Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX

Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX: The Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America
By Karen Blumnethal
Atheneum Books for Young Readers
New York, New York
0-689-85957-0
2005

Summary

Title IX came into being in 1972 when the education amendments were added to the Civil Rights Act when President Nixon signed them into law. But Title IX rules were stuck in a mire of wording and challenges from organizations like the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It wasn’t until 1974 that the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare proposed the rules of Title IX, and another year passed before President Ford approved the rules.

The law had many champions including US Representative Edith Green from Oregon. Green led the way for many equal rights laws for women including the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which applies to hourly workers only. Other women in Congress like Rep. Shirley Chisholm, Rep. Patsy mink, and Rep. Charlotte Reid helped Green in her fight for Title IX. They all fought discrimination within the chambers themselves. There was a congressional pool and gym for members of Congress, except for the women. This meant that women missed out on deals on legislation, and when three women tried to enter one day they were denied access due to the fact that the men liked to swim in the nude.

Despite people testifying about benefits to allowing women to attend college and participating in sports, the powers that be did not want to put Title IX into affect. They had their own teams of experts that were against the law. The main sticky point was that Title IX did not just stop discrimination against women in higher education and in sports, but it required that schools spend dollar for dollar the same amount on women as men. This part of the law lead to the loss of scholarships for some men and the loss of entire men’s teams.

In the early 1980s Title IX was taking off, but when Reagan took office he made a proposal on changing regulations on Title IX since the rules were burdensome and was too much money to regulate. In 1981 Grove City College in PA refused to sign a form promising to follow Title IX because they were afraid that signing the paper would open up the Christian college to government interference. Grove City accepted as little amount of government money as possible., but students did receive some loans and grants. So the college and four of its students sued. In 1983 the Supreme Court ruled that Title IX applied to only those specific programs that received federal money. The ruling set Title IX back and numerous discrimination lawsuits.
In 1988, Congress created a new law called the Civil Rights Restoration act over President Reagan’s veto and made Title IX stronger. Since then Title IX has had its ups and downs and other challenges. Most people associate Title IX with sports but it applies to all aspects of education.

Impressions

As a girl who has always enjoyed playing and watching sports, I found this book to be a hard read in more ways than one. On one level I got frustrated with the archaic attitudes about women and sports. I had never encountered that before because I’m a “Title IX” baby as the book calls women that were born after Title IX went into effect. By the time I started high school in 1992 equality of women in sports was a given.

A second problem with the book is that I found it hard to read because it seemed to jump around a lot. Blumenthal would be talking about some challenge or aspect to Title IX and would give an anecdote about a woman and her sport in the middle of the talk about the challenge. I could keep things straight as far as dates went, and when I looked at the timeline in the back I was even more confused. For example, when Blumenthal was writing about the challenge to Title IX from Grove City College she started on page 90 and weaved her way through to page 94 where the outcome of the Grove City was discussed. The book would be much easier to read if court cases and challenges were discussed in whole with anecdotes afterwards.

The book does a good job of being through with the history of Title IX and any student doing a report on discrimination, women’s rights, or the evolution of sports would find a gold mine of information in the book, as long as they figure out have to navigate through it.

Reviews

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 7 Up -A fascinating look at the birth, growth, stagnation, and final emergence of Title IX. While acknowledging the controversy surrounding this law, the author is unwaveringly supportive of its passage and implementation. Interesting and easy-to-follow chapters highlight the process of creating, revising, fighting for, and ultimately passing this legislation that gave girls and women equal access to physical-education classes, gymnasiums, universities, and graduate schools. Human-interest stories personalize the issues, and photographs of congresswomen fighting for equal opportunities for girls, women demonstrating, and the ultimate victory-a woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated-show how challenging, yet ultimately rewarding, the battle has been. Charts depict amazing statistics about the increase in athletic participation by females from 1970 to 2001. Cartoons show the humorous but painfully true attitudes of our culture toward women as they have strived to achieve equality in this country. The book closes with a "Then and Now" section highlighting the changes Title IX has brought about. Lynn M. Messina's Sports in America (H. W. Wilson, 2001) and Victoria Sherrow's Encyclopedia of Women and Sports (ABC-CLIO, 1996) both offer bits of information, but nothing out there comes close to Blumenthal's portrait of the emergence of women athletes in our society.-Julie Webb, Shelby County High School, Shelbyville, KY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Gr. 6-9. As in Six Days in October (2002), a compelling overview of the 1929 stock market crash and a financial primer, Wall Street Journal editor Blumenthal uses specific facts and fascinating personal stories to give readers a wide view of history. Here, the author looks at American women's evolving rights by focusing on the history and future of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in U.S. education. Profiles of groundbreaking female athletes and legislators deftly alternate with highlights of the women's movement, from the early twentieth century through today. The dull paper stock diminishes the many black-and-white photos, but the images are still gripping, and relevant political cartoons and fact boxes add further interest. Few books cover the last few decades of American women's history with such clarity and detail, and this comprehensive title draws attention to the hard-won battles, the struggles that remain, and the chilling possibility that rights, if not fiercely protected, can easily be lost. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved