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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

