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The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Sports
2 — Wednesday, June 22, 2022
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50 years of Title IX: progress and potential
On June 23, Title IX — a civil rights
law forbidding discrimination based
on sex — turns 50. And with the
half-century that has ensued since
the passing of the statute, there is
certainly progress to celebrate.
Despite that progress, though,
glaring disparities still exist.
In 1972, at the time of the
legislation’s
passing,
Michigan
offered 13 varsity sports — all of
which were men’s teams. It was clear:
many people didn’t believe women
belonged in sports.
But in the years since, things have
changed. Today, the Wolverines
house 27 varsity teams, 14 of which
are women’s programs. As society
began
to
prioritize
women
in
athletics, Michigan evolved too.
And the increase of women’s
participation
in
sports
at
the
collegiate level is clear across all
NCAA institutions. According to
the Women’s Sports Foundation’s
Title IX 50th anniversary report,
215,486 female athletes competed
at the NCAA level in 2020-21. In
comparison, only 29,977 females
LINDSAY BUDIN
Summer Managing Sports Editor
participated at the college level in
1971-72.
The increase is a sign of progress,
but with 50 years of Title IX in
effect, changes beyond participation
numbers have hardly been made.
In 2021, at the women’s NCAA
basketball tournament, the reality
of women’s sports came to the
forefront as a video from Oregon
forward Sedona Prince displayed the
inequality in tournament gyms and
went viral. In comparison to the large
areas filled with exercise equipment
and weights that the men’s basketball
players were provided, the women’s
tournament offered merely a small
room with one rack of dumbbells.
As the controversy circulated
and people began to speak out about
the inequality, important change
seemed probable. And while some
positive results occurred from this
grave inequality in that increased
attention, this was only one example
of what has hindered female athletes
for years. Until 1982 — 72 years after
the NCAA was founded and 10 years
after Title IX was passed — the NCAA
did not sponsor championships for
any women’s sports. While progress
had been made before Prince’s video,
it was clear that the problems were
Read more at michigandaily.com
JULIA SCHACHINGER, EMMA MATI,
JULIANNE YOON/Daily
not entirely solved.
One year after the workout
equipment
controversy,
those
improvements were seen in the
March Madness tournaments. For
the first time in more than 20 years,
the women’s tournament began with
a First Four round, amounting to
68 teams, that matched the men’s
tournament.
The changes were also evident
at the women’s tournament itself.
According to a gender equity review
conducted by Kaplan Kecker & Fink
in 2021, the NCAA spent $53.2 million
dollars on the men’s tournament and
just $17.9 million on the women’s
in 2019. For this year’s tournament,
the budget for both tournaments
underwent redistribution and with
the monetization improvement, all
NCAA Tournament participants —
men and women — received the same
gifts, had access to hotel lounges and
had games officiated by officials paid
equally.
In the last year, reaching equity
between women’s and men’s sports
was prioritized, and with it, changes
came about. Was it all because the
NCAA got called out and enough
US Women’s national team shows how soccer
can surpass Title IX
On the 50th anniversary of Title
IX, discrimination on the basis of
sex and gender remains illegal by
law. However, the United States
has made little effort to prevent de
facto discrimination in sports from
institutions receiving federal funding
when it comes to fan attendance and
viewership.
And those issues exist throughout
each and every level of women’s
sports.
When I was in high school I played
on the women’s soccer team. Our
team was great. In the four seasons I
spent on the team, we reached at least
the semifinals of the city playoffs, and
in my final year we made it all the way
to the finals.
But every year we lacked one
thing: fans.
No one wanted to come see us
blowout our opponents 10-0 or beat
our rivals in an overtime thriller.
No amount of posters, emails, social
media posts, or cookie bribes could
convince the student body to watch
REMI WILLIAMSON
Daily Sports Writer
the girls soccer team dominate
the competition. Winning games
without anyone in the stands except
a few enthusiastic parents was
disheartening.
When I was little, it didn’t matter
— I loved soccer and that was all
that mattered to me, it was my
favorite hobby. My parents were my
cheerleaders and I wasn’t old enough
to know what I was missing.
And that’s not uncommon for
other girls growing up. Most young
female athletes don’t know what it
feels like to have masses of screaming
fans propel them to victory, and even
at the professional level, the majority
of female athletes don’t know that
feeling.
In lacking that support, female
athletes are missing out on a key
pillar of sports: the connection with
fans.
Part of the joy professional
athletes feel in their sports is the
exhilaration of the crowd. Hearing
fans cheer them on motivates them to
play harder and better. It’s a luxury
that’s not afforded to female athletes.
Often at Michigan, fans must be
bribed with free t-shirts and hats
for the first 100 attendees on top of
the already free entry tickets. At the
No. 23 women’s tennis teams regular
season finale, you were hard pressed
to find any fans aside from parents.
Even the Wolverines’ women’s
basketball team — who made the Elite
Eight for the first time in program
history – offered all students free
attendance to fill the stands and
enact real home court advantage in
the first two rounds of the NCAA
Tournament.
If
colleges
fail
to
improve
viewership
for
women’s
sports
– especially at Universities with
student
bodies
riddled
with
school spirit – it’s no surprise that
professional sports face a similar lack
of support.
Female
athletes
are
paid
significantly less — which is often
attributed to a lack of viewership
and fanbase — than their male
counterparts.
Christian
Pulisic
makes more in a single month than
the highest paid United States
Women’s National Team player, Alex
Morgan, makes in a year.
Read more at michigandaily.com