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Health & Fitness

Wellesley Voices Add to National Conversation on 40th Anniversary of Title IX

Saturday June 23 marked the 40th anniversary of Title IX. Three members of the Wellesley College community participate in the national dialogue.

"Of all the tumultuous events of 1972—Vietnam, Watergate, school busing, the Equal Rights Amendment—the year’s giant education bill seemed like just another piece of legislation. But buried inside the law that President Richard M. Nixon signed on June 23, 1972, was a little amendment that would revolutionize sports, remake education for girls, and prove to be one of the most significant civil rights laws for women in American history." -Karen Blumenthal in "The Truth About Title IX," which was published Friday, June 22 in Newsweek's The Daily Beast.*

Saturday, June 23, marked the 40th Anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that prohibited sex discrimination in education and required most educational institutions to offer equal opportunities for women and men. Three members of the Wellesley College community were invited to participate in national dialogue about the impact Title IX has had - and what still needs to be done.

Wellesley College volleyball player Alixandra Binney, a junior, was a featured guest on NPR's The Takeaway where she reflected on her experience playing a varsity sport at a women's college. She joined legendary sports figure Jackie Joyner Kersee for the conversation.

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Dean of Students Debra DeMeis and professor Rosanna Hertz, The Classes of 1919-1950 Professor of Sociology and Women's and Gender Studies and chair of Wellesley's Women and Gender Studies department, wrote a reflection on what still needs to be done for Newsweek's The Daily Beast. Read: "Sex, Sports, and Title IX on Campus: The Triumphs and Travails"

DeMeis also talked to host Michel Martin on NPR's Tell Me More. Listen to: "Title IX Turns 40, But as the Field Leveled?"

Find out what's happening in Wellesleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

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*Karen Blumenthal is a journalist and the author of Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law that Changed the Future of Girls in America, from which The Daily Beast article was adapted.

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