Here’s a GIF Look at the Woman Behind Title IX, Rep. Patsy Mink
51 years ago, Title IX was signed into law, mandating equal treatment for men and women in education.
What did Title IX do? The law banned discrimination based on sex in federally-funded education programs.
“No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
Who was behind Title IX? Hawaii Rep. Patsy Mink led the push for the historic law in 1972, co-authoring the bill with Rep. Edith Green and Sen. Birch Bayh.
Title IX was inspired by Mink’s experiences of being rejected from “dozens” of medical schools due to her gender. Mink told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1975:
“We have to build things that we want to see accomplished, in life and in our country, based on our own personal experiences […] to make sure that others […] do not have to suffer the same discrimination.”
Mink was no stranger to making history: in 1965, Mink was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first woman of color elected to the U.S. House.
In 1971, Mink launched a presidential campaign, making history as the first Asian-American person to run for president.
President Richard Nixon signed Title IX into law on June 23, 1972. In 2002, after Mink’s death, Title IX was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act in her honor.
Title IX marked a historic shift in the United States: the rate of women attending college has nearly doubled since the law’s passage, increasing by 22.6 percentage points between 1972 and 2022.
