Birch Bayh, the former U.S. senator who championed the federal law banning discrimination against women and girls in college admissions and sports, died last at age 91.
Bayh was the lead sponsor of the landmark 1972 law prohibiting gender discrimination in —known as Title IX. The law’s passage came at a time when women earned fewer than 10 percent of all medical and law degrees and fewer than 300,000 high school girls—1 in 27—played sports.
Women now make up more than half of those receiving bachelor’s and graduate degrees and more than 3 million high school girls—1 in 2—play sports.
