Recommended reading:
‘In the minutes before the spark was lit:’ The start of girls’ soccer in public high schools in Central Maryland, Angie Latham Kozlowski, Business Monthly
Ms. Kozlowski, formerly of AngieKozBlogs, writes a comprehensive history of the creation of the Soccer Association of Columbia in 1971 and how its success eventually led to the push for girls’ soccer teams in Howard County public schools. This piece was eye opening for me.
I was in middle and high school during the years this article covers, although I didn’t live here. It’s sobering that I really was oblivious to the issues that led to the passage of Title IX, largely because I was not even remotely a sporty person. During those same years I was singing in choirs and auditioning for plays and, let’s be honest, dreading gym class.
Since that time I have come to have great respect for the possibilities opened to young women because of Title IX even though it wasn’t something that applied to me directly when I was in school. It took a while for me to realize that Title IX doesn’t just apply to sports, either.
The law 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." Most people think Title IX only applies to sports, but athletics is only one of ten key areas addressed by the law. These areas include: access to higher education, career education, education for pregnant and parenting students, employment, learning environment, math and science, sexual harassment, standardized testing, and technology. - - The Impact of Title IX, Barbara Winslow, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
It has been a powerful force for good in supporting both athletic and educational opportunities for women. You would think that, by 2024, Title IX would be fully accepted across the country. Not so.
Winslow’s article, written in 2010, points out that:
Since 1975, there have been twenty court challenges to Title IX in an attempt to whittle down greater gender equity in all fields of education—mirroring the ups and downs of the women’s movement at large.
I wonder how many additional challenges have been made since then?
It’s worth pondering now that Project 2025 has come to the forefront in conversations about the Presidential election. Title IX has already been targeted by its creators at the Heritage Foundation as something that must be rewritten to suit their views.
Reading Kozlowski’s article about soccer brought home to me that these opportunities for girls and young women didn’t come about all that long ago and that I shouldn’t assume they are safe from attacks from the far right. After all, I thought Roe was safe. Now we see birth control, no fault divorce, and same sex marriage targeted for similar fates.
I certainly didn’t expect that I, non-athlete to the core - - reading about girls’ soccer in Columbia - - would feel such a visceral conviction to defend the freedoms that those young women fought for.
Yet another reason to say “We are not going back.”
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