Feminists Celebrate Title IX Victory

July 14, 2003

by NOW Staff

Faced with widespread support for Title IX, the Bush administration announced on Friday that there will be no changes to the landmark law that bans sex discrimination at schools that receive federal funding.

Gerald Reynolds, assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education, sent a three-page letter to colleges and high schools across the country saying that the standards for complying with the law will remain the same. The news comes after a year-long review of the law by the 15 members of the Bush-appointed Commission on Opportunity in Athletics, which released a report in February that recommended gutting Title IX—even though two commissioners, Donna DeVarona and Julie Foudy, released a minority report in its defense.

NOW leaders called Friday's news a "tremendous victory" for women and girls, and noted that since the passage of Title IX in 1972, women's participation in sports has increased more than 400 percent at the college level and more than 800 percent at the high school level. They credited the work of the NOW activists across the U.S. who made sure the Bush administration realized that the policy has overwhelming popular support.

"Our activists worked so hard to win this, traveling to hearings across the country, organizing demonstrations and writing countless letters and emails," said NOW President Kim Gandy. "We deserve to celebrate the preservation of one of NOW's earliest and greatest accomplishments, the passage of Title IX in 1972."