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Content provided by the American Bar Association Division for Public Education. Visit the Division for Public Education's website to learn more about the law and its role in society (www.abanet.org/publiced). For more profiles of pioneers in the legal profession, visit the Division for Public Education's Raising the Bar: Pioneers in the Legal Profession website at www.abanet.org/publiced/raisingthebar.html.
Patsy Takemoto Mink
(1928-2002)
(1928-2002)
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Patsy Mink got an early start in politics. When she was in her junior year in high school in 1943, she was the first girl and the first Japanese-American to run for student body president. Despite the anti-Japanese sentiment that was rife at the time, she managed to garner the support of the popular football team and win the election. Her skill in coalition building was one that she was to put to good use when she later became the first Asian-Pacific American woman to be elected to Congress. Mink never intended to be a lawyer. After graduating with a degree in zoology and chemistry from the University of Hawaii, she applied to twenty medical schools across America. Every single one rejected her because she was a woman. Mink swiftly changed tack and decided to study law. The University of Chicago accepted her as a "foreign student." Choosing not to inform the university that Hawaii was an American territory, she enrolled, obtaining her J.D. in 1951. When she sought work in Chicago, Mink was seen as legal secretary material despite her qualifications, so she returned to Hawaii. Once again she faced discrimination and could not find a job at any of the established law firms. Undaunted, she started her own firm and became the first Japanese-American woman to practice law in Hawaii. But as a woman and as an Asian, she recalled years later, she was not eligible for the legal "club" of the day. "I didn't start off wanting to be in politics," she once told a reporter. "I wanted to be a learned professional, serving the community. But they weren't hiring women just then. Not being able to get a job from anybody changed things."1 In 1956, Mink began her political life in earnest when she was elected to the Territorial House of Hawaii. Nine years later she was elected to the U.S House of Representatives and began the first of six consecutive terms. Mink was one of the earliest and loudest opponents of the Vietnam war, during which time she was branded as "a friend of Hanoi" and "Patsy Pink." Despite heavy criticism, she didn't back down. Mink was also an advocate for open and accessible government. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was passed in 1966 to give the public access to information about the operation of government. Mink was at the very center of an early test case of the legislation when, in 1971, she filed suit with 32 other members of Congress to compel disclosure of reports in connection with planned underground nuclear tests at Amchitka Island in Alaska. She took issue with presidential authority to exempt certain information from the FOIA and withhold it from judicial or legislative review. In the case of EPA v Mink, the federal appeals court ruled for Mink. The case was later cited as precedent by the U.S. Supreme Court in its ruling for the release of the Watergate tapes. Perhaps Mink's most important legacy, however, was Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which she co-authored. Title IX mandates gender equity in education. After it passed, colleges and schools receiving federal funding were required for the first time to devote equal funding to women's and men's education. Title IX is probably best known for its impact on athletics, where it has provided hundreds of thousands of girls and women access to sporting programs and college sports scholarships. Mink gave up her House seat to make an unsuccessful run for the Senate in 1976. She subsequently served as chair of the city council in Waipahu and made unsuccessful runs for governor and for mayor of Honolulu. Then, in 1990, Mink had a chance to return to Congress to serve out the term of Daniel Akaka, who moved to the Senate after the death of Spark Matsunaga. In the last decade of her political leadership, she campaigned to address the realities of poverty, and built substantial support in the House for legislation to provide education and skills to poor women and families. Mink's congressional website used to bear a quote from a 1973 news article, which provides an apt metaphor for her life as a trailblazer. It read, "It is easy enough to vote right and be consistently with the majority… but it is more important to be ahead of the majority and this means being able to cut the first furrow in the ground and stand alone for a while if necessary." Patsy Mink passed away in September 2002 at the age of 74. Sources and Resources 1Dan Nakaso, "U.S Rep Patsy Mink dies today at Straub clinic", The Honolulu Advertiser, 28 September 2002. There are dozens of tributes to Patsy Mink's life and work from her colleagues and from ordinary people whose lives she touched at the website of the National Organization for Women. (Originally published in 2003) |
