'Title IX of the educational amendments of 1972 to the 1964 Civil Rights Act
Title IX became law on June 23, 1972. While the legislation bans discrimination on the basis of gender in all aspects of education and at all levels of education, its influence on collegiate athletics has garnered the most attention.
In 1971 women constituted 15 percent of all collegiate athletes'just 280 colleges and universities fielded competitive teams, with about 31,000 participants. Today, female participation levels have more than quadrupled.
Grappling with the definition of compliance has been a point of contention since the law's inception. In the nearly 30 years since Title IX was first enacted, it has been modified through lawsuits, legislative action and bureaucratic rule-making.
The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare issued rules in 1975 to specify how Title IX was to be applied to athletics. Since then, proponents and critics of Title IX's application have been in a constant tit-for-tat played out primarily through the courts.
According to a U.S. News & World Report article from July 10, 1978, the NCAA in that year filed and lost a lawsuit that contested the ""federal government's right to regulate intercollegiate sports on the ground that it does not directly support them.""
On June 26, 1978, 33 groups, led by the League of Women Voters, filed a complaint against HEW Secretary Joseph Califano alleging that the department was procrastinating in handling sex-discrimination cases.
A HEW official cited in the article complained that the regulations the department issued in 1975 had done little to reduce confusion. ""We issued regulations to interpret the law,"" the official said. ""Now we have to interpret the regulations.""
