“It’s okay, come on in,” Flack said, opening the side door to the gym. We were dating and enjoyed playing racketball together. It was 1970, and both of us were active duty officers at Navy Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, but women weren’t allowed to use the gym, so he had to sneak me in. To me, it seemed preposterous, so when Admiral Zumwalt sent out a missive saying all personnel had to be fit, I seized the chance to ask for time for the women in the gym. It was approved, but, oh, my – I didn’t expect the backlash from the men! They were not happy at us having even a couple hours in it. Fast forward to 1972 when Title IX passed Congress, prohibiting high schools and colleges that received federal funding from discriminating on the basis of gender in any program or activity, including sports.
I was explaining all this to my granddaughter a couple hours ago. “You have no idea how much things have changed for girls because of Title IX,” I said. Lauren plays the flute quite well, so she was shocked to learn that my sister, who also played the flute, was not allowed to play in the University of Michigan’s marching band. Lauren’s eyes got big, “That’s crazy!” she said. But true. We girls were sidelined in so many ways. Only now, after decades of Title IX working on our behalf, do we see about equal numbers of male and female physicians and lawyers. Other fields opened, too, such as engineering and architecture. Women’s careers have expanded far beyond teaching and nursing which were basically our only career choices. My sister was the nurse, I was the teacher.
It’s exciting to see the many opportunities that our young girls and women have now. Certainly, we have a ways to go, for example, in politics and serving on boards of directors, but just try to imagine where we’d all be without Title IX. Let’s celebrate Title IX’s 45th anniversary!
by Kathleen Vestal Logan, MS, MA June 23, 2017