And Cheryl Cooky says Posten and all women shouldn’t be satisfied with the current state of equality both on and off the field.

“I don’t want to say that  Title IX has failed, but that there is more change that has to take place,” said Cooky.

Cooky is a professor of health and Kinesiology and women’s studies at Purdue.

According to a report by the National Federation of State High School Associations, the ratio of girls playing sports compared to boys 40 years ago was about one to four.

In the 2010-2011 school year, the gap narrowed, but the difference remained sizeable. About 3.1-million girls competed in sports, compared to nearly 4.5-million boys.

Cooky says title nine has been instrumental is bridging the equality gap between men and women, especially in terms of participation. But says barriers still remain.

“Even though there have been a lot of shifts in the culture with the respect to the expectations for girls and women, there is still the persisting stereotypes around what  girls and women should be doing or are interested in doing,” she said.

“Often times that gets used as a justification for not providing opportunities for girls.  ‘Well girls just aren’t as interested in sports as boys, so let’s devote the minimal resources  that we do have to the kids who are really interested which are boys.’ ”

She says media coverage of women also needs to change, pointing out male athletes often are covered for their on-court performances, but attention for female athletes is usually focused first on appearance, then skill.