When our kids are at school, we hope that they will be protected and respected and have every opportunity to succeed.

Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 is a federal law that states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

Title IX makes a difference

• Originally, Title IX was most well known for being applied to gender equity in sports. Before this law, many schools directed the majority of their athletic funding to the men’s teams. After Title IX, schools were required to provide equal opportunities to women’s and men’s sports.

• Before Title IX only 7% of high school varsity athletes were girls. Forty years after the passage of Title IX, that number had jumped to 41%.

• In 1967, Katherine Switzer became the first women to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry, which was against the race rules at the time. She was yelled at and chased in an attempt to remove her from the race. With the passage of Title IX in 1972, women were officially allowed into the race.

• Title IX changed more than just athletic opportunity. When Title IX was signed in 1972, women earned just 7% of all law degrees and 9% of all medical degrees. By 1997, that number had risen to 44% of law degrees and 41% of medical degrees. Title IX offered opportunities for women with academic and athletic scholarships.

• Discrimination on the basis of sex includes sexual harassment, rape and sexual assault. Schools have a responsibility to protect students from a dangerous or hostile environment. This is important because sexual assault on campus is a reality for too many students. Studies agree that roughly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men in college experience some kind of sexual assault.¹²³

• Title IX engages schools to prevent violence on their campuses through education and awareness. These efforts are important to stop violence before it starts and empower students to be active bystanders.

¹ Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation Survey of College Students on Sexual Assault, 2015
² Cantor et al., Report on the AAU Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct, 2015
³ England et al., Online College Social Life Survey, 2015