Patsy Takemoto Mink, one of Hawai'i's most devoted public servants, transformed personal discrimination into landmark federal legislation and in doing so became a champion of the rights of women. It was her calling and her legacy. She was a liberal, feminist Democrat and proud of it.
Mink spent nearly her entire adult life in politics, including 24 years in Congress. She was a U.S. representative when she died in 2002 and her colleagues praised her for making the country a better place.
Mink was born on Maui in the plantation community of Pa'ia in 1927. She got her first taste of leadership at Maui High School when she was elected student body president. A few years later at the University of Nebraska, she fought and won a battle against segregated student housing.
Not long after that, she got a stinging taste of discrimination: She was rejected by a dozen Mainland medical schools because of her gender. Undaunted, she went to law school at the University of Chicago — where she also met her husband — and returned to Hawai'i as the first female Japanese-American attorney.
As an Asian woman, she had trouble being accepted and even getting her first job — once more because of gender. Mink's solution was to enter politics, yet another male-dominated bastion at the time, and make a difference.
Mink was elected to the Territorial House in 1956 and the Territorial Senate two years later. She was elected to her first term in Congress in 1964 and served until 1977, then again from 1990 to 2002.
In addition to her years in Congress, Mink served in the U.S. Interior Department under President Carter and on the Honolulu City Council. At various points in her career she ran unsuccessfully for Honolulu mayor, governor and U.S. senator and, briefly in 1972, for president, as a symbol of protest against the Vietnam War.
But Mink will forever be remembered as the primary force behind Title IX, the Women's Educational Equity Act. It required equal support for males and females in academics and athletics at any institution receiving federal money. It triggered a boom in women's collegiate athletics.
In 2002, Mink died of viral pneumonia brought on by a bout of chickenpox. She was 74. A few days before her funeral, Congress moved to rename Title IX, calling it The Patsy Mink Act.
