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“Title IX and the Drive for Gender Equality in Sports,” ABA Minority Trial Lawyer

Knowledge

“Title IX and the Drive for Gender Equality in Sports,” ABA Minority Trial Lawyer

Fall 2012/Winter 2013
Molly M. Ryan

“Not so long ago, athletic fields in the United States exhibited a clear gender divide,” writes Molly M. Ryan of Goldberg Segalla’s Sports and Entertainment Practice Group. “Today, 40 years after the passage of Title IX — 40 years into a concerted national effort to make the athletic opportunities provided to both sexes more equivalent — some of the legal arguments have circled around with pointed irony to the old traditional categories of football and cheerleading.”

In this article written for Minority Trial Lawyer, a publication of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation, Molly examines judicial interpretations of the meaning and implication of this civil rights statute, how a number of court cases have helped make progress in participation rates by females in organized athletic competition, and what challenges remain to be addressed.