“This anniversary is a very pivotal civil rights moment,” said Maha Ibrahim, program managing attorney at Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), an organization focused on gender justice in workplaces and schools across the country. “It’s a moment when this administration is really testing students to see whether we can keep and advance this right or lose 53 years of very hard, very well thought out work and advocacy that students, professors and advocates had carefully constructed.”
Ibrahim said the biggest accomplishment of Title IX may have also led to the biggest challenge. Current student-athletes may not realize that these rights didn’t always exist and so they haven’t been preparing for the assault on Title IX from the Trump administration.
“We still haven’t reached equity in sports,” said Ibrahim. “Men’s teams are still far out resourcing women’s teams. The availability of spots on men’s teams are still far greater across campuses. The prevalence of campus violations of sports equity and Title IX is rampant and constant.”
ERA is part of a national Title IX litigators network, and Ibrahim said there are always multiple violations at schools across the country, even in states that are considered progressive as far as sports equity.
“The accomplishments are that we live in a world where girls at very young ages in every state in our country automatically start thinking about what sports they might be interested in,” Ibrahim noted. “Parents across the country think about what sports to put their girls in. … Title IX is a huge part of that culture change.”
On Feb. 5, the White House issued Executive Order 14201 (“Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”) and 28 states have followed suit in barring transgender individuals from competing in sports associated with the gender with which they identify. People supportive of this have asserted that allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports is a violation of Title IX. Last year, the group Independent Women held a national bus tour, Take Back Title IX Summer 2024 Bus Tour, and will do so again this year to celebrate the Trump administration’s policies.
