Last week, I wrote about the history of Title IX, and why I think it’s time to challenge the law as it currently stands.

But I am going to press a bit further with this specific audience, and I hope you can handle it. If anything, I’ll lose some subscribers, and I can save some money on hosting my newsletter.

Let me posit a new idea: What if Title IX was wrong from the start?

What if Title IX is one of feminism’s chokeholds on our society, costing us far more than anything we’ve gained from it?

As I was doing research for these essays, I stumbled upon an article that described the legacy of Title IX in this way:

It’s hard to imagine that just forty years ago, young women were not admitted into many colleges and universities, athletic scholarships were rare, and math and science was a realm reserved for boys. Girls square danced instead of playing sports, studied home economics instead of training for "male-oriented" (read: higher-paying) trades. Girls could become teachers and nurses, but not doctors or principals; women rarely were awarded tenure and even more rarely appointed college presidents.

First of all, these claims of female educational disadvantage before Title IX are largely hyperbole. In 1970, nearly 50% of girls who graduated high school were attending two or four-year colleges, trailing behind males at 55%. The way feminists would tell it, you would assume about ten girls earned a college degree before they swooped in to save us, even though there was already a strong trend of women pursing college by the early 70s.

I grew up as a confident millennial female. I played soccer and basketball and served as captain of the tennis team. I was editor-in-chief of the school newspaper and started researching colleges in the 8th grade. There was no doubt I would attend a four-year university, and on a scholarship no less.

When I think back to my own mom or my mother-in-law, growing up just 30 years before me, their opportunities were not so vast. My mom joined the track team, attended youth group, and completed some community college in the 70s. My mother-in-law was a cheerleader, water-skied with friends in the summer, and attended Bible School. Both married young and had children by their mid-20s.

Neither of them got to play soccer or basketball. Neither of them completed a four-year degree. But have their lives been worse because of it? Title IX was enacted right as they were graduating from high school; they never lived to see “equality” tear through their high schools like a tidal wave and carry them off to an engineering degree.

But were we really worse off as a society when girls square danced, skied, or cheered, instead of playing flag football and wrestling like boys? Have we really achieved something by creating a WNBA with locker rooms full of lesbians?

Were we really worse off when women were trained to sew and cook? When they desired to have children in their prime instead of waiting until age 35 or 40 and needing to be pumped full of drugs to conceive? Do we really need more “girls in STEM” or are we selling a way of life that leads to depression? What if women are happier as moms, teachers, or nurses and miserable as scientists and college presidents?

Because if you ask my mom or my mother-in-law, I don’t think they would lament that Title IX wasn’t around to save them. My mom stayed home with her kids, taking in work on the side for extra income, as women have done throughout history. She just told me on a recent visit, “I worked when I could, but you were my career.” And I will forever be thankful for that. My mother-in-law also stayed home, and when life threw her some curve balls, God was faithful to provide her with a good-paying job without a college degree. She retired a few years ago, after raising four kids on her own, with a great resume and a great salary — and she gives God all the credit. He gave her more than some government policy ever could.

It’s actually white women, ages 40-59, who are the most anxious and depressed in America — taking antidepressants 2x as often as men the same age. Interestingly, age 40-59 is the first Title IX generation. These are the women who were able to play all the sports, go to college, get fancy degrees, work corporate jobs, prevent or delay childrearing with birth control, kill their own children (after Roe v. Wade), and were enabled in every way to mom-boss their way through life with IVF, surrogacy, extended maternity leave, childcare support, and the list goes on.

And yet these women are unhappy. In fact, they seem to be the most stressed out and miserable group of Americans out there.

While depression has always affected women, it affects certain demographics the most. Those with no children or those with only one child are the most depressed. Working women take prescription antidepressants more than stay-at-home moms, and for a much longer duration of time.

It’s time for Christians to recognize this. It’s time for Christians to stop painting Title IX in a positive light and accepting it as “just the way it is.” The Title IX path of “access” and “equality” and “achievement” often leads to a sad end.

Title IX hurt men and women. It pushed men out of college and out of the workplace. It led women down paths that hindered marriage and childbearing — two things that bring great joy. It led to government interference in schools, has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars, and has created a horrific culture where men are constantly criminalized and women can’t be held accountable for their actions (see “Cornell 7”, see Lindsay Clancy). It has contributed to the deterioration of our marriage and birth rates. We all pay the price for Title IX, every single day.

But instead we are told to cheer for Title IX! Let’s act like federal feminism has been good for us. I'm sure middle-aged women everywhere relish that they got to play high school basketball every time they pop their Zoloft.