ABSTRACT
The fierce competition and festive atmosphere highlighted the extent to which female athletes were becoming part of the sporting expansion that marked the last decades of the twentieth century. The initial lack of attention to the legislation's effect on sports highlighted how deeply the notion of athletics as a male realm was rooted in American culture. The gaps between opportunities for men and women in college sports had always been enormous, and had grown far greater as television boosted the budgets of college sports teams. College administrators began to merge traditionally independent women's physical education departments into men's departments. As women's programs grew, however, it became more difficult for the AIAW to maintain its independence from the male-dominated college sports establishment. Women's competitive sports began to make gains during the 1960s, driven in part by Cold War pressures to stay ahead of the Soviet Union in Olympic competition.
