Fifty Years Of Progress: The Legal History Of Title IX

• Published date: 12 September 2022
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Consumer Protection, Media, Telecoms, IT, Entertainment, Discrimination, Disability & Sexual Harassment, Education, Sport
• Law Firm: Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP
• Author: Christina Stylianou

"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, Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. ' 1681-88.

This year, we celebrate 50 years of Title IX, the landmark legislation implemented to outlaw discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded educational settings. Over the course of the half-century since its enactment, Title IX has been monumental in creating access and opportunities for women and members of the LGBTQ community in education and sports (and the work force, as a result), in advancing the dialogue and mission for sex and gender equality, and in establishing a means of legal accountability for sexual harassment in education and sports. While the road to equality has not been perfect, nor is it complete, Title IX has made major contributions to so many lives.

Title IX saw its early roots in the civil rights reforms of the 1960s that statutorily banned various types of discrimination but left a gap with respect to sex discrimination in education. The initial version of the bill was proposed as an amendment to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which banned discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The proposed language sought to expand Title VII's protections to employees of educational institutions. The bill also sought to amend Title VI, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, or national origin in federally funded programs, to include sex discrimination and to expand the Equal Pay Act's protections to executives, administrators, and professionals.

Drafted by U.S. House Representatives Patsy Mink and Edith Green, and introduced in Congress by Senator Birch Bayh in 1971, Title IX, in its final form, was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on June 23, 1972. The regulations implementing Title IX - put together by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) - were issued three years later.

The law has certainly seen its fair share of adversity and backlash, particularly in its application to sport. Immediately following its enactment (and in the years thereafter), Title IX faced an onslaught of challenges, whether through subsequent proposed amendments or through lawsuits challenging its legality and attempting to narrow its scope. In 1974, Senator John Tower proposed...