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About:
Established in 1982 at LaGuardia Community College/ CUNY with a mission to collect, preserve, and make available primary materials documenting the social and political history of New York City. We hold nearly 5,000 cubic feet of archival records and 3,200 reels of microfilm with almost 100,000 photographs and 2,000,000 documents available on our website.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Title IX Passed 40 Years Ago

Steven A. Levine
Coordinator for Educational Programs

Feminism was on the rise as a political, economic and social movement in 1972 and Title IX was just one example of its increasing influence. The importance of women’s rights as a political issue could also be seen in the presidential campaign of New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay. In a campaign speech in Miami in March 1972, (click here) he declared his support for women’s equality, listing the accomplishments of his administration in support of that goal. “What this means, for women, is that their work must be counted at full value - - whether they work in the home or on the job. Women who want a job or need a job, to earn a second income, or support themselves, or their children, must have equal opportunities, and full pay, and the same chance for promotion that men enjoy. And the rights to proper child care and to abortion are just as legitimate and necessary to equality as an end to job discrimination and the exploitation of women workers.”
      Forty years ago today, Congress passed Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, declaring that "No person in the U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid." This single sentence gave legal standing to women demanding equal access to all aspects of federally funded education, opening doors to women and girls in elementary, secondary and higher education. Title IX was a response to pervasive sex discrimination in education raised in congressional hearings in 1970 by Rep. Edith Green (D-Ohio), chair of the subcommittee that dealt with higher education and championed by Title IX's co-author Rep. 
Pasty Mink, the first Japanese American from Hawaii.*   While it did not end sex discrimination, Title IX greatly increased opportunities for girls and women in education.
To learn more about Title IX and women’s rights, go to the Archives’ Women’s Leadership website and curriculum.  What are your thoughts about the effects of Title IX and how much progress has been made toward sexual equality 40 years later?  Leave your comments below.
*Title IX was later renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

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