Title IX Celebrates 50 Years

Patsy Takemoto Mink:
100 Women of the Year | Time

Fifty years ago this month, in June 1972, Title IX of the Education Amendments was signed into law.

The law states: "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."

Commonly associated with sports, Title IX in fact covers all aspects of educational programs, including access, scholarships, the treatment of individuals and employment.

And here is another less-known fact: Patsy Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color in Congress and a four-time Congresswoman from Hawai'i in 1972, is credited with being the main author and sponsor of the law. When she died in 2002, it was renamed the Patsy Mink Equal Opportunity Education Act.

Mink had faced sex discrimination. As early as four years old, she wanted to become a physician. But she was denied admission by all the medical schools to which she applied, some stating directly that she was being rejected because she was female. At the time, only 4 percent of medical students were women.

She changed course and applied to law school, eventually becoming one of two women, both Asian Americans, to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, in 1951.

Title IX may be the most significant law for women and girls since women were granted the right to vote, in 1920.