Title IX · Episode 2 of 10 · 42 min
Who Created Title IX? The Godmother and the Congresswomen
Title IX was assembled out of lived grievance: a woman told she was too forceful to hire, two congresswomen barred from professions because of their sex, and a senator who saw equal rights as unfinished business. The episode profiles these founders and asks why each spent years on thirty-seven words.
Who's who
- Bernice Sandler+2 more episodesPsychologist and activist called the Godmother of Title IX; filed complaints against colleges
- Edith Green+3 more episodesOregon congresswoman who chaired the first hearings on sex discrimination in education
- Patsy Mink+5 more episodesHawaii congresswoman, first woman of color in Congress; principal House author
- Birch Bayh+3 more episodesIndiana senator and chief Senate sponsor of Title IX
- Lyndon B. Johnson+7 more episodesPresident who signed Executive Order 11246 in 1965
- Richard Nixon+15 more episodesPresident who signed Title IX into law
Where it happens
- University of Maryland, MarylandWhere Sandler was passed over for a full-time post in 1969
- U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.Received Sandler's 1970 class-action complaint against colleges
Timeline
- 1968Executive Order 11375 adds sex to the grounds barred for federal contractors, reaching colleges
- 1969Sandler is passed over for a full-time job as coming on too strong for a woman
- January 31, 1970Sandler, for WEAL, files a class-action complaint with the Labor Department against colleges nationwide
- Summer 1970Edith Green chairs seven days of House hearings on sex discrimination in education
- February 28, 1972Bayh reintroduces the provision and the Senate passes it
- June 23, 1972Nixon signs Title IX into law
Still debated
Sources differ on how many medical schools rejected Mink (a dozen to about twenty) and how many institutions Sandler charged (150 versus 250). Honorifics such as Godmother and Mother are applied inconsistently.
← PreviousLife Before Title IX: When the Doors Were Bolted ShutNext →How Title IX Passed in 1972 — 37 Words, Almost Unnoticed
Connected episodes in other series
The Front Door and the Back Door: ERA vs. Title IXA Woman's Place · Episode 9Also features Bernice Sandler, Birch Bayh
The Wet NASA: The Birth of NOAA (1970)Storm Warning: America's Earth Science · Episode 3Also features Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon
How Oil Money Built the Shah's Secret PoliceTwo Parties, One Coup · Episode 4Also features Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon
The Opening: The Laws That Changed, and the ERA That DiedHaving It All · Episode 2Also features Patsy Mink