Last Saturday, June 24, women and men across the country celebrated the 40th anniversary of the passage of Title IX. Title IX was a part of the Education Amendments in 1972 that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex in the classroom.
Before Title IX women were excluded from sports and higher education. Now 40 years later there are on average more women than men in college and according to the American Association for University Women (AAUW), from 2005-2006 women made up 45% of college athletes participating in sports. Further exemplifying the major benefits of Title IX, women and girls now have access to opportunities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
However despite Title IX opening doors to women and girls in education, women continue to make less money than men in the workplace. White women make only 77 cents to the dollar in comparison to White men, African American women only 69 cents, and Latina women 59 cents. At the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) conference, Dr. Avis Jones DeWeever stated that over their lifetime, most women need a PhD to earn as much as a man with a Bachelor’s degree.
Although women and girls have been privy to equal education for 40 years, there is clearly still much more progress to be made. Equal education still does not allow for equal opportunity for women in the workplace. Until this is achieved, we must continue to fight for our rights to equal pay. This week, however, we can celebrate 40 years of women and girls participation in sports and receiving equal education in the United States.
Photo in slider courtesy of Kheel Center at Cornell University. Above photo courtesy of Flickr by the Department of Education.