Submitted by: Richard C. Bell, Ed.D., J.D.

Abstruse:

Women's opportunities for competitive physical activity were limited in America until Federal Legislation, commonly referred to as Championship IX, became law. It required American society to recognize a woman's correct to participate in sports on a plane equal to that of men. Prior to 1870, activities for women were recreational rather than sport-specific in nature. They were noncompetitive, informal, rule-less; they emphasized physical activity rather than competition. In the late 1800's and early 1900'southward, women began to form clubs that were athletic in nature. Efforts to limit women's sport activeness continued as they became more than involved in competitive sports. This paper will present a history of women's interest in sport prior to the federal legislation enacted to eliminate sexual discrimination in education and sport.

Early Women's Sports

Certainly, women engaged in sport iii millennia agone. Homer, c 800 B.C., relates the story of Princess Nausicaa playing ball with her handmaidens next to a riverbank on the isle of Scheria. "When she and her handmaids were satisfied with their delightful nutrient, each set aside the veil she wore: the young girls now played ball; and as they tossed the ball…" (Homer, lines 98-102). Odysseus was awakened past the shouts of the girls engaged in their sport. Thousands of years later on, the shouts of girls playing brawl finally awoke the United States to the need for sport-specific opportunities for women.

Prior to 1870, sports for women existed in the form of play activities that were recreational rather than competitive and, being informal and without rules, emphasized physical activity (Gerber, Felshin, Berlin, & Wyrick, 1974). A dominant belief in the 1800s was that each human had a fixed amount of free energy. If this energy were used for physical and intellectual tasks at the same time, it could be hazardous (Park & Hult, 1993). Horseback riding for pleasure, showboating, and swimming became stylish, only women were non encouraged to exert themselves. Such physical activity for a woman was idea to be especially hazardous considering during menstruation she was "periodically weakened" (Clarke, 1874, p. 100). In 1874, every bit women were first to gain access to higher instruction, Dr. Edward Clarke published Sex in Education; or, A Fair Chance for Girls, which sparked a tenacious and begrudging argue about the capacity of women for physical action. He stated that, "both muscular and brain labor must exist reduced at the onset of flow" ( p. 102). Manipulating scientific discipline to reinforce established dogma prevailed for many years in spite of repeated examples of women who were perfectly capable of performing physical feats and intellectual tasks. Many early opportunities for women to engage in physical activity were thwarted as a upshot of this dogma (Park & Hult).

Every bit more women sought to become involved in concrete action, they became more competitive. In the belatedly 1800s and early on 1900s, women began to form informal athletic clubs. Lawn tennis, croquet, bowling, and archery were popular in clubs from New York to New Orleans. Many men'southward clubs allowed women to go assembly and to participate in separate activities, though without according them full status. Parallel clubs in colleges began to appear during this time, merely a major difference betwixt the social metropolitan clubs and the higher clubs was that the latter frequently sponsored coed competition as occasions for social gatherings (Gerber, et al., 1974).

College Sports for Women Prior to Title Nine

Early college sports for women have been largely unrecognized by historians because competition was within college betwixt students (intramural) rather than betwixt the institutions (extramural). Competitions included intramural, gild, and sorority matches, in addition to 'play days'. These were special dates when women competed in sports and activities against students and teams from their schools. By 1936, seventy% of colleges surveyed used this equally a predominant class of sport participation for women (Hult, 1994).

Women's concrete educators were enlightened of the bug and criticism surrounding men'south intercollegiate athletics. They were determined to go along athletics in an educational surroundings for women. In the early 1900s, the Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) and the American Physical Instruction Association (APEA) endorsed programs of broad participation for women (Park & Hult, 1993). This occurred just as the Carnegie Foundation for the Advocacy of Teaching produced its 1929 report, American College Athletics, reporting that amateurism was being eliminated or modified from athletics at the college level as colleges turned athletics into large business. The report argued that there should be a way to requite "athletics dorsum to the boys" (Thelin, 1994). These views were uppermost in the minds of many women'southward physical educators as they met to organize a governing arrangement for women'due south sports. In the 1920s, the Women's Division-National Amateur Athletic Federation (NAAF) was formed to organize intercollegiate competition among women (Park & Hult).

Women were not active in intercollegiate sport until basketball was introduced at Smith College in 1892 (Gerber, et al., 1974). Basketball apace spread to other colleges, and students began to clamor for intercollegiate play. Women's physical educators opposed such competition because they were non ready to lose control over their programs (as they perceived the men had) (Gerber, et al.). The kickoff intercollegiate contest among women was a scheduled tennis tournament betwixt Bryn Mawr and Vassar. It was canceled because the Vassar kinesthesia did not allow their women's athletes to participate in competition betwixt colleges (Hult, 1994). The honor of existence the showtime teams to compete in women's intercollegiate athletics belongs to the basketball teams of the University of California, Berkeley vs. Stanford and the Academy of Washington vs. Ellensburg Normal School; they played in 1896 (Gerber, et al.).

Competitive events for higher women increased in the early 1900s. The nature of varsity contest was in conflict with the philosophy of women's physical educators in the 1920s and 1930s, so these events were still uncommon. This philosophical conflict contributed to a lack of back up for women's varsity athletics. The NAAF provided a forum for women'due south physical educators and leaders of women'south sports to formalize their beliefs regarding competition for girls and women by issuing a policy statement of the organizations goals for women. The goals were established to "play for play's sake," limit awards and travel, protect the participant from exploitation, discourage "sensational" publicity, and place qualified women in immediate charge of athletics and other physical activities (Gerber, et al., 1974). The motto was "every daughter in a sport and a sport for every girl." This position was interpreted by many equally negative to competition and, as a upshot, virtually all forms of competitive sport for higher women decreased in the early on 1900s (Gerber, et al.).

The women'due south suffrage move in the late nineteenth and twentieth century resulted in the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920. The right to vote for women renewed emphasis on women's freedoms. The beginning feminist movement resulted in modest gains for women in sports and intercollegiate competition, only these gains were negated by the low in the 1930s. They would remain dormant for nearly fifty years (Gelb & Palley, 1987). The low left millions of Americans out of work, and the resulting campaign to keep women habitation and out of the work forcefulness left the women's motility for broadened equal rights stagnating. The expectations of society were that a woman's place was 'in the home,' which pushed aside the idea that there were psychological and physiological benefits to be gained from involvement in sport. This view remained largely unchanged until the events of the 1940s (Lucas & Smith, 1982).

The 1940s brought state of war to the United States and millions of men entered the armed forces. Many women joined the military service or left their positions as homemakers to make full the void left in the work force, earning the moniker, "Rosie the Riveter." They demonstrated that they were equal to the chore. The self-esteem and self-confidence gained by women during these critical times propelled the movement for women's equal rights. Many women believed that if they could compete successfully in the work force, and then they could certainly compete on the able-bodied fields (Abrasion, 1972). Earth War 2 besides saw the advent of the offset adult female'due south professional person athletic team. The All-American Girls Baseball League was started in 1943 equally an attempt to supersede Major League Baseball, which had been canceled due to the war. When World War II ended, organizations for women in sport began to increase equally sport became more than competitive and intercollegiate and interscholastic competition spread (Gerber, et al., 1974).

In the 1950s and 1960s, the social conscience of America was irresolute. The button for Civil Rights, which culminated in the passage of the Civil Rights Deed of 1964, helped increase the status of women and minorities. A wave of feminist activism was born (Gelb & Palley, 1996). Feminist activism propelled the movement for women's rights forward. The Us became embroiled in the debate for an Equal Rights Amendment. This fence raised the consciousness of those involved in women'due south sport. Collegiate women seeking greater athletic opportunities moved closer to their goals in 1957, when the long-entrenched official position statement of the Division for Girls and Women in Sport (DGWS) was amended to country that intercollegiate programs "may" exist. In 1963, the DGWS view of women in sport evolved further to country that it was "desirable" that intercollegiate programs for women be (Gerber, et al., 1974).

In 1966, the DGWS appointed a Committee on Intercollegiate Sports for Women (CISW) to assist in conducting intercollegiate competitions. In 1967, it was renamed the Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (CIAW). The women's move in sport was rapidly moving toward a status more than in line with men's athletics. In 1969, a schedule of national championships for women's sports was announced that included gymnastics and runway and field. Swimming, badminton, and volleyball followed in 1970 and in 1972, basketball was added. Women wanted an institutional membership arrangement similar to the NCAA. The CIAW was replaced by the Clan for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) in 1971. This set up the stage for the struggle to control women'south athletics in the 1970s betwixt the AIAW and the NCAA (Gerber, et al., 1974).

The increasingly positive attitude toward women in sport carried over into the 1970s (Hult, 1994). The AIAW began the 1971-1972 academic yr with 278 charter institutions. By 1981, their membership exceeded 800. Their mission was to "atomic number 82 and deport" programs at the collegiate level that were competitive for women (Hulstrand, 1993). The AIWA focused on the female student-athlete's pedagogy, non on athletic performance, and thus rejected the 'win or die' attitude of the NCAA. Instead, the AIAW emphasized participation in sport equally the about important attribute and de-emphasized winning (Sperber, 1990).

The Evolution of Title IX

The new wave of feminism within the larger social reforms sought by the Civil Rights movement moved women closer to legislative action for greater equal handling in athletics. The concept that federal legislation was to eliminate sexual discrimination was the main focus of women's groups in the late 1960s and early on 1970s. At their first national conference in 1967, the National Organization for Women (NOW) adopted a platform that read in part "…the right of women to exist educated to their full potential equally with men exist secured by Federal and Country legislation" (Boles, 1989, p.643).

Title 9 of the Education Amendments of 1972 was paid little attention in the early legislative efforts to codify these rights. Court-ordered busing in the other Titles of the Motorcoach Education Amendments took the spotlight (Palley & Preston, 1978). It was only later on Title 9 was passed, when the question surrounding implementation arose, that opposition to Title 9 took place (Gelb & Palley, 1987). Subsequently the passage of Title Nine, Congress built in a six-twelvemonth period for secondary and post-secondary schools to attain compliance. The date for compliance past colleges and universities was 1978. Interpretation and enforcement were vested in the Department of Wellness, Education, and Welfare (Carpenter, 1993).

The disquisitional element lacking after the passage of Title 9 was the implementation legislation that would specify how it was to be applied and to whom. Passage of the implementation legislation was not like shooting fish in a barrel; many cocky-interest groups sought to erode the legislation. In 1974, approximately threescore women's and feminist groups formed a coalition called the Instruction Task Force (which would later becme the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education) (Gelb & Palley). Information technology was largely as a result of their persistent and dedicated efforts through lobbying that Championship IX was successful.

The NCAA became concerned by what it perceived to be the potential weakening of its position every bit the ascendant and controlling body of intercollegiate athletics. If Title IX was to apply to intercollegiate sports at all levels and women were to be elevated to a condition equal to the men, its financial assets and political power were threatened. The first approach of the NCAA, when faced with the threat of equality in intercollegiate athletics, was to effort to limit Title IX'southward application. The NCAA tried to offer its interpretation of Championship IX (Acosta & Carpenter, 1985). It encouraged a narrow interpretation of the police force, excluding able-bodied departments from the telescopic of Title Nine. The NCAA argued that considering athletic departments did not receive federal funds, they should be excluded from compliance. Nonetheless, when the NCAA sought to limit the application of Title IX, it began to address the issue of command of women'southward athletics in earnest.

The NCAA observed the growth of women's athletics and looked to the increased financial base and political power to be gained from exerting control over women's intercollegiate athletics. It set out to force the AIAW out of control (Hult, 1994). The strategy was to absorb the AIAW into its current construction while offering women's championships exterior the AIAW to effectively link schools to the NCAA. Because there was no alternative mechanism for determining college-level champions, this strategy could accept been successful (Stern, 1979). The NCAA decided to class its own NCAA Women's Committee and exclude the AIAW (Carpenter, 1993). The NCAA had never shown an involvement in women's athletics before Title IX considering there was aught that required female participation at a national level. Thus, it chose not to pursue women'due south athletics. "The formation of this commission was politically pregnant because prior to this time the NCAA had demonstrated no interest any in taking responsibility for women'due south sports" (Carpenter, 1993, p. 83).

In the fall of 1974, the NCAA agreed to a meeting with the AIAW. The NCAA wanted the AIAW to affiliate itself with the NCAA; the AIAW hoped to form a joint committee to describe up rules. The NCAA did non consider the AIAW its equal and it would not agree to a l-50 joint marriage and equal representation at all policy-making levels (Festle, 1996).

At its 1973 convention, the NCAA waived the regulation barring women from men's events, thinking that the compromise of allowing a token female to compete in the NCAA championships would help avoid charges of sexual practice discrimination and help avert offending the AIAW while avoiding whatever real commitment to women's athletics (Festle, 1996). The NCAA continued to exist concerned about the loss of power and control over intercollegiate athletics every bit it began to sense that the idea of equal opportunity for women in intercollegiate athletics was the direct aim of the Federal Government. The NCAA needed to implement an acceptable policy without delay (Festle).

The NCAA was a powerful adversary for the AIAW considering of its wealth, political influence, and long history. The NCAA decided to introduce women'southward championships for intercollegiate sports by offer the institutions sponsoring women'south sports a proposition that ultimately led to the demise of the AIAW. The NCAA offered to: (a) pay all expenses for teams competing in a national championship, (b) charge no additional membership fees for schools to add women's programs, (c) create fiscal assistance, recruitment, and eligibility rules that were the same for women as for men, and finally, (d) guarantee women more television coverage. The NCAA had earmarked three million dollars to support women'south championships. The AIAW could not compete with the NCAA inducements and the loss of membership, income, championship sponsorship, and media rights forced the AIAW to cease operations on June 30, 1982 (Festle, 1996). The AIAW sued the NCAA for allegedly violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, but was unsuccessful when the courts ruled that the market place for women'due south athletics was open for competition, therefore no anti-trust laws had been violated (Schubert, Schubert, & Schubert-Madsen, 1991).

Subsequent to Title Nine, women and girls take go much more involved in sports. Higher women'due south athletic participation has increased from 15% in 1972 to 43% in 2001. High school girl'southward able-bodied participation increased from 295,000 in 1971 to 2.viii million in 2002-2003, an increase of over 840%. In 2004, the boilerplate number of teams offered for females per college/university was viii.32, up from 2.l per school in 1972 (Carpenter & Acosta, 2005). In 1981-82, women'south championships became a part of the NCAA programme. Today, the NCAA sponsors forty women's championships, thirty-8 men's championships, and three combined championships in all 3 of its divisions (NCAA, 2005).

It can exist seen that women's involvement in sport was ho-hum to develop. Opportunities for participation and recognition were nearly non-real for centuries. It was not until the advent of the equal rights movements and Title IX that women truly found a place as participants in the world of sport and in the public loonshit.

References

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Carpenter, 50.J. (1993). Messages home: My life with Title IX. In G.L. Cohen (Ed). Women in Sport: Problems and Controversies. (pp 133-155), Newberry Park, CA.: Sage Publishing.

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