It took an executive order from President Donald Trump for the National Collegiate Athletic Association to do what is right.

On National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Trump signed an Executive Order on “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The order reads, “Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.”

This change was long overdue.

Despite NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines bringing attention to this issue and numerous women being injured competing against biological males in sports, the NCAA had not acted. Within hours of the executive order, however, NCAA President Charlie Baker issued a statement of compliance, saying, “The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration.” The NCAA has now announced a new policy limiting competition in women’s sports to “student-athletes assigned female at birth only.”

Good for the NCAA for following Trump’s lead. But it shouldn’t have taken presidential action for the NCAA to protect women and their right to play sports. The simple truth is that too many colleges have been taken over by wokeness. While colleges are quick to promote inclusivity, they sometimes forget about ensuring protections for women. Locker rooms should be secure and private spaces for biological women, allowing them to compete and participate in sports without compromising their safety. The NCAA and colleges have failed women.

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-FL), former co-chairwoman of the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus and current co-chairwoman of the Republican Women’s Caucus, underlined this concern. As she put it, “When I served as the co-chair for the Bipartisan Women’s Caucus, we’d have annual meetings to set our agenda for the year, coalescing around important women’s issues. I mentioned several times wanting to address biological men in women’s sports, and my colleagues on the other side of the aisle declined to participate, preferring to stay away from the issue entirely. I’m thankful for President Trump doing what’s right when others denied common sense.”

College students figured out this concern long before the NCAA and many of our nation’s leaders. The Network of enlightened Women, which I lead, has partnered with Riley Gaines and The Riley Gaines Center at the Leadership Institute to bring her message to campuses nationwide. Despite some loud opposition, these events attracted large crowds of students seeking to learn about the issues involved. Many of them left these events in support of Gaines and protecting women in sports.

More work remains, however.

Unfortunately, this executive order doesn’t change the rules governing all sports. Take the Olympics, for example. Instead, the executive order calls on the Secretary of State to use “all appropriate and available measures to see that the International Olympic Committee amends the standards governing Olympic sporting events to promote fairness, safety, and the best interests of female athletes by ensuring that eligibility for participation in women’s sporting events is determined according to sex and not gender identity or testosterone reduction.”

Jennifer Sey, national champion gymnast and founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, expounds on this point. “President Trump has given us our opening,” Sey observes. “Executive orders do not impact any sports within the Olympic movement, which includes all athletes competing under the auspices of United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee and the individual sport governing bodies. Until the USOPC makes the same rule the executive orders put forward, more than 70% of youth/adult sports in the Olympic pipeline go unaffected. We need to change the culture, so it changes even beyond the reach of the executive order. The people need to raise their voices.”

Women should have the opportunity to compete fairly and safely. It is good to see leaders nationwide taking a stand on this issue, but it would have been better if the NCAA had acted sooner and without pressure from the president.

Karin Lips (@klips) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is the founder and president of the Network of enlightened Women and a senior fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum.

This was originally published by the Washington Examiner.