Julie Foudy ’93 was just one year old when the groundbreaking Title IX equality law, passed in the summer of 1972, kick-started a revolution in women’s college sports by enforcing a balance between the funding of men’s and women’s programs.
Looking back from the clarity of our position 40 years later, the impact of Title IX is obvious and striking, but in Foudy’s early childhood, the implications of the higher education equality law on women’s sports were not clear. The NCAA claimed its implementation was illegal and continued to resist its regulations until the 1981–82 season, when in a rush it introduced 12 new women’s sports, raising the total number from just two to 14.
Over the past two weeks, The Daily has told the story of Title IX and women’s sports at Stanford, from the program’s history to the experiences of both players and coaches.