WEBVTT - Too Strong for a Woman 0:00:01.080 --> 0:00:03.559 This season on the thread. We began in the Rose 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.920 Bowl in Pasadena, California, with one of the most iconic 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:10.600 moments in sports history. Whether this was that it continues 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:17.680 from the Rose Bowl, but so much led up to 0:00:17.720 --> 0:00:21.520 that moment when the US women's soccer team hoisted the 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.720 World Cup trophy. Long before the ninety niners took the 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:27.920 country by storm, the members of the first national team 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:31.320 in were just trying to keep up with the rest 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.640 of the soccer playing world. We had to fight for 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.559 every moment and every opportunity in a match. It was 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:43.640 definitely harder than anyone could have ever anticipated. The first 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.680 members of the women's national team played for little pay 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.519 and even less recognition. They were just happy to have 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.440 the chance to play the game they loved, something that 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.360 the female athletes who came before them had not enjoyed 0:00:55.360 --> 0:00:59.280 in America. Back in my day in high school, which 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:02.680 I know is a difficult concept for younger women to 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:07.360 understand right now, but there were no teams for girls. 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:10.880 There are no sports teams for girls in my high school. 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.000 Then in nineteen seventy two, thanks to a law called 0:01:14.040 --> 0:01:18.040 Title nine that banned sex discrimination and education, everything started 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:21.680 to change. The doors gradually begin to open as people 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.919 begin to talk about equal opportunity for girls and women, 0:01:25.319 --> 0:01:29.040 and including women in sports. Once these doors open, women 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:32.959 just charged through. But just charging through was not enough. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:36.080 Many institutions in America were reluctant to put women on 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.319 a level playing field with their male peers, especially when 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.959 it came to sports. Then an unforgettable protest from the 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.039 members of the Yale Women's crew team caught the attention 0:01:46.040 --> 0:01:48.280 of the country. They had Title nine and blue marker 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.360 on breasts and backs, and they dropped trout Title nine. 0:01:52.520 --> 0:01:55.360 The law that the Yale women wanted enforced was far 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.400 from inevitable. It came into being because of the efforts 0:01:58.440 --> 0:02:01.360 of several key players off the field. To get a 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:04.560 bill that banded sex discrimination passed. Was an incredible feat, 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.200 one that required not just political muscle and persistence, but 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:18.480 a whole lot of strategy, subtlety, and smarts. Pagney pirates 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:24.920 to the stage, Way Haney, We're making ways. The generation 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:34.360 comes of page The Sandler points the way. Let us play, 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:42.800 let us play, let us play, let us play let 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.160 us play. I'm Sean Braswell. Welcome to the Threat of 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:50.200 podcast from Ozzie When Bernice Sandler died in January nine, 0:02:50.520 --> 0:02:53.400 at the age of ninety, she was fondly remembered as 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.720 the godmother of Title nine, and she deserved that title. 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:00.360 Without Sandler's efforts, the landmark law would never have gotten 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.160 off the ground. My mother was unbelievably bright. This is 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:07.400 Deborah Sandler, one of Bernice Sandler's daughters. She actually went 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:09.880 by Bunny. That was her nickname, so I'll probably refer 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:11.480 to her as Bunny when I talked about her in 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.440 this Bunny Sandler was born in nineteen twenty eight in 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.640 New York, the daughter of Jewish immigrants. They were, you know, 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.200 fairly traditional in a lot of ways, so you know, 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.280 my mother kind of grew up thinking that she would, 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:25.800 you know, get married as one does and have children 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.480 as one does. And Bunny Sandler did as one does. 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.440 She got married, and she had two children, and then 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:34.239 once her daughters were teenagers, she did something a bit 0:03:34.280 --> 0:03:37.920 more unconventional for a woman of her time. She went 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:40.160 to school and decided she was going to be a 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.040 psychologist or a therapist. So she got a doctor in 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:45.880 counseling and did extremely well in school. At the age 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:48.760 of forty one, Dr Bunny Sandler started to apply for 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.840 teaching positions. She had an impeccable resume, a master's degree 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:55.320 from City College in New York, a doctorate from the 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:57.920 University of Maryland, and it just so happened that there 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.760 were seven open positions at Maryland, a place she had 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:04.120 already been teaching as a graduate student. Sandler was turned 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.400 down for all seven of the positions. She was told, 0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:10.240 you don't really need this job because you have a 0:04:10.360 --> 0:04:14.839 husband supporting you. And she was told, you know, you've 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.640 been out of work too long because you were home 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:20.480 raising children, so you're not really right for this job. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.200 The frustrated Sandler went looking for more answers. This is 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:27.359 the late Bunny Sandler in a interview talking about what 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.279 happened next. So I went and asked one of my 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:34.800 friends on the faculty without missing a beat, h he said, well, 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.200 let's face it, you come on too strong for a woman. 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.840 And I went home and I cried, and my then 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:44.239 husband was really very good. He said, are there strong 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:46.800 men in the department? And I said yes, And he said, 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:50.200 then it's not you with sex discrimination. And it took 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.320 me a while to realize that's what it was, and 0:04:53.360 --> 0:05:01.279 then I got mad. The University of Maryland picked the 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.760 wrong woman to piss off Deborah Sandler again. My mother 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.560 was a badass. She had, I think, a sense of 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.000 righteous outrage whenever something was just not just, when something 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.520 wasn't fair. Bunny Sandler's sense of justice began in school 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:18.839 when she was a young girl. The boys got to 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:20.880 do things like clap the erasers to get the chalk 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:22.760 dusk out. The girls were not allowed to do that, 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.280 and she complained about that. Sandler's outrage didn't stop when 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:28.880 she got older. After she was rejected for the teaching 0:05:28.920 --> 0:05:31.839 positions in Maryland, Sandler started to do what she did 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:35.880 best research. She assumed that since sex discrimination was wrong, 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:39.760 it would also be illegal. She was mistaken at the time. 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:42.880 In nineteen sixty nine, there were no laws banning sex 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:47.200 discrimination and education. But Sandler found something almost as good 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.640 as a law. She was looking at an executive order 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:54.920 and saw that the word sex was in there, and 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.440 just literally, you know, cried out loud with discovery and delight. 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.479 It was Executive Order one one two four six to 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.720 be precise, signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in ninety eight. 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.640 The order banned federal contractors from discrimination on the basis 0:06:09.720 --> 0:06:15.239 of race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. An actual 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.080 ban on sex discrimination. Sandler couldn't believe it, and because 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:23.279 colleges received federal funds, the president's executive order also applied 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.360 to them. It was just that American colleges weren't obeying it. 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.280 But in order to bring a legal action to hold 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:33.240 the school's accountable, Bunny Sandler needed examples of sex discrimination 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.880 to prove her case. Lots of examples, so she put 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:39.840 her research skills to work, and she began to talk 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:41.919 to other women at the University of Maryland, where she 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.640 had gone about their experiences. Karen Blumenthal is a journalist 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.440 and author of Let Me Play, The Story of Title nine, 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:51.359 the law that changed the future of girls in America. 0:06:51.720 --> 0:06:54.400 She began to expand her research and talked to women 0:06:54.400 --> 0:06:57.159 all around the country who had earned advanced degrees and 0:06:57.160 --> 0:07:00.360 then found themselves shut out in the workplace. Sandler compiled 0:07:00.360 --> 0:07:04.720 a lengthy report documenting sex discrimination and college hiring, pay, 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:08.520 financial aid, and more. Then she started filing complaints against 0:07:08.560 --> 0:07:12.000 colleges with the U S Department of Justice. Sandler charged 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:15.320 the colleges with violating Executive Order one, one, two, four six. 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.520 She filed complaints against every college and university in the country, 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:22.360 more than two hundred and fifty in total. She didn't 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:25.320 stop there. She sent copies of the eight page complaint 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.320 to newspapers and other media outlets. Then she has several 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.720 hundred copies printed and she sends them to every congressional office. 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:35.239 One of the members of Congress who received a copy 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:39.240 of Bunny Sandler's complaint was Edith Green, a congresswoman from Oregon. 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:43.040 It was a kind of fortuitous meeting of the two 0:07:43.080 --> 0:07:45.679 and she begins to work for Edith Green and helped 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:49.920 provide information for her. Bunny Sandler's exhaustive research had put 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.880 every college in the country on the hot seat. Now, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:55.239 with the help of Edith Green, her efforts were about 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:57.960 to change the law itself. Then helped level the playing 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:06.280 field for millions of American women. Edith Green was a 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:12.120 Democratic congressperson from Oregon, and she was first elected in 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:16.400 nineteen fifty five. Susan Ware is a historian an author 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:19.440 of Game Set Match, Billy Jane King and the Revolution 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:23.120 in Women's Sports. To be a woman and to get 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.080 elected to Congress in the midst of an era we 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:29.680 think of as just the height of domesticity. Uh, that's 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:33.280 quite an accomplishment. Green, a former teacher, helped create the 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.480 first community colleges. She helped fund new libraries in rural areas. 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:41.560 People in Washington started to call her Mrs Education. Then 0:08:41.679 --> 0:08:44.200 Green started to realize there was something more she could 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:49.240 do for American education and for women. Author Karen Blumenthal, So, 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.679 in the nineteen sixties, Edith Green is holding hearings and 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:56.080 listening to some uh superintendent's talk about programs they had 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.720 to keep boys from dropping out of high school. And 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.640 she's listening to them, and she's says, wait a minute, 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:03.800 did I hear you say you had programs only for 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:06.360 boys to keep them from dropping out of high school? 0:09:06.360 --> 0:09:08.600 And they said, oh yes, And she said, well, what 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:10.679 about girls? And they said, oh, well, you know, they 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:12.599 don't really need high school degrees. They're just going to 0:09:12.679 --> 0:09:15.559 become housewives and mothers. And this was shocking to her. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:20.400 She couldn't imagine that this was legal. Green started to 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.160 focus her attention on how women and girls were treated 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:27.760 differently in education. Susan Ware Again, back in nineteen seventy 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.079 there were a lot of people who literally did not 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.559 believe that there was such a thing as sex discrimination 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:39.720 in higher education, and they needed to be shown that 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:42.679 this was in fact a problem. But to show her 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:46.679 fellow members of Congress the problem, Green needed evidence. Enter 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:49.880 Bunny Sandler. Sandler provided Green with the data she had 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.200 gathered on sex discrimination. She supplied the names of dozens 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:56.280 of witnesses who could testify to that discrimination. In the 0:09:56.320 --> 0:09:59.520 summer of nineteen seventy, Edith Green called the first Congressional 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:03.160 subcommit De hearings to address the issue. The congressional hearings 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.160 were such a good place to do this, to gather 0:10:06.320 --> 0:10:10.240 all this information so it couldn't be dismissed as oh, 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:13.960 that's just one anecdote or that's just one incident. To 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:18.200 build the pattern, to really show people that this was 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:22.160 in fact a serious issue. For seven days, Green solicited 0:10:22.160 --> 0:10:25.600 testimony about how women were being denied opportunities on campuses 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:30.079 across the country, from admissions to employment. For example, at 0:10:30.080 --> 0:10:33.320 the time, most American law schools and medical schools limited 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:35.880 women to less than ten percent of their student bodies, 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:38.920 and even those women who did earn graduate degrees found 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:43.360 it nearly impossible to get jobs. Green found such facts astonishing, 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:46.880 and of course her point behind it is saying to them, 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:51.680 look at all the wasted woman power, all these women 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.240 who have these graduate degrees or who want to have 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:59.520 professional careers, who aren't being hired. Why aren't we given 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:03.320 them a cha ants. Green invited college administrators to testify 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:06.839 on the issue of sex discrimination. No one accepted her invitation, 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:10.680 no newspapers covered the hearings, and no one really paid attention. 0:11:11.160 --> 0:11:14.040 But Green had her evidence. Now came the hard part, 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.160 getting a bill banning sex discrimination through a nearly all 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:21.280 male Congress that did not think sex discrimination was a problem. 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:23.839 Edan Green was up for the challenge. She knew that 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:26.559 a larger higher education bill was about to come before 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:29.960 the House Education Committee that dealt with issues like financial 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:34.400 aid and school bussing. Green sees the opportunity Karen Blumenthal. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.080 Edith Green was a strategist. She knew that you had 0:11:38.120 --> 0:11:42.720 to work the system well, and she saw an opportunity 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:46.240 to get into this Higher Education Act and amendment that 0:11:46.280 --> 0:11:50.240 would outlaw discrimination against women, and so Green went to work. 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:54.600 She waits until the whole full House Committee on Education 0:11:54.800 --> 0:11:58.880 is together to propose this amendment to outlaw sex discrimination 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:01.160 and education. And she does it because she has some 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.600 great allies in this committee, including Shirley Chisholm, the first 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:08.040 African American women in Congress, Patsy Mink, the first woman 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:11.720 of color and Congress, and some other supporters. Not everyone 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:14.000 in the House Committee was receptive to the need to 0:12:14.040 --> 0:12:17.480 address sex discrimination. The men in the committee, who are 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:20.840 most of the members of the committee, think this is hilarious. Um. 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:23.439 It just seems absurd to them. I mean, of course 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.240 women should go to school, but they shouldn't go, you know, 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:29.800 to Harvard Um. And one of them gets very tickled 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.400 at the idea that you might have male stewardess is. 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:35.440 After the laughter died down, a majority of the committee's 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:39.000 thirty five members approved the bill, including Title nine. The 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.760 next battleground was the Full House of Representatives. Supporters of 0:12:42.760 --> 0:12:46.000 the women's rights movement and Green's allies in Congress asked 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:48.200 her what they could do to help get the bill passed. 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:52.559 She advised them to do nothing. Green told them, nobody 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.439 knows what's in this bill. If you start asking questions 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.720 lobbying for it, they're going to ask questions. Susan Ware 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.120 they didn't want to draw too much attention to it. 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:06.600 In some ways, it was a better tactic to just 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:11.480 include some of these writers or pieces of legislation and 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.360 then have people vote on them and really not engaged 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:18.920 too much about what they might actually do. The House 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.280 started to consider the education bill for days. Members of 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:25.680 Congress debated. The hot button issues like school bussing, and 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.079 the question of sex discrimination flew under the radar. Then 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:33.440 a powerful constituency took notice of Title nine, Karen Blumenthal. 0:13:34.080 --> 0:13:36.960 And it turns out that there are some people in 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:38.920 the US who were opposed to it, and those are 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:43.280 namely the Ivy League universities, Harvard, Princeton, Yale. All of 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.000 them are a guest at this idea that now, if 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.600 this law passes, they may have to accept women. The 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.520 Ivy League schools weren't the only ones opposed to Title nine. 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.160 In the New York Times when it was being debated 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:58.320 in the House, actually ran an editorial where they opposed 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:00.920 this amendment, saying, you know, men and women have different 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:05.040 needs and ambitions. Green eventually gave in. She agreed to 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.840 support an amendment to address the Ivy League's concerns with 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.920 the bill, and their compromise is that they will outlaw 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:17.679 sex discrimination at public schools, including in the admissions of undergraduates, 0:14:17.720 --> 0:14:21.080 but not at private schools like Harvard and Yale and 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:25.120 Notre Dame, and even today, in the fine print on 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:29.320 the application to any of those schools there is a 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:33.440 little disclaimer that says undergraduate admissions are not covered under 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.480 Title nine of the Higher Education Act of nineteen seventy two. 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:40.840 Under the law, they still can make decisions based on gender. 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.520 You heard that correctly. Ivy League colleges lobbied Congress to 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.960 let them discriminate against women, and they succeeded. Green lost 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.280 that battle, but she knew that she could still win 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.480 the war. The slim down Title nine passed the House, 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:58.120 it was time now for a second showdown in the 0:14:58.200 --> 0:15:00.320 US Senate, and it was in the in it that 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.000 the subject of women's sports came up for the first time. 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:12.840 Once the House approved Title nine, it was time for 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.360 the U. S. Senate to consider it. Thus far, the 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.840 subject of sports had not come out in the discussions 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:21.040 of the bill. This was partly by design Edith Green 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:23.680 knew what she was doing. Green had been very careful 0:15:23.720 --> 0:15:25.960 not to make sports part of the debate over Title 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.000 nine in the House. Committee hearings. She knew the subject 0:15:29.040 --> 0:15:31.680 might end up overshadowing the broader intent of the bill. 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.400 Historian Susan Ware. One thing that's important to remember about 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:40.600 Title nine is that it wasn't originally about women's athletics. 0:15:40.640 --> 0:15:44.720 It was about the general discrimination that women faced in 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:48.800 higher education, author Karen Blumenthal. In the Senate, this issue 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:52.360 was taken up by Senator birch By from Indiana. At 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.320 the time, or at least part of this time, there 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.920 was only one woman in the Senate. I've had young 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.840 people say to me, um, well, what are the women 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.480 in a Senate say? Well, there was one. Birch By, 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:05.640 who died in March nineteen, played a key role in 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:09.400 Title nine's passage. The liberal senator from Indiana was a 0:16:09.400 --> 0:16:13.480 crusader for equal rights and expanding access in education. This 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:16.040 is By in a nineteen sixty nine injury and I 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.520 think we need you need to make educational opportunity available 0:16:18.520 --> 0:16:20.800 for more and more people. We need to give the 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.480 young people of our state the best education we can. 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.200 And birch By was one of the few male senators 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:29.640 at the time that included women in such pronouncements. It 0:16:29.720 --> 0:16:31.760 was in the Senate debate on Title nine that the 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:34.920 issue of college sports finally came up. It started when 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.440 Senator By was questioned by his colleague, Senator Peter Dominic 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:41.400 of Colorado. Dominic wanted to know how broad the ban 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.160 on sex discrimination in colleges would be with locker rooms 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:48.120 and dormitories now have to go co ed. By was 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.080 quick to reassure his colleague, um, no, he makes clear, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.240 this is not about locker rooms. It's not about co 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:57.080 ed dormitories. Then somebody says, well, you know, is this 0:16:57.120 --> 0:17:00.120 going to allow girls to play football? And again is 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:04.199 laughter because again that's hilarious, and By assures and that, no, 0:17:04.359 --> 0:17:08.000 this is not intended to, um, you know, allow girls 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:11.760 to play football, to which Senator Dominic jokingly replied, if 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:13.959 I may say so, I would have had much more 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.760 fun playing college football if it had been integrated. More 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.800 chuckles ensued from the Senate gallery. And that was it. 0:17:22.200 --> 0:17:25.280 And so that's really the only discussion of sports, and 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.959 all the debate in the House and in the Senate, 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.480 this one little exchange about locker rooms and football. The 0:17:32.520 --> 0:17:35.760 Senate voted to pass the bill, including Title nine. It 0:17:35.840 --> 0:17:38.800 was time to make history. That's next on the thread. 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:42.639 Title nine was signed into law by President Richard Nixon 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.920 on June twenty three. It was a truly historic piece 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:51.840 of legislation, but nobody really noticed Author Karen Blumenthal, and 0:17:51.880 --> 0:17:54.520 it got almost no attention. You know, a line here, 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:59.080 maybe a secondary story inside there um. So people were 0:17:59.119 --> 0:18:02.480 hardly aware that there was this amendment in this huge 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.960 education bill that outlawed discrimination based on sex. The next day, 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:09.639 The New York Times devoted just one sentence to the 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.960 part of the bill that outlawed sex discrimination, a single 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:16.000 bullet point that read simply, the bill would take federal 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:19.960 assistance away from any graduate school or public undergraduate college 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:24.879 that discriminated against women in its admissions policies. Historian Susan 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:31.040 ware it was just another piece of legislation, not unworthy, 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:35.879 but not really all that noteworthy. Plus another development in 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.400 the nation's capital was starting to dominate the news. I'm 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.560 always struck by the fact that the actual Title nine 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:50.960 legislation was signed into law by President Richard Nixon one 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:56.760 week after the Watergate burglary that would eventually topple his presidency. 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.000 So a lot was going on in Washington in June 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.119 of nineteen seventy two. A few people might have noticed 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.520 at the time, but thanks to Title nine, a new 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:09.679 era in America had begun, and today, nearly half a 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.920 century later, it is impossible not to notice the impact 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:16.080 of the law and of its proponents, like Bunny Sandler. 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.560 Sandler became known as the godmother of Title nine. She 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:23.080 continued to fight against sex discrimination long after Title nine 0:19:23.119 --> 0:19:26.879 was on the books. Historian Susan ware she made a 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.320 career out of something that didn't even exist when she 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:33.679 first started um, but it was a perfect match to 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:40.080 her talents, both in terms of conceptualizing an issue, gathering data, 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.119 and then trying to see a pragmatic way forward with 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:49.080 legislation and political persuasion to try and change that situation. 0:19:49.520 --> 0:19:52.159 It was a profession that required a balance between dogged 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:58.919 determination and civility. Again, Bunny Sandler's daughter, Deborah, she was 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:00.760 never one of those people who would be out in 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:03.560 the streets screaming at people. She that just wasn't her style, 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:07.199 you know. She really believed in being um, civilized and 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.200 polite and working within the system. Sandler also demonstrated plenty 0:20:11.240 --> 0:20:13.720 of persistence over the years. At one point she was 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.680 supposed to go I think to Michigan to give a speech, 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.600 and um, she said to the woman who had arranged 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:24.320 for it, well, um, I don't fly. What's the train schedule? 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:26.439 Because my mother at the time was afraid of flying. 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.040 And the woman said to her, Girlie, you get on 0:20:29.040 --> 0:20:30.639 that plane or get the hell out of the movement. 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:33.800 She's just well, okay, I'm gonna have to learn how 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:37.000 not to be scared of planes. So she got on 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:41.240 the plane and she eventually became a million mile flyer 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:43.920 with United Airlines with all the business travel she did, 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.920 and got totally comfortable with flying. Sandler gave more than 0:20:47.960 --> 0:20:51.280 three thousand presentations across the country, including many of the 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.480 colleges she had once filed suit against, and she continued 0:20:54.520 --> 0:20:57.520 to advocate for women's rights and social justice right up 0:20:57.560 --> 0:21:00.840 until her death. Sandler never anticipate paid when she first 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.879 started what an impact her work would have, including on 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.680 the world of sports. I know that she was surprised 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:12.160 and utterly delighted over the years to see um all 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.479 the expanding opportunities for girls and women in sports as 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:19.320 a result of Title nine. In on the fort anniversary 0:21:19.320 --> 0:21:22.439 of Title nine, Sandler was honored all over the country. 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.040 The University of Louisville had a special celebration during halftime 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:29.760 of a packed basketball game. Sandler was presented with flowers 0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:32.080 and a plaque at half court, and then she was 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:37.159 given something even more special. Dr Sandler lastly here to 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:40.520 thank you in person. The captains are joined by their 0:21:40.560 --> 0:21:45.680 distinguished alumni and current teammates. One after another, the captains 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.359 of the women's sports teams at Louisville walk onto the 0:21:48.359 --> 0:21:52.240 basketball court team Captain Katie McDonald, and the women of 0:21:52.320 --> 0:21:57.800 soccer team Captain Aaron Conrad, and the women of field hockey. 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.480 Each captain walks up to Sandler, give her a hug, 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.760 and presents her with a T shirt. We are the 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:08.040 notes of your symphony. The shirts from our captains bear 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.359 the name of every woman that ever played at the 0:22:11.440 --> 0:22:16.480 University of Louisville. Your impact is unparalleled, and it lives 0:22:16.560 --> 0:22:24.119 on and on, and Sandler's impact and that of Title 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:29.159 nine has gone far beyond sports. Here's Sandler again in interview. 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:31.480 I think the real surprise has been that it's been 0:22:31.800 --> 0:22:34.639 like a social revolution, and we didn't know that at 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:36.320 the beginning. We thought it was just a little bit 0:22:36.359 --> 0:22:39.480 discrimination here and there. But It's a social revolution that 0:22:39.480 --> 0:22:43.040 will have as much impact as the industrial Revolution, and 0:22:43.119 --> 0:22:47.119 the reach of that revolution continues to be felt. Sandler's daughter, Deborah, 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:50.159 is now a family lawyer in California. It's possible I 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:52.159 would not have ended up a lawyer if it was 0:22:52.200 --> 0:22:55.480 not for my mother, because one of the things that 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:58.439 happened with Title nine is that there was an opening 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:00.960 of opportunities for women and girls all over the place. 0:23:01.760 --> 0:23:04.480 You know, when I was a little girl, girls weren't lawyers. 0:23:04.760 --> 0:23:07.359 That didn't happen by the time I decided I was 0:23:07.359 --> 0:23:10.399 going to go to law school, thirty or fort of 0:23:10.440 --> 0:23:15.480 my graduating class where women. Sandler's efforts changed the composition 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:19.200 of college campuses and workplaces. They gave millions of girls 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.280 and women the chance to play organized sports. She always 0:23:22.280 --> 0:23:24.280 said to herself when she was a little girl, you know, 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:26.760 and and later also she always said, I wanted to 0:23:26.840 --> 0:23:29.320 change the world. And as she got older and was 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:31.240 looking back on her life, she said, I always wanted 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:38.240 to change the world, and I did. The women behind 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:41.280