A few months ago, I was on a panel that was asked to discuss how more women could be engaged in sports or how equal opportunities could be created for women in sports. Sitting on a platform set up by the country’s largest industry body that is backed by the government, it certainly did not make sense for anybody to criticize existing policies or programmes. Hence, I chose to present a case study – one of the most successful initiatives by the US government to increase women’s participation in sports – Title IX (pronounced title nine)
And before I write about the Title, let me make a prediction: the United States will once again be lifting the highest medal haul in the Rio Olympics (just as it did in London) and most of those medals will be won by their women. I say that because unlike any other country in the world, women in the US have become a force for the Olympic team making the gap for their male counterparts wider to match.
The credit for the rise of American women in sports is Title IX, the 43-year-old federal law that broadly prohibits gender discrimination in any educational programme that receives government funding. This rule means that schools must offer equal athletic opportunities to both sexes, a requirement that essentially funnels females into Olympic sports. Colleges and high schools promoting soccer teams for boys have created different sports facilities and subsequently teams for their girl students in many streams. The trickle-down effect of Title IX is seen where at one point of time it was almost unthinkable. It reflects in the number of youth leagues for the girls present in the country. I wonder if other nations – I could not Google even one – offer girls so many great sports options.
An American teenage girl from a family with below average income can afford to play water polo, do gymnastics, go for swimming and engage in basketball, football and soccer before deciding which sport she may continue with and excel at. Take an example of 22-year-old Maggie Steffens, the captain of the US women’s water polo team. In India, we may not know much about this defending world champion and winners of Olympic gold in London games. Steffens grew up in suburban California where she could play basketball, soccer, gymnastics, and go swimming and also joined a club water polo team before she reached her teen years. At 14, she was leading the water polo team, at 22, she is the world champ. Interestingly, this is not a standalone story from the US, each champion, each winner be it Michal Phelps or another athlete, have had great opportunities, tremendous support and uncompromised infrastructure and facilities to excel in multiple sports.
Title IX
Arguably, many other countries are investing in sports development. However, almost most of the programmes tend to benefit the ‘elite’ athletes. There’s hardly a scheme or policy that gives budding sportspersons an environment to experiment with their talents or helps him or her in identifying the game of their interest, leave alone the mentorship that is needed at the beginning of your sporting career. In total contrast to this, the US Olympic Committee keeps experimenting with new programmes each year. They spend millions of dollars only to create opportunities for young girls to engage in as many games as they can while the professional coaches and mentors are on the lookout for promising talents and guide them on a sport that they believe the girl may excel in. Yes, all before the girls are even in their teens…
In the US, the women’s wave has been building for decades. It reached its high-point in London in 2012 when US women won 58 medals compared with 45 for the men. That included 29 of the country’s 44 gold medals. Those results helped the US top both the gold and overall medal tables. The results from last year’s world championships in Summer Olympics were nearly same. Americans lead the world in gold medals (in a tight race with China), and women had won a majority of medals.
It is not just Olympics, last year US girls won the women football World Cup, water polo world championship, gymnastics world championships (highest medal tally in the world), highest medal tally at FINA World Championship and you surely know Serena Williams, the women who have nearly won each Grand Slam in tennis.
So, if we are seeing an American flag leading almost each sports event across the world and witness their women leading from the front, it is primarily because the country is reaping benefits of the great investments it made at its grassroots sports over four decades ago through Title IX.
The power of Title IX
Title IX, an amendment to the United States’ Civil Rights Act of 1964, stated that "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…" Passed in 1972, this policy meant that schools and colleges receiving federal funding could not legally give preference to men. Instead, they had to allocate their resources to men and women in proportion to their interest and enrolment.
The intention of the policy was to change the norms that gave preference to men in all sorts of fields, from medical schools to sports teams. Because most schools and colleges have extensive athletics departments, sports was included among the resources that the schools were required to dole out fairly.
Accordingly, even grudging and partial compliance with the requirements of Title IX dramatically increased the opportunity for women to play sports. In the next 35 years, women’s participation in high school and college sports would increase by 904 per cent and 456 per cent, respectively. Today, 42 per cent of high school athletes and 45 per cent of college athletes are women (NY Times report).
Can a similar law in India make much of a difference is a question to which no one can have a definite answer. However, with current establishment’s focus on empowerment of women, great investments are being made towards gender parity. Hence, something like an Indian version of Title IX makes much sense at this point.
