Who gave women the right to vote first, Hawaii or the United States? The answer is probably the kingdom of Hawaii, in the 1840 Constitution, as it used a gender neutral term. So it may not be surprising that the first woman of color elected to the United States Congress came from Hawaii, Patsy T. Mink.

It is therefore most appropriate during this women’s history month, that we examine the achievements of our own visionary leader. This is especially true in 2022 as this is the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Patsy T. Mink Title IX legislation. Title IX made monumental strides in the advancement of education for girls.

After getting her bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawaii in 1948, Patsy Mink wanted to attend medical school — but no medical schools at that time would accept women. So she went to University of Chicago law school. Facing discrimination due to her interracial marriage, Mink went into private law practice and lectured on business law at the University of Hawaii.

In 1964, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, the first woman of color, and served in Congress for 12 years until 1977. She supported President Lyndon Johnson’s domestic “Great Society” social programs, but despite a large military presence in her district, she opposed the Vietnam War.

In 1972 she ran briefly for the Democratic nomination for president. Also that year, she authored the law, then known as Title IX. It 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.” Now it has been renamed after her.

As an elementary school student in the late 1960s, I remember there were sports like football, basketball, volleyball and baseball for boys — but no sports for girls. In intermediate school, boys took shop class while girls took home economics. In high school boys were encouraged to take math and science to become doctors and engineers. Girls were not.

Fewer than 30,000 women participated in college sports in 1971-1972. In 2010–2011, that number exceeded 190,000 — about six times the pre-Title IX rate. In 2009–2010, women received 48% of the total athletic scholarship dollars at Division 1 schools, where there were none before Title IX.

Before Title IX, women earned just 7% of all law degrees and 9% of all medical degrees. Now they earn nearly half of all law and medical degrees.

“Before Title IX, students who became pregnant or had children were often dismissed from high school,” says Younghee Overly, AAUW of Hawaii’s public policy chairperson. “On average, a woman with a high school diploma earns around $8,000 more annually than a woman without a high school diploma. By prohibiting discrimination against pregnant students, Title IX impacts livelihood of young mothers and their families.”

Ann Freed, a retired U.S. Army colonel, notes: “Four years after Title IX passed, the first female cadets were enrolled at West Point. Rising to officer level such at lieutenant colonel would not have been possible without the Earth-moving passage of Title IX. All women benefited from those first female academy graduates who broke difficult ground for all the rest of us.”

Returning to Honolulu, Patsy Mink was elected to the City Council, which she chaired until 1985. In her 1986 (ultimately unsuccessful) campaign for governor, on which I worked, Patsy Mink took some controversial positions. She told me that it was her job to take the right position and lead the people to that position — not just to follow what’s popular at the time.

Whether it was civil rights, economic justice or opposition to military conflict in Vietnam or Iraq, Mink followed her conscience. In doing so, she was both ahead of her time and a trailblazer for women’s rights, a key part of the path of women’s rights we honor this month.

John is a Social Studies teacher and the non-female representative of the Hawaii Democratic Party Women’s Caucus to the Party State Central Committee.