The Big 4-0

Happy Birthday, Title IX!

Landmark legislation marks milestone.

As Title IX, the landmark legislation that forbids sex-based discrimination in education, celebrates its 40th birthday on June 23, The Daily Beast looks at the triumphs and travails of the law over the years—and the trailblazing female athlete who is credited with planting the flag. In The Mother of Title IX, writer Peggy Miller Franck profiles Eleonora Sears, an athlete who broke with tradition in the early 1900s by excelling in 19 sports—from ice-skating to horse riding to rifle shooting—and had the audacity to wear pants. In The Truth About Title IX, writer Karen Blumenthal takes readers through the little-known history of the law, including a scandalous old New York Times editorial saying that ending quotas limiting female college admissions was “educationally unsound.” In Sex, Sports, and Title IX on Campus, Wellesley Dean of Students Debra DeMeis and Wellesley chair of women’s and gender studies Rosanna Hertz unveil the challenges that still exist on campus.