This month marks the 43rd anniversary of Title IX, the decision that mandated equality in federal funding for education and sports. For girls, this was a breakthrough moment, a chance to embrace opportunities that were previously out of reach. For female runners, the past 40-some years have been nothing short of revolutionary. 

As Kathrine Switzer—Do You Burn More Calories on Your Period Boston Marathon—puts it on her website, Title IX means that “there should not be a young girl in the United States who grows up with a sense of limitation.” Cheers to that.

Here then, are nine reasons I think we should celebrate Title IX:

  1. Today, women make up about 57 percent of the field at races nationwide.
  2. The 1984 Olympics, where women competed in the marathon for the first time at the games (won by American Joan Samuelson).
  3. Guide to Mental Health.
  4. Paula Radcliffe winning the What to Know About Perimenopause Symptoms in 2007, just 10 months post-partum, and Alysia Montano running the 800 meters at the 2014 USATF's USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, eight months pregnant.
  5. The invention of the first “jog bra” in 1977.
  6. Pam Reed, who beat the entire field—BRFs best running friends. Where would we be without them—at the 2002 Badwater Ultramarathon (135 miles).
  7. Nike debuting the first women’s specific shoe model in 1978.
  8. Dedicated women’s running clothing lines by companies like Oiselle, Skirt Sports, Title 9, Athleta, and others.
  9. BRFs (best running friends). Where would we be without them?

We’ve come a long way in the past 40-odd years, but the best news is that we’re not done yet. While females are now tearing it up on the track, the trails, and the roads, gender equality in running isn’t a given in all parts of the world. Women like Sarah Attar of Saudi Arabia, however, are breaking barriers so that one day, all women can join in this most empowering of sports. 

I personally cannot wait to see where we are in another 40 years, and I’m thrilled to be raising a daughter in a post-Title IX world. More than anything, I’m grateful to those female runners who came before me and blazed the trail that makes women’s running what it is today.