The term ‘Title IX’ refers to a provision of the Education Amendments of 1972 that states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
Although Title IX’s impact on high school and collegiate athletics is by far it’s most widely known effect, the original statute made no reference to athletics. The legislation covers all educational activities, and complaints have been brought under Title IX alleging discrimination in academic fields such as science or math. Discrimination within other aspects of academic life, such as access to health care and residential facilities, is also subject to Title IX. The law applies to non-sports extracurricular activities such as school bands and recreational clubs.
Title IX was drafted and introduced by Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink, with the assistance of Congresswoman Edith Green. Congresswoman Mink was motivated by the discrimination she herself had faced in obtaining her university degrees.
In 1979, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued the "three-prong test" to determine compliance with Title IX. The test provides that an institution is in compliance if any one of the following conditions are met: 1) the intercollegiate- level participation opportunities for male and female students at the institution are "substantially proportionate" to their respective full-time undergraduate enrollments; 2) the institution has a "history and continuing practice of program expansion" for the underrepresented sex; or 3) the institution is "fully and effectively" accommodating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.
Since its inception, this "three-prong test" of Title IX has been highly controversial. Critics of the three-prong test contend that it is often interpreted as a quota, placing undue emphasis on the first prong’s reference to proportionality, and failing to take into account the genders' differing levels of interest in athletics. Some go so far as to claim that this interpretation of Title IX actually discriminates against men, taking opportunities away from male athletes and giving them to female athletes who value them less. Defenders of the three-prong test counter that the genders' differing athletic interest is merely a product of past discrimination, and that Title IX should be interpreted to maximize female participation in athletics irrespective of any existing disparity in interest.
In 2005, the Office of Civil Rights announced a clarification of prong three, allowing the use of web-based surveys to determine the level of interest in varsity athletics among the under-represented sex. Critics of this policy claim that it creates a loophole eliminating schools’ obligation to look broadly and proactively at whether they are satisfying their students’ interest in sports.
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