On June 23, 1972, United States President Richard Nixon signed into law the Education Amendments of 1972, which contained 37 words that had a huge impact on higher education and college sports. It’s what we now commonly call Title IX, and the formal name is the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, renamed in 2002 for one of the landmark legislation's co-authors. Title IX was written to specifically address gender-based discrimination in education, updating the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which did not address discrimination in education.
 
The original text of this groundbreaking legislation reads:

"No person in the United States shall, based on 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."

 
Title IX's passage created hundreds of thousands of opportunities across higher education for women's collegiate sports. Because of it’s overwhelmingly positive impact on higher education and college athletics, the Atlantic 10 is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Title IX in 2022, with league-wide celebrations and activations all year, and especially on June 23. Today, the majority of sports in the Atlantic 10 are women's sports (12).
 
The A-10 has implemented the use of a commemorative logo during the celebration, which began on Feb. 2 with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and will conclude with the last activation occurring at the 2022 Volleyball Championship in November. The special logo was used at Atlantic 10 championships throughout the winter and spring seasons and will continue into the fall championships.
 
"What it Means to Me" is the campaign the Atlantic 10 is featuring during the year, with the voices and stories from Atlantic 10 student-athletes, coaches, administrators and alums whose lives have been directly affected and influenced by Title IX. These personal stories have been shared on social media and are now available on a Kudoboard.
 
The Atlantic 10 will also use its platforms to amplify the Title IX celebrations on each of its campuses and through the athletic departments from each member institution.
 

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As evidenced by the A-10 efforts, Title IX has directly positively affected millions of people. A look at the numbers highlighting the impact Title IX has had over the past 50 years:

• There were just over 300,000 women and girls playing sports in the United States at the college of high school level. Only 2 percent of college athletic budgets were spent on women’s sports, and athletic scholarships for women were virtually nonexistent. (Source: History Channel)
   
• By the 40th anniversary of Title IX in 2012, there were more than 3 million girls playing high school sports. In college, almost 200,000 women were competing in intercollegiate sports in 2012 -- six times more than in 1972. Just four years later in 2016, two in every five girls in the United States played sports. Before Title IX, that number had been just one in 27. (Sources: History Channel and Women’s Sports Foundation).
   
• There are 3 million more high school opportunities for girls than there were before Title IX and today 60 percent of girls participate in a high school sport. (Source: Women’s Sports Foundation).
   
• Since Title IX was enacted, women’s participation in college athletics has increased dramatically. Today, women make up 44 percent of all collegiate student-athletes compared to 15 percent (fewer than 30,000 in total played college sports.) (Source: Women’s Sports Foundation).