Gratitude for Title IX. Celebrating 50 years!

This is my story, what is yours?

When Title IX passed on June 23, 1972, just under 300,000 girls nationwide played high school sports—now there are more than 3 million. Impressive!

When I learned that the New-York Historical Society was hosting an exhibitition on Title IX’s 50th anniversary, I invited Baruch College student, Divya, to attend with me. She’s a junior and finance major, and I mentor her through the FWA. She was enthusiastic to learn more.

Title IX seemed rather innocuous at the time. Its goal was to provide equality in education. Through Divya’s eyes, it was significant that young children started to hear very different stories from the ones that I grew up with. 

A Home Economics class receiving instructions on cooking. Ottawa, Ontario, 1959.

The most obvious example was how home economics was mandatory for all girls at my high school. Divya was given a choice between shop and home ec. As we compared our experiences, we realized that Divya was raised with the idea that she could do whatever she wanted with her life while I was brought up to become a wife and a mother. 

Now Divya is majoring in finance and trying to figure out what her dream life is—an entrepreneur, corporate finance executive, or something else?  

Title IX changed my life as it gave me the opportunity to play tennis in high school and in college.

While I was allowed to play tennis in college, I was not encouraged to dream big about becoming a professional tennis player. I witnessed Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova make a good living playing tennis and thought why not me?

But my parents, who both had advanced degrees—my father in medicine and my mother in social work—wanted a “traditional” path for me, which they felt would be safe and financially stable. At that time (the early 1980’s), only a few top players were making millions of dollars. All the others made significantly less.  My parents’ lack of support was disappointing, but Title IX allowed me to pursue my interests. 

Chris Evert in the 1970s

My parents encouraged me to attend college. If I decided to play tennis professionally after graduating, that would be my choice. I accepted the deal. They offered significant financial support for my tuition and I could still play collegiate tennis. I chose a small, liberal arts college so I could explore many career opportunities. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life beyond my love for tennis, coaching, and competition. My dream was to attend college in Florida, the “Tennis capital” and home of many U.S. legends, but my parents ruled that out.

I chose St. Lawrence University, which is closer to the North Pole and not exactly a tennis haven, but it was my mother’s alma mater. They gave me financial aid, I liked the people, and it had a good women’s tennis team.

There I learned that the tennis team had two superstar players—and I was not one of them. I was the fourth top player on the team, which came at a complete shock as I been number one on my high school team, number one in Baltimore County (where I grew up), and one of the top ten players in the state of Maryland.

The top college players were another level above me. This observation burst my bubble about my chances as a professional tennis player. While I was willing to work hard to improve, I had to be honest with myself: was this my true passion?  

Betty Stöve and Martina Navrátilová, 1980

When I was sixteen years old, I taught tennis as a summer job. I fell in love with coaching and inspiring people to improve their tennis game and received compliments from a wide range of people who received my coaching, including parents of young children to adults. I continued teaching tennis throughout college.

After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and minor in Psychology, I knew I wanted to find a way to coach people at work in a competitive environment. But what did that look like?

I signed up for a career transition program where you were taught job search skills and placed in a cohort of others who were trying to identify a career along with a career coach. This typically lasted for a few months, but it took me almost three years of endless interviews to find a job in my newly identified profession of training and development, given that I had no business experience. 

While I went through the job search process, I continued to teach tennis and got a master’s degree in psychology. Eventually, I was hired by Manufacturers Hanover bank in their training and development department. While I loved the work, I realized that commercial banking’s culture wasn’t challenging enough for me. I began to look for a job and—miraculously—landed a similar role at the very elite company, Goldman Sachs.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven.  

This was the 1990s and Goldman was a growing entrepreneurial company, full of the smartest people I had ever met. Most of them came from Ivy League and other top colleges, with a few like me from smaller liberal arts or public colleges. One of the reasons the recruiter from Goldman told me they liked me was because I had been a top student, graduating Magna Cum Laude and I had been a competitive tennis player.

This was an eye-opener! I had always taken my competitive tennis playing career for granted. But I realized that the competitive mindset. The hard work, perseverance, and passion was not commonplace. This competitive drive was something that distinguished me from other people.  And, society now viewed women like me much more positively than twenty or thirty years ago.  Today it seems that women have played sports in high school and college are now leaders in business. One survey found that more than nine in ten female C-Suite executives were athletes in school! (The New York Times, Friday June 24th, “Title IX Hasn’t Done Enough for Women’s Sports” by Lindsay Crouse).

Patsy Mink, member of the United States House of Representatives.

And, as I reflect back on Title IX’s 50th anniversary, I am deeply grateful to Patsy Mink of Hawaii who was a pivotal figure in writing and defending this law. The opportunities I gained through playing a sport: competing, winning and losing, have taught me invaluable lessons that have resulted in a much more fulfilling and successful life. I can’t even imagine life without them.  

Laws can provide equal opportunities which lead to something even more important—changed perceptions in society, which create greater possibilities than can ever have been imagined. 

It is critical to remember how these laws and policies influence the quality of lives in more ways than we realize. As rights are taken away, it is critical to tell our stories of how we have benefited from these laws. Our stories will inspire others to continue the fight for a fair and equitable society where everyone has the opportunity to pursue their dreams. 

How has Title IX changed your life? Share your story!