"No person in the United States shall, based on 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." - Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972

"I consider Title IX to be one of my most significant accomplishments as a Member of Congress, and I take special pride in honoring its contributions to changing our view about women's role in America." – Patsy Mink, July 17, 2002, Congressional Record (House)

The items in the image gallery above represent a sampling of materials that can be found within the Manuscript Division's Patsy T. Mink Papers that document her involvement with the passage of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) in 1974.

Mink’s sponsorship of Title IX and the WEEA were among her most noteworthy successes while serving in Congress. Her personal experiences of discrimination throughout her education and her appointment as a freshman member of Congress to the Education and Labor Committee influenced her determination in supporting Title IX and the WEEA.

Congresswoman Edith Green had originally proposed amendments to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sex discrimination (along with race, color, national origin, or religion), and Green held hearings on this bill. Many regard these hearings as the beginning of Title IX. Mink testified during these hearings in June 1970. While the initiative to amend Title VI of the Civil Rights Act failed, the focus turned toward developing separate legislation on sex discrimination in education as an alternative. Mink and her congressional staff gathered information on sex discrimination in higher education to support their legislative efforts, for example, through reviewing enrollment statistics.

Mink co-sponsored, with Green, the legislation that would become the Education Amendments of 1972 prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions. Title IX was not initially focused on women’s athletics, but, instead, on discrimination in admissions policies, access to all academic subjects, scholarship selection, and faculty hiring and promotions. However, the impact of the bill on promoting equality for women’s athletics was an important outcome, and one that provoked controversy. Amendments were proposed to thwart Title IX, but the law was successfully defended by Mink and other legislators. Lawsuits also later tested and challenged the applicability of Title IX.

Important to Title IX’s success was the WEEA, a companion law that Mink pushed through Congress. The WEEA provided opportunities to obtain federal funding to counter sex-role stereotyping in schools, provide career counseling to women, support women’s studies programs, and implement community education programs for women. Even after the passage of Title IX and the WEEA, Mink continued to defend and fight for women’s educational equality throughout her congressional career.