Title IX Early Challenges

1. Title IX Early Challenges
By: Cory Olcott

2. Title IX Early Challenges
Cory Olcott serves in an administrative role at Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School in
Waltham, Massachusetts, and a volunteer assistant coach for the Harvard University
men’s water polo team. An educator and coach since the 1990s, Cory Olcott has
developed knowledge of Title IX, a law that protects equal access for individuals of all
genders to education programs and activities accepting federal funding.

3. Title IX Early Challenges
Enacted during the Nixon administration, Title IX has faced numerous challenges since
its inception, and is sometimes referred to as a living law due to the frequency with which
its scope shifts. In the 1970s, these changes focused on athletics. Many legislators
sought to diminish the impact of Title IX on athletics, but most of these challenges and
attempted changes failed.

4. Title IX Early Challenges
The strongest series of early challenges came in 1974 and 1975, when several attempts
were made to exempt sports, which produced revenue from Title IX. The first challenge
sought to exempt them outright, and was defeated twice over the course of two years.
The second challenge was comparatively narrow, and allowed schools to use revenue
from athletics on the programs that generated it before anything else. This attempt
ultimately died in committee.