Title IX, the piece of legislation that changed everything for young women everywhere. It gave them equality, it gave them dreams and it gave them opportunities. It taught them life lessons, it gave them more self-esteem and it gave them an education. That simple document gave millions of women across the country the chance to play sports.
From an athlete's perspective, Title IX revolutionized the way women's sports were treated, the opportunities they were given and the benefits they received. The Daily Cardinal takes an in-depth look at what females have to say about the legislation.
The phrase \Title IX"" invokes different feelings for different people, but each athlete questioned considered equality and the opportunities received among the most important aspects of Title IX.
Senior Lizzy Fitzgerald, a setter for the women's volleyball team, thinks of ""equality and opportunity"" and ""effort"" upon hearing the phrase ""Title IX.""
""Great improvements for women in sports,"" are what sophomore Meghan Hunter, a member of the women's hockey team from Oil Spring, Ontario, thinks of when she recalls Title IX. ""There's always room for more improvement, but women's sports have come a long way because of it,"" the sophomore forward continues.
Teammate Kerry Weiland, a junior from Palmer, Alaska, plays on the defensive line for the Badgers and said she considers equal opportunity an important aspect of Title IX. She also said she knows she is suiting up with the Badgers as a direct result of the legislation.
""We got a program because there needed to be more women's programs implemented [by] this university,"" Weiland said. ""I know that's why we're here, that's why we get an opportunity to play hockey at the UW and experience everything else the other teams can do.""
Sherisa Livingston, a senior middle blocker for the volleyball the from Simi Valley, Calif., added that ""sports are an opportunity for me to go to college.""
Equality between men's and women's sports is an issue that UW athletes face on a daily basis. When it comes to this equality, the women are satisfied.
| Fundamentals Title IX at UW The female perspective Media impact The football question |
""I think they're doing a great job of equality for both men and women,"" Hunter said.
Trina Bourget, head coach of the UW women's hockey team, has had a pleasant experience as a result of Title IX.
""When you look at men's and women's hockey and the staff that you have, the budget that you have to work with ... it's been a wonderful experience,"" Bourget said.
Livingston knows the university puts forth the effort to provide equal programs but realizes that ""they know it's not going to be completely equal because that's the way the world works.""
One of the benefits of sports and Title IX is the increased self-esteem of the athletes. Each athlete interviewed agreed that by playing sports, she has benefited not only physically, but also mentally'in and out of uniform.
Bourget said that sports improve the self-confidence of female athletes.
""I think sports offer so many options and experiences for women, it definitely is a confidence ... booster,"" she said.
Leah Hefte, a junior guard on the women's basketball team from McFarland, Wis., said high self-esteem and confidence are crucial on the basketball court.
""You have to have confidence, you have to be a team player [and] you have to know how to communicate with everyone in terms of self-esteem and self-confidence,"" Hefte said.
While the lessons learned from playing sports are important during the game, the benefits from sports extend to all aspects of life as well.
Jane Albright, the head coach for the UW women's basketball team, said playing basketball improved her self-esteem.
""Socially, it was what gave me confidence,"" Albright said. ""I had friends, I was the captain, I was the leader.""
Wisconsin women's basketball senior guard Tamara Moore from Minneapolis, Min., also said she believes that she benefited socially by playing sports.
""I felt myself as being able to be open with people because I know in the past I didn't have that,"" Moore said. ""Through basketball, I know I have confidence ... and I'm able to communicate a lot better with other people.""
Weiland believes the lessons she learned on the ice can be applied to life as a whole.
""Knowing that if you work at something, you can get good at it and just improve yourself and get to know a lot of people and network [are some of the reasons],"" Weiland said.
Fitzgerald agrees.
""I think there's so much off the court that you learn from athletics that you can keep with you for life,"" she said. These life lessons include ""being able to come together with people from all different kinds of backgrounds and working together to fight for a similar goal.""
Bourget also spoke of teamwork, another vital lesson acquired on the court. She said, ""working together when you're in that team, that's what life is all about.""
The benefits these women have demonstrated did not come without hard work, however, and the athletes took advantage of opportunities at an early age.
Jessie Stomski, a UW-Madison senior forward for the women's basketball team, first shot hoops in her early teens.
""I started with softball ... I didn't start with basketball until seventh grade,"" the 2001 first-team All-Big Ten honoree said.
""I was always into sports and the opportunity was always there,"" said Stomski, a Minnesota native. ""So I guess I've never known a situation where I wasn't able to play every sport and the way I was raised, I could.""
Fitzgerald, who hails from New Orleans, had similar experiences growing up.
We've kind of missed the whole era where women weren't allowed to do anything,"" she said. ""Growing up, we had the fortunate opportunity of participating in athletics.""
However, not all of the athletes had the same opportunities before college. Bourget said that ""if you saw a girl play, she was usually in the net playing boys' hockey, and the opportunities just weren't there.""
Such was the case for Weiland in high school. While her school had girls' soccer and basketball, it had no girls' hockey team. Weiland suited up with the boys.
She excelled on the ice, becoming the first female to earn first-team All-Region honors in Alaska's prep hockey history. She also captained the team senior year and was named the team's most inspirational player in her first three seasons in high school.
When Moore first picked up a basketball, she was not aware of the opportunities in store for her.
""When I first started, I never knew there was high school basketball and college basketball,"" Moore said. ""I ended up going to high school and excelled at sports at the high school level.""
Moore also says that not knowing of these opportunities early on pushed her to develop her skills and succeed on the court.
While girls enjoy strong sports programs in school now, female athletes 25 years ago weren't as fortunate. Although Title IX was written in 1972, it still was not enforced everywhere in the country, and male athletes still received better treatment and more funding than their female counterparts.
As a female athlete in the 1970s, Albright was directly affected by the legislation and recognized the inequality that still prevailed.
""My first year of high school basketball, we didn't have uniforms,"" Albright said. ""We had our ... white T-shirts with those indelible ink numbers that we painted on them. That was our uniform, and blue shorts. We had bake sales to get money to get to go to the games.""
""The guys always played at night; we played in the afternoon. ... I was put on a scholarship my junior year in college, after Title IX was passed. It was $100 a semester and I thought it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to me.""
Bourget was a forward and defenseman on the University of New Hampshire's hockey team in the early 1990s, and she says that while women were given more opportunities than in previous decades, athletic programs were still not treated equally.
""The budgets [at UNH] were a lot different, considerably,"" Bourget said. ""And it was [to] ... get by with what you can and I had to wear my own equipment.""
The benefits of Title IX are obvious. Women are more active in athletics, they develop more self-confidence and they receive an education both on their respective playing fields and off.
However, there is an underlying benefit of Title IX: the topic is no longer prevalent in the media because female athletes have become a natural part of our society and no longer have to fight for equal opportunities.
Livingston said she simply doesn't consciously think about Title IX because she was never denied an opportunity to play sports.
""I haven't experienced [Title IX] firsthand,"" Livingston said.
Bourget added, ""I played at a school in New Hampshire that had women's hockey since the late '70s, so I haven't really felt it too much growing up myself.""
Albright described the magnitude to which she has seen Title IX change.
""In 30 short years, it's gone from A to Z,"" Albright said. ""There were a lot of people fighting a lot of battles then that our players now don't understand. One thing I do at our camp is talk about Title IX. We had 400 campers and I asked if they knew the piece of legislation that changed their life. Not a single camper knew it.""
