The law that changed women’s athletics - Fine Point Communications

As National Women’s History Month winds down, we shouldn’t miss the opportunity to recall a significant event — the golden anniversary of Title IX — that every school and university could use this year as a peg for a feature story.

Title IX’s enactment in June 1972 launched women’s athletics into the model we recognize today. Without it, there would be certainly no WNBA, no Women’s World Cup soccer championships for Team USA and likely no pay equity for women’s tennis or equal status for women Olympians.

Most importantly, the law enabled millions of girls and women to see themselves as athletes simply because their schools now provided them with the opportunity to play.

A quick refresher: Title IX requires any school receiving federal dollars to offer equal opportunities to women as are available to men. The law deals with more than sports — in improving a broad range of educational opportunities, it is regularly called upon to address sexual harassment in schools — but its impact on athletics cannot be overstated.

Before Title IX, Washington State University offered five women’s varsity sports; WSU’s men had 10, all of which were funded and promoted at a national level. The women, meanwhile, carpooled to competitions, bought their own uniforms and used hand-me-down equipment.

The indignities ran deep: Even the nation’s foremost lobbyist for college athletics, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) saw no interest in advocating for women’s sports. So the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women had to be formed to represent the interests of women athletes.

As with many laws, the enactment of Title IX, which was part of a broader Education Amendments Act, would not change things overnight. That would require years and years of legal battle.

Ironically, the key to achieving equal protection was to sue not under Title IX or even under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment but rather under one state’s constitution.

Months after Title IX became law, Washington state added to its constitution an Equal Rights Amendment that said, “Equality of rights and responsibility under the law shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex.”

Despite that simple language, nothing changed much for years at Washington State University, which prompted female students to sue the school in 1979. The wheels of justice grind slowly, and a final judgment in Blair v. Washington State University took until 1987, but the state Supreme Court found that WSU indeed had discriminated against its female athletes by denying them equal opportunity and ordered the university to satisfy the ERA in sports.

The case would set a national precedent for public universities and K-12 institutions and light the fuse for Mia Hamm, Sheryl Swoopes and others to develop their skills at college and become superstars.

If you haven’t looked into Title IX as a story idea, it’s not too late. Fall magazines would be a great place to examine the impact this law has had on female athletes at your school.

What’s new at Fine Point Communications

One of my great joys in this work is its variety. My assignments in recent weeks have included:

Researching and writing short introductions of commencement speakers for this summer’s graduation ceremonies;
Assisting writers with first-person essays that tell of the university programs they run;
Writing a feature story on an academic program that connects students with nonprofit organizations;
Developing a nonprofit’s first brand framework;
Editing a book-length biography of an influential corporate executive; and
Coaching on media relations and magazine publication.

It’s never boring at Fine Point Communications!

For the first time since starting the business, I’m hitting the road. This week, I’m at the CASE Editors Forum in San Francisco before taking an overnight train to Denver for the annual CASE-NAIS conference next week. I’m looking forward to seeing my old independent school colleagues there!

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