[Disclaimer: Lauren Greenberg was speaking in her personal capacity and not for her firm.]
Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and Lauren Greenberg, Deputy General Counsel at White & Case LLP, discuss the evolution of women’s athletics under Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments. Greenberg recounts founding Dartmouth College’s first women’s softball team in 1989, navigating institutional indifference, and using Title IX as a tool to secure equitable opportunities. Their conversation explores how sports shape character, how Title IX reshaped opportunity in the United States, and what remains to be done for full equality.
Greenberg arrived at Dartmouth to find no varsity softball for women. Together with classmate Erika Beisler, she organized players, scheduled games with other Ivy League schools, and even qualified to drive the school bus so the team could travel. With little institutional support, they acted as both players and de facto coaches. When Dartmouth failed to provide resources or recognition, Greenberg and teammates researched legal options and filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Because Dartmouth accepted federal funds, it was subject to Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination.
The complaint argued Dartmouth failed to provide proportional opportunities for women’s athletics. The Department’s investigation confirmed noncompliance across multiple sports. Dartmouth then established varsity softball and volleyball and expanded women’s athletic opportunities. For Greenberg, filing the complaint and doing the legwork was formative and helped launch her legal career.
Singh places the discussion in a broader cultural context: historically, sport in Anglo-Saxon institutions functioned as pre-military training that cultivated leadership and teamwork among men. Before the 1960s, women and people of color faced steep barriers to education and athletics. Social expectations limited which sports women could play and constrained their access to higher education and athletic programs. Title IX disrupted that order by forbidding sex discrimination at educational institutions receiving federal funds.
Title IX’s reach extends beyond athletics into sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and violence against women. In sports, its legacy is visible: decades after Dartmouth’s action, the softball program has championship titles, a shared indoor practice facility with the men’s team, and its own stadium. The law created a framework for opportunity, opening pathways that were previously closed.
Sports also teach life skills—communication, teamwork, resilience—that translate into professional success and leadership. Greenberg emphasizes that athletics teach people how to accept losses and convert setbacks into lessons, skills that serve beyond the playing field.
Yet progress has been uneven. Greenberg stresses that Title IX provided a framework rather than an instantaneous transformation. Women’s sports still play catch-up in media exposure, advertising, promotion, and endorsement opportunities, which remain dominated by men’s sports. For genuine parity, women’s sports need comparable prime-time visibility and commercial support.
Culturally, some claim women’s sports are less exciting. Greenberg rejects this, arguing those judgments apply a male standard of spectacle. Women’s competitions have distinct strategies and pacing that can be compelling when marketed on their own terms. She prefers women’s soccer for its strategy, and suggests broadcasters could shift audience tastes by emphasizing attributes like teamwork and tactical play rather than brute spectacle. Cultural change, she believes, can be advanced through better marketing that builds audiences incrementally.
Beyond market forces, the next frontiers include pay equity, improved media representation, leadership roles for women in sports organizations, and greater support for less-publicized disciplines. Markets often favor lowbrow entertainment; Greenberg acknowledges market imperfections and argues for new measures of success that value social development as well as commercial returns. Policies and cultural shifts must align to reward the broader social benefits of women’s sports.
Greenberg also addresses global cultural resistance—from conservative religious norms to entrenched gender roles—but finds hope in examples of athletes who reconcile faith with participation, such as Muslim women competing in hijabs at the Olympics. These instances embody Title IX’s spirit: expanding the freedom to play, compete, and grow.
The conversation concludes by framing Title IX as a pivotal legal and cultural tool that reshaped opportunities while leaving further work to achieve full equality—in exposure, resources, leadership, and societal valuation of women’s sports.
[Lee Thompson-Kolar edited this piece.]
The views expressed are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.
