On June 23rd in 1972, Richard Nixon signed Title IX of the Education Amendments into law. Title IX was set into place to avoid discrimination based on sex, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”. Since Title IX has gone into enactment, there has been a turning point in equality including education equality. Prior to the enactment, women only had limited access to programs and were often excluded which began the fight for women’s equality. At first, legislators were planning on adding this movement to the Civil Rights Act, Title VII, which “prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin”. Although Title IX relates to Title VII, it became its own legislation because of the power it holds.
Title IX was still not practiced directly after the legislation was passed. It took time for people to adjust, one case involves United States vs. Virginia. The court case was argued January 17th, 1996 and wasn’t decided till June 26th, 1996; twenty years after title IX was already passed. This court case involved Virginia Military Institute a single-sex school that prepared men into citizen-soldiers. The case was taken to court due to violating Title IX by not opening the program towards women. In response to labeling the situation unconstitutional, VMI proposed an “identical” program: Virginia Women’s Institute for leadership. The court allowed them to open but once the educational programs were compared, they were not the equal. Women were still not getting the same education that men were receiving. In a 7-1 supreme court decision, it was concluded that Virginia’s male-only admission was deemed unconstitutional because there were not equal opportunities for women compared to the programs designed for men.
A case that was positive towards the impact of Title IX includes Kelley vs. The Board of Trustees. On May 7th, 1993, the University of Illinois announced they had to cute four varsity sports from the athletics department. One of these sports included men’s swimming. In distress, the men on the swim team went to the board of trustees at the University and brought up a lawsuit against them. The school mentioned there needed to be budget cuts while still staying in line with Title IX. By the University complying with Title IX, it showed that education systems were following laws that were produced for equal rights among women. The school had to have an equal amount of men’s sports and women’s sports offered in order to comply with Title IX. This court case was very impactful towards the women’s movement and improved the effects of Title IX.
United States Department of Justice. “Equal Access to Education: Forty Years of Title IX.” Last modified June 23, 2012. http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/edu/documents/titleixreport.pdf.
United States v. Ratliff - Casemine.com. https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914ee78add7b0493495f332.
“United States v. Virginia, 518 U.S. 515 (1996).” Justia Law, https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/518/515/.
“Title IX Enacted.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 16 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/title-ix-enacted.