The Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) of 1974 is one of the several landmark laws passed by the

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outlining federal protections against the gender discrimination of

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

(

educational equity Educational equity, also known as equity in education, is a measure of achievement, fairness, and opportunity in education. The study of education equity is often linked with the study of excellence and equity. Educational equity depends on two ...

). WEEA was enacted as Section 513 of P.L. 93-380. Introduced in the

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by Congresswoman

Patsy Mink Patsy Matsu Mink (née Takemoto; December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002) was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink was a third-generation Japanese American, having been born and raised on the island of Maui. ...

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, the legislation was conceived and drafted by Arlene Horowitz, a staff assistant to the education subcommittee on which Mink served. WEEA was intended to combat sex-role stereotyping in

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and secondary schools.

Passage

The legislation was first proposed by Rep. Mink in response to efforts by other legislators to weaken

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

, a statute prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities that had passed in 1972. Billie Jean King, a female professional tennis player, used her sports celebrity to speak in favor of the Women's Educational Equity Act of 1973 (WEEA) before it became a law. On November 9, 1973, King testified before the

United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions The United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) generally considers matters relating to these issues. Its jurisdiction also extends beyond these issues to include several more specific areas, as defined by Sena ...

and spoke about problems in women's sports. King stated that the benefit of sports was denied to women in

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, such as budgets for women's sports being less than men's sports. King's testimony brought attention to issues in women's sports and helped with the consideration of the Women's Educational Equity Act. Mink's bill was defeated in the House, but Senator Walter Mondale attached the bill to the broader Elementary and Secondary Education Act (H.R. 69) being debated in the Senate, and Mink worked to have this version approved in the cross-chamber conference committee. The WEEA was passed as part of the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments and was signed into law on August 21, 1974.

Content

The Women's Educational Equity Act authorizes grants “…to develop nonsexist curricula, personnel training programs, and vocational and career counseling.” In addition to these grants, the improvement of physical education programs is also included. These funds helped education facilities to meet the requirements of

.Ware, Susan. Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women's Sports. The University of North Carolina Press, 2015.

Implementation

In 1982, Leslie Wolfe, WEEA's director when Ronald Reagan was elected to the U.S. presidency, was transferred out of that position and people aligned with

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Eagle Forum Eagle Forum is a conservative interest group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972 and is the parent organization that also includes the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund and the Eagle Forum PAC. The Eagle Forum has ...

were brought in to review grant proposals being considered for WEEA funds. In 1984, Congress rewrote the WEEA legislation making its mission and purpose more explicit and therefore keeping its actions true to its original goal. During the Reagan Administration, the assistant secretary of education, Jean Benish, implemented a review process which included all walks of people and provided a fair and equitable grant review process which was all-inclusive of women's issues. In 1984, Congress rewrote the WEEA legislation making its mission and purpose more explicit. In 2003, the

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ended

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for WEEA's Resource Center, a mechanism for collection and sharing of information about gender equity programs. The last documented funding for WEEA was in 2010. For the fiscal year 2018, the President's budget does not request funding for WEEA.Online posting. National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity. http://napequity.org/public-policy/current-laws-and-bills/womens-educational-equity-act.

References

{{US-fed-statute-stub United States federal civil rights legislation Anti-discrimination law in the United States 93rd United States Congress 1974 establishments in the United States Women's rights legislation History of women's rights in the United States 1974 in women's history United States federal education legislation 2010 endings 2010 disestablishments in the United States