Patsy T. Mink: “I have a very personal connection with title IX because while I was wanting to go to medical school in my time and I had…”

“I have a very personal connection with title IX because while I was wanting to go to medical school in my time and I had written to a dozen or more medical schools to seek entry, each one of them turned me down by saying that they did not admit women to their schools. It came to me as quite a shock that in America it was not a person's grade, aptitude, tests, recommendations that got the person into the careers of their choice, but that it had to do with one's gender. So it appalled me. I did not know whether to resign myself to that situation or not. I had finished college. I did not have a place to go, had no real insights as to what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I got a job at an art academy as assistant director, and the director said to me, do not give up, there is something there you can go to. So this is how I came to title IX. I was determined that no other young woman in this country should ever have to endure the kinds of frustrations and injustice that I had to face while I was trying to find my place in this great democracy.”