This chapter highlights the role of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 and the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment in transforming the gendered landscape of U.S. education. After first providing an overview of these two sources of law, the chapter examines the role they have played in challenging sex-based designations in admissions and in the classroom, in promoting equal opportunity and access to school-sponsored athletics, in challenging sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct, in reducing barriers to LGBT students, and in promoting equal opportunity for students who are pregnant. Sections addressing each one of these topics will also note limitations and shortcomings of the law’s approach to these issues, as there is still more work to do to fully realize sex equality in education. While the law has not cured all the problems of sex discrimination education, owing to limitations in its scope, as well as enforceability, it has proven to be a powerful source of societal norms and expectations, which themselves operate to motivate compliance and beyond.
The Cherokee Removal and the Fourteenth Amendment