Post Author: Jacob Houser
Since 1972, Title IX has had opponents and supporters. It paved the way for gender equality in sports for women and has given women more opportunities for competition nationwide. Yet many lawsuits have been brought against many schools and organizations in order to bring them into compliance with Title IX. In some cases, school administrations actively resisted compliance, but in others, the initial equal treatment of women and men declined over time. Recently, some schools have had to cut men’s and even women’s programs in order to keep meeting the three prong test set up by the legislation. Due to non-compliance, sports cuts were made at James Madison University in 2006.
According to the JMU student newspaper, The Breeze, effective July 1, 2007, men’s archery, cross country, gymnastics, indoor track, outdoor track, swimming and diving, and wrestling were all cut (10 Sports, 1). Archery, gymnastics, and fencing were cut on the women’s side (10 Sports, 1). One way to remain compliant is to ensure that athletic teams’ support meets the male to female ratio of the student body. Since by 2006 JMU was 61% female and 39% male in student population and 50.7% female and 49.3% male in sports, changes needed to be made (10 Sports, 1,4). In order to keep funding programs with national athletic success, the Board of Visitors made the decision for other programs to be cut. Student athletes with athletic scholarships for cut programs were allowed to retain their funding throughout the remainder of their college career (10 Sports, 4). Many of these teams have become club teams and can still compete, just not at the varsity level. At the time, the affected student athletes were devastated, but today’s current students do not miss the cut programs since they never had access to them.
Despite the controversy over recent cuts that have been made at schools, Title IX has opened many doors for women and equality in sports. Funding for women’s sports rose dramatically after the passing of Title IX and provided women with the opportunity to play varsity level sports in college, complete with financial assistance and notoriety through television deals and national championships. James Madison University was effected by and had ties to pioneering women’s sports in the 1970s and became a model for equality in women’s sport.
Works Cited:
“10 Sports Eliminated.” Breeze 84, no. 11 (October 2, 2006): 1,4.