President Obama signed his first bill into law on January 29, 2009 approving the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a law named for Ms. Ledbetter, fourth from left, an Alabama woman who at the end of a 19-year career as a supervisor in a tire factory complained that she had been paid less than men.

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JoAnn Bahr, a mom in Hartland, Wisconsin is trying to save her daughters' high school field hockey program. A private citizen is donating over $1 million for an outdoor Ice Hockey rink that will be situated on the girls' field hockey field, leaving the girls nowhere to play. Ms. Bahr is quoted as saying, "I keep reading the quote from the National Women’s Law Center over and over, ‘with the law on your side, great things are possible’. I hope this is true.

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Bruce Cloer didn’t understand why his daughter and her friends were treated differently than the boys in sports. The girls played on inferior fields and at bad times, He contacted the Women's Sports Foundation and www.Title IX.info, to find out about his and his daughter’s rights under the law. He was advised to stay in contact with school officials, to keep talking about the inequities and encouraging the district to name a Title IX Coordinator. The talks worked. (photo: Soccer star Carla Overbeck, Amanda Cloer)

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Laurel Wartluft, a coach with Division I experience was given a one-year hire with the promise of a full-time, tenure-track position at Feather River Community College. She was hired the next year as Head Basketball Coach and Physical Education Instructor, despite a hiring committee member calling her “a closet lesbian”. Wartluft began teaching four classes but didn’t receive pay. When she complained about that and other discriminatory behavior in women’s athletics, she was fired and replaced with a less qualified male employee.

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Diane Madsen’s third grader asked why there were no cheerleaders or mascot at their girls’ high school’s basketball game. Diane said that’s how it was and her daughter said, “then I’d better be good enough to play on the boys' team." That made Diane take another look around the gym to see what else was different. There was no announcer, no water on the bench, no concession stand and no girls’ locker room either. That night began a journey for gender equity in athletics that affected the entire state of Michigan.

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Michael Burch was the head coach of the UC-Davis Division I Wrestling team. During his tenure at the school he was named UC-Davis Coach of the Year twice and led his team to more dual meet victories than any other wrestling coach in the University’s history. After the athletic director would no longer allow female wrestlers on the team, Burch spoke up in their defense. The following year, despite Burch’s distinguished record, his contract was not renegotiated.

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Cassie was surprised that she had never heard of Title IX before 8th grade. She’s always felt grateful for all the opportunities in her life, but didn’t realize her mother and women of other generations didn’t enjoy the same freedom. Now, she understands that Title IX protects her rights and way of life.

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Beverly never thought she’d become a scientist, but her passion, motivation, help from a government program, and dedicated professors gave her the courage and self-confidence to succeed.

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Hannah Lawrence is a high school girl who learned about Title IX by reading about Chris Ernst, a rower who fought for her rights at Yale University when Title IX was first enacted. While Hannah admits she didn’t have the courage to stand up for herself the one time when she felt discriminated against, she recognizes that today women’s opportunities are because of women like Chris Ernst.

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An all-state kicker for her high school football team, Heather became a walk-on kicker for Duke University. She earned a spot on the team, was listed in the NCAA roster and her picture was in the Duke football yearbook. But the coach never let her suit up with the team or sit on the bench during games, suggesting that she should participate in “beauty pageants” rather than football and telling her, “you belong in the stands with your boyfriend, not on this football field.” After three years of unequal treatment she sued under Title IX.

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Michelle Jaureguito, Director of Student Recruiting soon added Upward Board Director to her duties. She was promoted twice, was well-respected and enjoyed her job until she followed up on an incident involved a Feather River Community College employee who reportedly had sexually harassed a student and was drinking with underage students. Unfortunately, that employee was the son of a senior staff member.

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For Lisa Simpson, a U. of Colorado student, a night of drinking at her off-campus apartment with a few friends quickly turned into a nightmare. One friend invited a few of her football player friends to visit, but 16-20 players and recruits showed up. Lisa went to bed to sleep, but she later woke up to find two recruits removing her clothing. The police pressed felony charges but the University did nothing.

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The McCormick Family thought long and hard about whether to join a Title IX Suit that involved their daughter and many others to correct in inequity of playing high school soccer out of season. The question wasn’t whether the McComick’s believed in Title IX and gender equity, it was whether to put their family in the middle of a law suit - or teach principals, morals and ethics, not to mention right or wrong even though it might be a tough fight.

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Luana is only a teenager, yet she’s already overcome serious obstacles. She is a student training to become a laborer and she’s also a single mom. Luana recently earned the Michigan Breaking Traditions Award for her work in Home Building. Her advice to others who have career dreams that challenge societal norms is “Never doubt yourself. If you get a feeling of pride from a job or task, it should make no difference if it is considered nontraditional.”

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Miriam Shrivanek, a math teacher at an all-boys catholic high school, applied for the head basketball coaching job. The general response she heard was, “But you’re a woman.” Luckily Title IX is on her side, which is why she thinks she was hired. Now, she’s had the chance to show the doubters that a woman can coach boys and motivate them to play at a high level.

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Reta McKannen grew up in Auburn, AL where football rules. Girls played few sports but Reta found a way to get involved in college and became the first female Information Director in the Athletics Department. There were obstacles, but she loved her job and found her way. She didn’t realize that she had been discriminated against as a girl until she saw the opportunities her daughter has. Then she looked deeper, and saw there were still problems in her daughter’s school.

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Robin Potera-Haskins, basketball coach of Montana State University-bozeman was hired to create a winning program, which she did. Her players also achieved GPA’s of 3.0 or higher. From the beginning she received a lower salary and fewer job related perks than the men’s coach. Her problems escalated when the Athletic Director made her put his daughter, who had been playing on a Division II team, on her team.

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Alabama basketball Coach Roderick Jackson’s girls’ team played in an old gym with wooden backboards, bent rims and no heat – not the boys. The girls traveled to away games by bus only when the boys games were scheduled at the same time. Only the boys’ team was allowed to keep money from admissions and concession sales. Coach Jackson complained and was fired when he continued to stand up for his team. Feeling he had no other choice, he sued under Title IX. The case was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Since Title IX was passed 35 years ago, it has been the subject of over 20 proposed amendments, reviews, Supreme Court cases and other political actions. The following are five Supreme Court cases and a law overturning one of the cases that pertain to Title IX.

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Val Ackerman grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of an athletic director who taught her about the competitive edge, discipline and leadership that she used in sports and in pursuing her dream to be a lawyer. Ackerman used those skills to get an athletic scholarship, become an attorney, the first commissioner of the WNBA and now President of USA Basketball.

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When James Madison University (JMU) cut men’s and women’s sports, Linda Martin, Tom Martin’s mom saw her son become one of the 114 athletes who lost his dream to compete in collegiate athletics. Blaming the cuts on Title IX just didn’t ring true but nothing seemed to help to get the sports back. Linda wants to see organizations work together to make sports available to as many participants as possible and end the push for college athletics to be moneymaking machines.

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Gina Wesley-Hunt, a post-doctorial student could not believe that in this day and age she’d get fired for having a baby. But there was no policy at the Smithsonian to protect her. The problem was that as a post-doctorial student, I was not an employee. As far as the Smithsonian was concerned, I was completely at the mercy of my boss. And my boss had no mercy.

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Just think, if the Athletic Directorat our school had just agreed to charge the $2 admission for the girls’ basketball games, I wouldn’t have found out about Title IX and we probably wouldn’t have cheerleading or publicity at our games today.

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Kara wants to play football badly enough that she took on her school to make it happen. She and her female teammates are already practicing, looking forward to hopefully playing against other girls’ football teams next year. It took hard work, desire, research, help from experts and support from family and friends.

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Lynn Ilon was an assistant professor in the social and philosophical foundations program of the SUNY Buffalo Graduate School of Education where she was sexually discriminated against by a male professor in the same department. After many unsuccessful attempts to stop his condescending attitude and inappropriate requests of work and favors, she filed a complaint. Later, when she applied for tenure, she was denied, despite a long history of qualified work.

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Paul Thien, former Vice President of Student Services and Athletic Director at Feather River Community College, built up the athletic department and brought in millions of dollars of federal grants for the school. He stood up for faculty members and championed Title IX compliance. His insistence on reporting a group of students’ allegations of sexual harassment by a well-connected faculty member led to his early termination.

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Tina Cressant has always loved sports and remembers vividly when girls had mandatory square dancing and boys got to play softball. Girls wore hideous gym uniforms called ‘jumpers.’ Boys wore t-shirts and shorts. When she questioned why boys were treated differently, her P.E. teacher said she wasn’t exhibiting leadership qualities. Today, Tina is still playing sports, and navigating her way in men’s as well as women’s leagues.

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Tired of umpiring girls’ softball games on unsafe fields, one day he did something about it. Now there’s an agreement with Prince George’s County to be in compliance with Title IX athletics.

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Growing up she could either play sports with her brothers or play house with her dog. She did both. Now she's a World Champion rower and coach.

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Lily (Pelham. NY) is an 11-year old who loves sports but doesn’t like it when people don’t treat her equally. In gym class when the boys play baseball, the girls play softball with a styrofoam ball. Instead of using real footballs, they practice with nerf-like balls and instead of using soccer balls for throw-ins, they practice the motion without throwing the balls. Her mom is helping her fight to change things, but Lily is in private school, exempt from Title IX. Lily doesn’t think that’s a good reason to discriminate against girls.

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Dot Richardson wasn’t willing to cut her hair and be called Bob to play baseball.  Fortunately another coach encouraged her to play like a girl, which resulted in two Olympic Gold medals.

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Sally Ride, is a hero and role model to girls and women throughout the country. And though it might be easy to imagine that when she was growing up she "always wanted to be an astronaut," her versatility has enabled her to take a number of unusual turns.

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