{"id":1696,"date":"2023-01-13T23:05:16","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T23:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/?post_type=stories&p=1696"},"modified":"2023-01-17T20:51:22","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T20:51:22","slug":"happy-birthday-title-ix","status":"publish","type":"stories","link":"https:\/\/test-www.ewu.edu\/magazine\/news\/happy-birthday-title-ix\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Birthday, Title IX"},"content":{"rendered":"
As Title IX turned 50 this year, EWU took time to reflect on the landmark federal statute.<\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

This year marked a half-century since the adoption of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibited sex-based discrimination in education programs and other activities that received federal funding. At Eastern and around the nation, colleges and universities have used the anniversary to reflect on Title IX\u2019s seismic impact in higher education and beyond.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t that long ago that your gender would have had a really big impact on what you were able to do and how much you could achieve,\u201d says Annika Scharosch, JD, Eastern\u2019s Title IX coordinator and\u00a0associate vice president for civil rights, compliance and enterprise risk management. These days, she adds, students don\u2019t have to worry about being denied admission to professional programs or held back due to their gender. That includes women who want to become doctors and men want to become nurses, as well as members of the LGBTQ+ community.<\/span><\/p>\n

At Eastern, past enrollment numbers bring Title IX\u2019s true impact into focus. Back in 1972, there were\u00a03,806 men and 2,920 women enrolled at the university, then called Eastern Washington State College. At today\u2019s Eastern Washington University, the student body last year included 6,562 women and 4,312 men.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nationwide, U.S. Census Bureau data shows that in 1970, pre-Title IX, just 8 percent of women earned a college degree. By 2020, the number of female college graduates increased to nearly 33 percent, a number exceeding that of male graduates.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Lynn
Lynn Hickey meets the press at an EWU media event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

EWU Athletic Director Lynn Hickey says she experienced this changing landscape firsthand, both\u00a0as a pre-Title IX high school basketball player and a post-Title IX college athlete, coach and athletic director.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up playing half-court basketball in the state of Oklahoma,\u201d recalls Hickey. Back then, she says, women\u2019s basketball was a three-on-three, half-court game because male administrators thought females didn\u2019t have the stamina to compete full-court.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the years, as Title IX\u2019s impact on athletics created a battleground for women\u2019s rights, thousands of women \u2014 and men \u2014 stepped up to champion equity. Hickey credits her father, who coached middle and high school sports for 47 years, with inspiring her love of athletics.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Hickey\u2019s groundbreaking r\u00e9sum\u00e9 includes becoming the first female athletic director at the University of Texas, San Antonio. At the time she was the only female Division 1 athletic director in Texas. When Hickey left the job 18 years later, her list of accomplishments included starting football, women\u2019s soccer and women\u2019s golf programs. She points to the experience of her daughter, Lauren, as evidence of Title IX\u2019s generational sway.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lauren not only grew up in a world where her mother was high-achieving in the male-dominated field of collegiate athletics, Hickey says, her aunts included a doctor, two attorneys and a social worker.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust think that in one generation how everything has changed,\u201d Hickey says. \u201cYou have to give Title IX credit for that turnaround.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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