I know it has taken me too long to make a print for Patsy Mink. But here it is! I did it! I first heard her name when, several years ago, a man passing through the market shouted to me: “Do you have Patsy Mink? You should have Patsy Mink!” I sometimes get trolled like this so I often just ignore men when they do this. But a few days after this I looked her up—and this keeps happening!—I was blown away by how amazing she was! This guy keeps passing by, even at other markets, telling me I’ve got to do Patsy Mink. Whew. I can’t wait to show this to him.
What you endure is who you are. And if you just accept and do nothing, then life goes on. But if you see it as a way for change, life doesn’t have to be this unfair. It can be better. Maybe not for me, I can’t change the past, but I can certainly help somebody else in the future, so they don’t have to go through what I did.
Patsy Matsu Mink (December 6, 1927–September 28, 2002) was the first woman of color and the first Asian American woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress. She is a third generation descendant of Japanese immigrants to Hawai’i. She represented Hawai’i in the House for 24 years, from 1965–1977 and again from 1990–2002. She is known for her work on legislation advancing women’s rights and education, civil rights policies, and for her opposition to the Vietnam War.
Patsy Mink was way ahead of everyone else in her thinking about the disaster of the Vietnam war, and she took a lot of flak for that. She knew that our government was hiding things from us about the war, and she thought that was wrong. She also fought hard for a social safety net for mothers and children, a losing position during the welfare reform of the 1980s. She knew that these policies would cement wealth inequality into our society. She fought against the “Patriot Act” because she knew that it was wrong for our government to spy on its own citizens, that this power could be too easily abused.
. . . it was more important to be right, and be alone, than to join in with the majority and be incorrect. And sometimes when you did that, you had to be off by yourself for awhile. But as long as you were morally right, eventually people would see that they were wrong, and they would come your way.
Sometimes her colleagues thought she was too stubborn and abrasive, but how much of their reaction was because of their expectations about how an Asian woman should behave? From any perspective she was without a doubt “fierce and fearless” (the title of the biography of Mink co-authored by Patsy’s daughter, Gwendolyn Mink).
Patsy Mink faced many barriers when she sought her education and pursued her profession. She was a brilliant student, but no medical school would accept her application because she was a woman. She managed to get into Columbia Law School on their foreign student quota, because the admissions committee was ignorant about the citizenship status of people from the territory of Hawai’i. Once she earned her degree, no law firm would hire her, saying that as a mother she would not be able to work the necessary hours. So she started her own law firm and found her calling in politics, both local and national. Patsy Mink ran for many offices and won a few. She never gave up, even after big disappointments.
I came to Congress, joined the Education and Labor Committee, and we began to realize that although we had statutes on the books about equality and opportunity for everyone, that girls and women were being left out, systematically.
Title IX: “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”
Patsy Mink and Representative Edith Green co-authored Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX established equal opportunity for women, in graduate school admissions, financial aid, and athletic programs. Patsy remembered the time in graduate school when she was the only woman in the class, only one of a handful of women in the whole school, and she knew that had to change. Women have made huge inroads in education, beyond Mink’s wildest dreams.
I never had in my dreams and expectations the notion that, for instance, medical schools across the country would be 50-50 men and women, that law schools would become 50-50 men and women, and so on down in the professions, and that it would change entirely the notion of careers for women.
Title IX sailed through Congress, but controversy soon erupted. Before Title IX, 98% of college athletic budgets went to men’s teams, but the new law required schools to provide opportunities for female athletes, leaving less money for men. A later amendment to preserve the discriminatory advantage for mens’ sports was defeated. Looking back, it is clear that equal resources for women’s sports has had a huge impact on the success of women athletes and teams. Although, clearly, there is still discrimination in professional sports.
Title IX has also had a huge impact because it protects students and staff from sexual assault and harassment. If a school doesn’t deal properly with these forms of oppression, then the Feds can get involved.
DESIGN NOTE
The tree image: Patsy’s middle name, Matsu, is the Japanese word for a pine tree that grows near the coast and is buffeted by winds, yet stays strong and develops beautifully because of those winds.
The background image is taken from the actual paper document of the Title IX law in the National Archives, which can be found here: https://catalog.
archives.gov/id/7455551?objectPage=6 The document has the rubber stamps showing the date it was received at the White House (6/12/72) and at the General Services Administration, Office of the Federal Register (6/23/72). This isn’t a typed document, it is printed by letterpress. Every page has a rule border printed in red. The law is, among other things, a physical object.
The image of Patsy Mink is based on a photo used in Time magazine’s 100 Women of the Year issue of 2020 found here: https://time.com/5793641/patsy-takemoto-mink-100-women-of-the-year/ There it was used courtesy of Gwendolyn Mink/Patsy Takemoto Mink papers, Library of Congress.
MORE SOURCES
The Patsy Mink quotes (in italics above) are from a 2008 documentary film called “Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority” directed by Kimberlee Bassford, available on Kanopy through your library.
https://www.justice.gov/crt/title-ix-education-amendments-1972
Here is a page with many sources: https://www.patsyminkfoundation.org/more-about-patsy-mink
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