Patsy T. Mink, late Congresswoman from Hawai'i, wrote the law as an outgrowth of adversities she faced in obtaining her college degrees at the University of Hawai'i, University of Nebraska and University of Chicago.

Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, formerly known as the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act. The law was renamed by President George W. Bush on October 29, 2002 upon the death of the law's author, Patsy T. Mink. It was instituted in 1972 and eventually expanded to prohibit gender discrimination in any United States educational institution. Originally, it had focused on equality in sports opportunities and called for the increase of college scholarships of women to ensure parity with male athletes.

Title IX has recently been under some controversy, some groups claiming that because of it, some schools are spending more money on women's traditional sports programs and less money in men's traditional sports programs such as Wrestling and other sports or, in some cases, doing away with some traditional male sports programs all together.

Nonetheless, Title IX has been instrumental in the development of women sports and it can be said that it helped the public prepare for today's women's professional sports leagues such as the WNBA and WUSA.

For a good article on Title IX from a students perspective, see Coaches' Quarterly / Spring 2003, written by Jennifer Cushman.

External links

• "The Case for Requiring a Proportionality Test to Assess Compliance with Title IX in High School Athletics," Northern Illinois University Law Review, vol. 23, No. 1 (fall 2002)