Description
The artwork features four unique designs, each a dark blue silhouette of a woman’s face inprofile. The digital illustrations of the four women represent female athletes, specifically arunner, a swimmer, a gymnast, and a soccer player. Yellow laurel branches, symbolic ofvictory, rest in their hair and on the swimmer’s cap. 'Title IX' appears written across thewomen’s cheeks, intended as an empowering message about the inclusion of women andgirls in all educational settings.
U.S. Representative Patsy T. Mink of Hawai‘i was the principal author of a section of aHouse bill that became Title IX. The first woman of color and the first Asian Americanwoman elected to the House of Representatives, Mink was a tireless champion ofwomen’s rights and the rights of people of color. Mink worked with Representative EdithGreen and Senator Birch Bayh in 1971 to write and sponsor legislation in both chambersof Congress addressing discrimination against women in education. After somenegotiation between the two chambers, the Education Amendments were passed andsigned into law by President Richard M. Nixon on June 23, 1972. Thirty years later, shortlyafter Mink’s death, Title IX was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in EducationAct in tribute to her enormous contributions in furthering equity in education.In the 50 years since its passage, Title IX has been applied widely at elementary,secondary, and post-secondary institutions. The law covers a wide range of programs andresources. Additionally, Title IX prohibits sexual harassment, including sexual assault,dating violence, domestic violence, and stalking occurring on school campuses or withinschool programs or activities.
Title IX has had the most visible impact on school athletics. The year before the law wasenacted, around 300,000 girls participated in high school sports, which accounted for lessthan 10 percent of all participants in high school athletics. Women’s sports were all butinvisible on college and university campuses, receiving very little of the funding and noneof the recognition of their male counterparts. Title IX created pathways for enrichingwomen’s athletics programs, allowing for a wider range of competitive sports offerings,more robust physical education regimens, and equal spaces to play.
Fifty years after its passage, Title IX continues to evolve. The ongoing need to addressdiscrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs and activities providesopportunities to better serve students, despite economic, cultural, geographic, and otherbarriers. Title IX has impacted generations of young people in the United States, and thework to provide protections for even more in the future continues.
5 sheets of 100 First-Class Forever© USPS postage stamps.*The slash over "Forever" in the image is to protect it from being used to produce counterfeit postage. Actual stamps will not have this.
