Title IV, Women's Sports, Patsy Mink

A L O H A

 Play Ball !

 

 "You can discover
 more about a person 
in an hour of play
 than in a year 
of conversation." 

Plato 

" Champions

 keep playing

 until they get it

 right." 

 Billie Jean King

 "Somewhere 

behind the athlete you've become 

and the hours of practice 

and the coaches who have pushed you

 is a little girl

 who fell in love with the game

 and never looked back... 

 play for her. " 

 Mia Hamm

 (born on March 17, 1972)

 

Congresswoman Patsy T. Mink (left),

 Mme. Nguyen Thi Binh, Foreign Minister 

of South Vietnam (center), 

and Congresswoman Bella Abzug (right) 

meeting outside of Paris, France, 

April 21, 1972.

 Library of Congress, 

Patsy T. Mink Papers, Manuscript Division.

Patsy Matsu Takemoto was born
 1927, Dec. 6  at Paia

 on the island of Maui

She attended Maui High School

 and in her Junior year, Patsy won her first

 of many elections

 to become student body president.  

Unremarkable today, but Patsy was, 

according to Wikipedia

 "the only female who had ever showed ambition

 for student office in the school's history, 

something that was unheard of at the time. . ."  

Not to mention that 

 ". . .   the month before the election,

 Honolulu was attacked by Japan. 

As a consequence, most of the student body

 was uncomfortable with anything 

that was Japanese-oriented. "  

Nevertheless, she won a tight election, 

graduating in 1944 

as class valedictorian.

" Miss Takemoto moved to Honolulu 

where she attended

 the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.
 My Alma Mater.

 She later transferred

 to the University of Nebraska 

where she once again faced discrimination.

The university had a long-standing
 racial segregation 

policy whereby students of color

 were forced to live in different dormitories 

from the white students. This annoyed Mink,

 and she organized and created a coalition . . . 

her coalition successfully lobbied 

 to end the university's segregation policies. "

 Patsy moved back to Honolulu

 to prepare for medical school. 

She received bachelor's degrees in zoology

 and chemistry from  UH.

 However in 1948, 

none of the twenty medical schools

 to which she applied would accept women. 

A disappointed Takemoto decided 

the best way to force medical schools

 to accept women would be through 

the judicial process. 

She set her sights on law school 

and was admitted to the

 University of Chicago Law School,

 which educated women from its inception in 1902.

 (She was not the only woman in the class.)

Miss Takemoto obtained her juris doctor degree

 in 1951.  And one thing more; 

it was at law school that Miss Takemoto

 met hydrologist John Mink (1924–2005), 

who was to become her husband

 and lifelong partner.

 Patsy Mink served in our Hawaii legislature,

 (Territorial as well as after Statehood)
as well as the US Congress, 

and died here at home in Honolulu 

on  Sept. 28 2002.

(Then-)Representative, 

current Hawaii Governor,

 Neil Abercrombie, said of her:

  ‘She never thought for a moment 

of not working with people 

who didn’t agree with her 

 ideologically.

40 years ago this week,

 on JUNE 23, 1972, 

 a portion of the Educational Amendments 

enacted by our US Congress included

Title IX, 

just 37 words written by Patsy Mink, 

stating that:

 " 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- "

Congress named the Title IX Amendment

 of the Higher Education Act

 the "Patsy T. Mink

 Equal Opportunity in Education Act".

Since that time,

 participation in school sports 

has INCREASED for girls 90%,

 as you might expect,

 but participation among boys

 has increased too.

When I was in elementary school, 

sports were a boy thing.  

Girls watched,

 or played other games.  

A girl who did play sports

was called a "Tom Boy." 

 [The tribulations of  "Sissy Boys"

 will be discussed at a later time]

When I see Carissa Moore surf, 

WNBA athletes shoot 3 pointers, 

or happy young girls 

REALLY competing 

at sports they love. . . 

when I see young women

 who are police officers, or in military service

and who are not the EXCEPTIONS

 in build & temperament 

that the pioneers of my day 

HAD to be

 to break into those fields, 

 I think of Patsy Takemoto 

all those years ago, 

way out in the country

 on Maui.

Gratitude

 to all the women
and men

 who opened doors!  

Now that we have all

 played in the sunshine,

 and won championships

 and gold medals, 

we will never send our daughters 

back inside again.

Isn't that GREAT!

 Thanks for looking in-

Chime in with a comment

                    Warmly, cloudia