation at both the high school and collegiate level, where Title IX compliance by institutions often falls short, preventing the law’s full promise to be met for all girls and women in athletics. Enforcement largely relies on students, parents and coaches reporting inequitable treatment and participation opportunities, but WSF’s research shows that 51 percent of high school athletic administrators do not know who their Title IX coordinator is, while 83 percent of college coaches say they have never received any formal Title IX training. To dive deeper, even if a violation were to exist, studies show reports may never be filed for fear of negative repercussions or losing their jobs.
Sport is not a “nice-to-have,” but a “must-have” for all girls and women, and it is something that we as a society must fight to invest in. The lifelong benefits that come with sport participation lay a solid foundation for girls and women that transcends the playing field, including confidence, character, teamwork and self-discipline. An enlightening statistic in an Ernst & Young study shows that 94 percent of women in the C-suite played sports, with 52 percent having played at the collegiate level. Sport is building up a generation of leaders; even if girls and women do not go on to become professional athletes, the societal and cultural benefits help open many doors for them.
Feb. 7, 2024, marks the 38th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day, which was co-founded and continues to be powered by the Women’s Sports Foundation. With hundreds of events taking place throughout the country, the day serves as a reminder that despite tremendous growth in women’s sports, there is still work we can all do in strengthening the pipeline and access for girls and women so they can reach their full potential on and off the field of play.
Together, let us advocate for greater policies and practices to keep the women’s sports ecosystem strong, so whether girls and women dream of competing on the world’s greatest stage, coaching the next generation of athletes or running Fortune 500 companies, they will be able to get there through sport and its transformative power.
Danette Leighton is the CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps expand access and opportunities to sport for girls and women so they can reach their full potential in life.