A paper submitted in the fulfillment of the requirements for
AP English Language and Composition
School for the Talented and Gifted
February 16, 2015
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Jordin Guzman
Mr. Correa
English III
16 February 2015 Life without sports is unimaginable to athletes these days, regardless of gender. However, before July 1, 1972, a girl able to join physical activities other than cheerleading used to be rare.
That was due to the high discrimination that occurred everywhere a woman went in the athletic world. However, after President Nixon officially signed Title IX, schools quickly changed their previous manner of conducting education activities. With federal funding on the line, institutions made it the first, successful civil law to prohibit sex discrimination. With the original intention of improving the issue of equality in sports, the law simultaneously addressed other possibilities women hadn't even thought were relevant. Today, these are taken for granted and most can’t picture it another way. Women don’t realize how recent this change occurred and that if they had been born some decades earlier, the world would’ve been much more frustrating. Traced back to
Title IX, masses of opportunities for women have been able to flourish since then. By ending gender discrimination, this portion of the Education Amendments of 1972 created a bigger path for women to allow them to seek greater things.
Everywhere women who were interested in sports, faced the challenge of not being automatically given goodquality facilities to practice in like the boys. Four decades ago, they also did not have the same professional coaches and athletic events as the men also participating in sports. Overall, women were not regarded as seriously and thus weren’t accorded equal
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attention and resources. The women before the 1970s were even encouraged to avoid joining the athletic world. They were warned that physical activity was not only unfeminine but proof of lesbianism. Female athletes were even depicted as physically unattractive and it was ingrained into their minds growing up that it was better to follow the norm of just coexisting. Before Title
IX, open discrimination discouraged any girl previously interested in sports to follow their dream. Actually only about one in 27 girls in the United States participated in sports. Now, today small remains of myths like those exist but most women are brave enough to ignore that prejudice. That is, especially because if they turn away from all that, they would find the support of their family and close friends. Those before 1972 saw the racism coming from all sides since that was all anyone had grown up with. Title IX impacted the very build of society and shifted the basis of possibility more towards women and away from men. This change has affected much more than people know considering most today can't picture a realistic 1970s world. Ignorance is bliss until it comes down to which movements have made today what it is. It's sad that most people would probably not know what Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments has done to their daily lives. Especially women, since the law affected their entire existence and the majority go on without realizing this simple act has given them a greater chance to be successful in life.Yet, it's not statistically true that a woman is getting the very same opportunities as men.
Schools are actually providing 1.3 million fewer chances for girls to play sports in high school as compared to boys. Because it set up all other stepping stones that also have greatly benefited women. Scholarships for women athletes used to be nonexistent. That fact used to be brushed by with the belief that women simply weren't interested in sports. Though, it's a fact that neither
