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Celebrating a Landmark Anniversary for Women and Girls

Summary: 
This Wednesday, June 20, the Council on Women and Girls will be hosting an event to mark the 40th Anniversary of Title IX, the legislation that opened up a world of new opportunities for girls ranging from athletic participation to access to education in science, technology, engineering, and math.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark legislation that changed the playing field for girls across the nation. By banning sex discrimination in schools, Title IX opened up a world of new opportunities ranging from athletic participation to access to education in science, technology, engineering, and math. Since 1972, athletic participation has increased over 1000%, creating more confident, empowered, and inspiring women. The Obama Administration is dedicated to furthering the 40 years of progress that Title IX has paved for us, from the $4.25 billion Race to the Top competition to close the STEM gap for girls, to honoring hardworking student-athletes like the Texas A&M University Women’s Basketball Team at the White House.

This Wednesday, June 20, the Council on Women and Girls will be hosting an event to mark the 40th Anniversary of Title IX. The event will be livestreamed on obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/live starting tomorrow at 2 pm. Tune in to hear from notable advocates and leaders in the field, including Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama & Chair of the Council on Women & Girls, Tina Tchen, Chief of Staff to the First Lady and Executive Director of the Council on Women and Girls, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and former Senator Birch Bayh, who co-authored the legislation. 

Highlights of the event include two panel discussions. The first, which will be streamed starting at 2:20 pm, features a conversation with Billie Jean King, WNBA President Laurel J. Richie and others on "Intergenerational Views on the Impact of Title IX in Athletics" moderated by Bonnie Bernstein, ESPN broadcaster and former All-American gymnast. Later, Benita Fitzgerald-Mosley, Olympian, U.S. Track & Field, Engineer, and Chief of Sport Performance for USA Track & Field moderates a panel on  "Advancing Our Commitment to Title IX in Education" which includes Astronaut Mae Jemison, Jared L. Cohon, President of Carnegie Mellon and Gabriela Farfan, a winner of Intel's Science Talent Search, among others, and which starts at 3:15 pm.

We hope you'll tune in on Wednesday, June 20 at 2:00 p.m. at obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/live to participate in our event and join the discussion live on Twitter at #WHTitleIX!