Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 sought to eliminate sex discrimination in the public school systems throughout the United States (Lirgg, 1993, p. 324). Title IX, as the act is commonly called, prohibited the offering of same-sex courses and programs. All-girl home economics, all-boy industrial-arts, and same-sex physical education classes were no longer an option for school districts receiving public money. Coeducational physical education had arrived. The social, psychological, and physiological aspects of this change in policy, with regard to physical education, had not been addressed prior to the passage of the legislation. The legal mandate, Title IX, was made before all the risks and benefits, to the children, could be assessed.
The purpose behind the passage of Title IX was to give an equal opportunity to girls and boys to enjoy the benefits of physical fitness. All schools did not give equal weight to the importance of the physical fitness to both boys and girls. Many sports programs were unequally funded and equipped. In general, the programs for boys were more generous than physical education programs for girls. This inequality, in addition to the social and cultural pressures on girls, led to less opportunity and encouragement for girls to excel in sports and physical fitness. The passage of Title IX gave redress to these problems by forcing all classes to be open to members of both sexes.
At the time the legislation was passed, the implications for physical education classes were not understood. The advantages and disadvantages for members of both sexes were not clearly perceived. As research has since discovered, members of each sex do not derive the same benefit from coeducational physical education classes.
Mandated coeducation in a physical education class can mean several different types of class set-ups. The first is a blatant disregard for the law and a continuation of same-sex...