Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments stipulates that there be no gender-based discrimination in any federally funded educational activity. In 1979, in an attempt to clarify the law, the government issued a "three-prong test" of Title IX compliance. An institution complied if:

1. its athletic opportunities were proportional to student enrollment
2. it expanded athletic opportunities for the underrepresented gender
3. it fully and effectively accommodated the interests and abilities of the underrepresented gender.

After Ivy League athletic competitions opened for women in 1974, thirty-two years after opening for men, Brown women won many championship titles.

In 1991, Brown's athletic director, David Roach, was told to reduce his budget by $113,000. Roach eliminated funding for four varsity sports: men's golf and water polo and women's gymnastics and volleyball.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court enabled students to sue colleges and universities for breaches of Title IX. In April of that year gymnast Amy Cohen '92 and twelve other Brown women athletes filed a class-action lawsuit. It lasted until 1997, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Brown's appeal.

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Naomi Schor