[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 89 (Monday, June 23, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H4212-H4213]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               COMMEMORATING 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF TITLE IX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, I want to take a moment at the outset to 
thank the gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. Mink] for all the work she has 
done on title IX. The gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. Mink] was here in 
1972, and was involved in title IX from its very beginning. She has 
made a big difference in the lives of women throughout this country. I 
respect her both for her leadership and for her determination.
  We are here gathered today to commemorate the 25th anniversary of 
title IX, the landmark civil rights legislation that has opened the 
doors for young women in our Nation's high schools, colleges and 
universities.
  I was on an athletic scholarship in 1963 to the University of Iowa, 
on a

[[Page H4213]]

football scholarship. Back then we did not have one woman who was on an 
athletic scholarship. They were on the sidelines. Back then young 
women, because of their gender and despite their talent, were denied 
access to the game. Women were discouraged from playing catch or mixing 
it up or from clinching the title. In 1963 that was the reality for 
women.
  Today we are in a new world. Today young girls are turning out in 
droves to see the Silver Bullets, hungry to watch women play baseball. 
Seventy-six thousand fans pack a stadium in Athens, GA to watch the 
U.S. women's Olympic soccer team defeat China for the gold. The 
daughters of women who were relegated to half-court, 3-dribble 
basketball just began just this week their inaugural season of the 
WNBA, a women's professional basketball league.
  Everywhere in this country girls are playing sports with an intensity 
their mothers did not have the opportunity to learn. The lessons they 
are learning, that growing sense of physical power, is strengthening 
the rest of their lives.
  We are all familiar with the cliches that we want our daughters to 
grow up so they can be doctors and lawyers and Presidents of the United 
States, and now basketball players. But that is really what this law 
and this struggle is all about.
  We have spent the last 25 years not only fighting barriers, bringing 
down walls and opening doors, but also trying to establish a norm. With 
every freshman class, with every graduation, young women are 
establishing another layer of accomplishments, another layer of firsts 
and another layer for younger girls to see, so that by the time their 
turn comes, they feel not fortunate to be given a chance, but that it 
is their right to have a chance.
  We are reaching a crucial point where young girls are not only being 
given the resources they need to succeed but also can look to role 
models, people like the Mia Hamms and Sally Rides and Sheryl Swoopes, 
and then look inside themselves and wonder if they have those same 
abilities.
  Before title IX in 1972, only 9 percent of the medical degrees went 
to women, only 1 percent of the dental degrees went to women, only 7 
percent of the law degrees. Now women are receiving 38 percent of 
medical and dental degrees and 43 percent of law degrees.
  Title IX has opened doors and allowed our daughters to entertain big 
dreams. For many girls these dreams are evolving into reality. But 
while we are getting there, we are not there yet. There is still a wage 
gap. There are still too many doors closed to young women today.
  There are still too many places where title IX is not enforced. 
Twenty-five schools are now under scrutiny by the Women's National Law 
Center for being out of compliance. And even though in the last 5 years 
women's sports participation at the collegiate level has soared to 37 
percent, women are still only getting 23 percent of the operating 
expenditures.
  Oftentimes we can get lost in those statistics, but if we think of 
these not as statistics but as our daughters, and if we think of the 
wage gap not as a pie chart but as a message of worth, and if we think 
of the operating expenditures not as numbers on a ledger but as the 
tools and the support our daughters need to succeed, then we can begin 
to understand where we are today, why it is not good enough, why we 
have to move forward.
  Today millions of girls play on the soccer fields, are involved in 
little leagues and compete in gymnastics. They do not know that title 
IX is the reason that they have these opportunities, but title IX was 
passed for them. From the field and from their games and from their 
meets, they will learn lessons about commitment and concentration and 
energy which they will use throughout their lives. In the next 25 
years, may we help our daughters use these lessons to continue laying 
the foundation for a better tomorrow.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I am just pleased to join my colleagues, the 
gentlewoman from Hawaii [Mrs. Mink] and the gentlewoman from New Jersey 
[Mrs. Roukema] in offering today a bipartisan resolution which not only 
celebrates the 25th anniversary of title IX but also looks to the 
future with a promise to uphold and enforce this legislation in order 
to ensure equal opportunity for all Americans.

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