On the 40th Anniversary of Title IX ESPN3 has launched espnW, a sports channel that will be dedicated to women’s sporting events. The anniversary of the passing of the Education Amendment of 1972, of which Title IX was apart, will be this Saturday.

What the act did, for those who do not know, is that it required equal opportunities for all at any educational institution that received federal funding. While most associate it with women’s sports, where it no doubt had its most public impact, it covered everything from school bands to access to math classes as well. It required equal spending for sports and has withstood a number of assaults to weaken it over the years.

The channel plans a major blitz in coverage, with it expected to carry 170 hours of live women’s sports through July 31 via an ESPN3 player that will give access to espnW. The network said that half of its programming will be exclusive to that channel.

ESPN said that the channel is in its long range plans as a permanent offering and that it has plans to expand what it will offer in the future. It currently has a lineup that will include basketball including WNBA, AAU Volleyball, softball, and tennis among others.

The web site for the channel includes the upcoming summer Olympics, athletes blogs including Olympic hopefuls, commentary, tweets from select athletes’ and a list of events that fans can go view live. This is a nice start for pushing women’s sports and hopefully as more fans view the events they will start making it to the mainstream broadcasts from ESPN.