Women's Rowing Stamps

This issuance celebrates Women's Rowing, a graceful but demanding sport in which American women have excelledFour diferent stamp designs are featured in a pane of 20 stamps arranged as five staggered rows of four. The artwork, whichcovers the entire pane, is a stylized llustration of five eight-person crews on the water, apparently practicing or possibly racing.Although the rowers face lef, toward the stern ends of the "shells." they are moving toward the right. The ninth person in eachshel, at the left end, is the coxswain. She is the only one facing in the direction the shell is moving, as her iob is to steer. The shelsare so long, they are cut off by the edges of the pane.The sports world largely excluded women when, in 1972, Congress amended federal education law by adding Title lX, whichprohibited gender-based discrimination in federally funded education. includind athletics. Although some co edes and universitiesreacted slowly, women pressed them into opening up varsity sports an