Newsweek July 01-08, 2022

1991 “Will Americans still be applauding (and voting GOP) if the court keeps on moving to the right—if it severely restricts abortions, abandons the rights of minorities and women…?” Newsweek asked after Thurgood Marshall’s resignation made way for a new justice to be appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991. “It is the people Bush will leave behind on the Supreme Court who will be his most enduring legacy,” the magazine wrote. Three decades later, Bush’s appointee Clarence Thomas is still on a court that has moved ever-further right and is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. 1979 “The best short-term advice for Americans seems to be to save as much energy as possible—and even that might not be enough,” Newsweek said about rising prices of imported oil. The same rings true…

37 WORDS THAT STARTED IT ALL “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”Title IX, of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 SPORTS IS A NUMBERS GAME, and the landmark legislation that paved the way for women’s sports in the U.S. is full of them. There’s the name: Title IX. Thirty-seven is a key figure, too. That’s how many words are in the law—not one of them is “sports” or “athletics,” by the way—which bans discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs that get federal funding. And then, of course, there’s 50, the number of years since Title IX was enacted. This…

IN 2016, NFL QUARTERBACK Colin Kaepernick stunned the American public by kneeling during the national anthem. He took that knee to protest police brutality and systemic racism and, in an instant, changed the conversation about athletes, activism and fighting for social justice—at great personal cost; since that season, no pro team in the U.S. has hired him. That same year, the professional soccer player Megan Rapinoe also took a knee in solidarity. It was a simple but powerful gesture that reverberated across the country, too. It was allyship in the truest sense of the word. In an instant, Rapinoe became a symbol of what progress could look like. It also made her a target—for disagreement and disappointment, anger and vitriol, even death threats. She refused to be silenced and today, 50…

June 23, 1972 Title IX, an update to civil rights law that extends an existing ban on sex discrimination to education, is signed into law by President Richard Nixon. September 1973 Billie Jean King defeats Bobby Riggs in an exhibition match dubbed the “Battle of the Sexes.” Plus: The U.S. Open becomes the first major tournament to award equal prize money for men and women champions after King threatens to boycott over pay disparity. November 1973 A New Jersey court rules girls must be allowed to play Little League baseball. 538,000 girls play in youth leagues in 2021. 1974 Ann Meyers Drysdale becomes the first female recipient of a full fouryear athletics scholarship in any sport, signing onto UCLA’s basketball team. There, she is the first player in Division I history to record a quadruple-double—a man wouldn’t…

TITLE IX HAS IMPACTED SO many women, but it was a movement in life as well as in sports at the time. Because of laws like Title IX, more opportunities and more openings were created for women in all aspects of life. In sports generally, in colleges and in professional sports, Title IX opened doors. Early on in my career there were definitely moments that opened my eyes to inequality between men and women, like disproportionate court times. I saw how many women’s matches were on center courts at combined events for women and men. When you’re relegated to a side court, you notice that. Experiencing prize money that wasn’t equal was incredibly significant. No man had to experience that, but every woman did. That was pretty glaring until I became the…

I WAS 10 MONTHS OLD WHEN Congress passed Title IX, and it was that summer of 1972 when I first got in the pool. My mom never learned to swim so she took me to our local YMCA before my first birthday and enrolled me in water safety lessons. What started as an assurance plan for my parents turned into a lifelong passion for me. I loved the pool and found an outlet for my energy, competitive spirit and enthusiasm for life. At 3 years old, I joined the swim team. By the age of 10, I broke my first national record in my age group for the 200-meter free. At 15, I broke world records in the 400, 800 and 1,500. And at 17, I won three golds at the Olympic…