The Influence of Title IX
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One Goal to Change a Nation: The Influence of Title IX Interviewer: N. Belikove Interviewee: Julie Foudy Mr. Brandt Date: February 22, 2010 Table of Contents Interviewee Release Form ......................................................................................................... 2 Interviewer Release Form ......................................................................................................... 3 Statement of Purpose ................................................................................................................ 4 Biography of Ms. Julie Maureen Foudy ................................................................................... 5 Historical Contextualization "Title IX: The Law That Created a New Meaning to Equality‖ ........................................ 7 Interview Transcription .......................................................................................................... 17 Analysis of Interview ............................................................................................................... 76 Appendix 1............................................................................................................................... 81 Appendix 2............................................................................................................................... 82 Appendix 3............................................................................................................................... 83 Works Consulted ..................................................................................................................... 84 Statement of Purpose The purpose of this oral history project is to provide a more complete understanding of Title IX, for both men and women. Title IX, a section of the Education Amendments of 1972, gave women the right to equal opportunity in all government sponsored activities, including sports. The interview with Julie Foudy, a former member of the U.S. Women‘s National Soccer Team, provides a personal account of the hardships one woman endured before Title IX was put into effect and the obstacles she overcame to ensure change. Biography Julie Maureen Foudy was born on January 23, 1971 in Mission Viejo, California. She grew up being the youngest child with three older siblings. As a child she participated in any team sport she could: volleyball, soccer, softball, track and field, basketball, tackle football, and even tennis. Her father especially encouraged her to play tennis because he thought that was where the most money would come from1. However, as much as he wanted her to play tennis, Foudy joined the Women‘s National Team (WNT) for soccer when she was 16 years old. She was able to attend her high school, Mission Viejo High School, but due to travel she missed many school-sponsored events such as prom and graduation. When she was able to attend school, she won three highly recognized awards. She was a two-time, first-team All-American, honored as the Player of the Year for Southern California three straight years, 1987-89, and was the Los Angeles Times’ soccer player of the decade. Foudy continued to play for the national team while she attended Stanford University. While at Stanford, she was a four-time NSCAA All-American, the Soccer America 1991 Player of the Year and the 1989 Freshman of the Year, a 1991 and ‘92 finalist for the Hermann Trophy, 1 It was very difficult for women to make athletics a profession, especially if the sport was considered a ―man‘s‖ sport. and was named the team‘s MVP for three consecutive years. She was also the first woman at Stanford to receive a scholarship for soccer. While playing for the WNT, she attended three different Olympics and two World Cups. The WNT won gold in the Olympics in 1996 and 2004, and received a silver medal in the 2000 Olympics. The 1991 World Cup was the first World Cup that women were allowed to play in. The 1999 game had a great impact on America when the U.S. team won it that year. The final game of the tournament, which took place in The Rose Bowl in California, was the most- attended women‘s sports event in history, with an official attendance of 90,185. After playing soccer for over 15 years, however, Foudy became tired of the usual ―friendlies‖. Today, she has her own soccer camp that is dedicated to teaching young girls how to be great leaders in their communities. Part of what the camp encourages is projects designed to help others. Through the Julie Foudy Leadership Foundation, girls may receive grants up to $250, to complete their projects. When Foudy is not working at the camp, she works for ESPN as a sports commentator, specifically on the Olympics and at both the men‘s and women‘s World Cup games. She currently lives in San Clemente, California, with her husband of 11 years, Ian Sawyers, and her children Isabel and Declan. Historical Contextualization Title IX: The Law That Created a New Meaning for Equality In 1971, fewer than 300,000 girls played high school sports while over 3.5 million men played on teams nationwide. Over the past 37 years, women‘s participation in sports has increased 940% with over 3 million girls playing today. The catalyst for this major transformation was a simple, yet controversial federal law introduced as Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972. Title IX was passed on June 23, 1972, the same year as the Equal Rights Amendment, and granted ―girls and women in high schools and colleges the right to equal opportunity in sports‖ (Foundation). Women were granted equality in many aspects of life, the most prominent being the right to vote, after over 100 years of fighting for equal treatment. Today, women‘s sports are still not as favored as men‘s, but the increase in involvement of women‘s sports has made a tremendous impact on the way women are able to pursue equality in all aspects of life. In order to fully understand the influence of Title IX on a ―Title IX baby‖ like Julie Foudy, it is important to have a good understanding of the preceding history of women in sports, the women‘s rights movement, the creation of the law, and its impact today. Olympe de Gouges was one of the many women in France who stood up for what she believed in: all human beings are created equal. Born in 1748, de Gouges grew up extremely interested in writing plays, and many of her works of literature focused on equal rights, not just of gender but also of race. Her commitment to and encouragement for these issues came from her much broader belief that all human beings should be considered equal. Her most notable piece of work was the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen. Two years after France‘s Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was published, members of the Society of Republican and Revolutionary Women encouraged de Gouges to create and publish a new declaration specifically for women, which became the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen. In essence, the revised declaration stated that women were equal to men in every respect and thus were entitled to the same rights. This document caused de Gouges to have enemies, but she maintained that because so many women participated in the French Revolution, they should automatically receive the new rights extended to males. De Gouges stated in her Declaration that ―woman is born free and lives equal to man in her rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common utility‖ (quoted in Levy 90). All that these French women wanted were the same rights as men, but they were able to influence many more people than they could have imagined. One hundred years later, women tried once again to fight for equality. In 1840, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott went to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, but were denied seats because of their sex. They decided that something had to be done to change their unequal status. Eight years later, ―over 300 men and women came to Seneca Falls, New York, to protest the mistreatment of women in social, economic, political, and religious life‖ (UML). At the Seneca Falls Convention, Stanton promoted the same concepts as de Gouges, altering the United States Declaration of Independence so that the phrase ―all men are created equal‖ would read as ―all men and women are created equal‖; the document is known as the Declaration of Sentiments. Change did not occur immediately when the declaration was first presented, but Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton created The National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA), a liberal organization that was based in New York. A parallel group was created at the same time, The American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA), which took a more conservative approach; it was run by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, and Julia Ward Howe in Boston. Between 1890 and 1913, the two suffrage groups joined together as the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), with Stanton as the president until 1895. Carrie Chapman Catt was the next president to take over the association. Catt believed in taking on the issue of women‘s right to vote state by state, but Alice Paul, who once worked for NAWSA, had a different idea that took a more forceful approach. In 1913, ―Alice Paul and Lucy Burns organize[d] the Congressional Union, later known as the National Women's Party (1916). Borrowing the tactics of the radical, militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in England, members of the Woman's Party participate[d] in hunger strikes, picket[ed] the White House, and