Patsy Mink and Title IX

This morning's NYT had a small report entitled "Study May Only Fuel Debate Over Title IX" (personal comment: sic Congress renamed this Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, which NYT declines to acknowledge.) and I got to thinking about the woman, Patsy Mink, who was the person who was it's principal author. But before we get to Patsy lets be clear about what Title IX is. It is a law. Just 37 words. It says :

"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."

The law was passed in 1972, so what is the NYT doing reporting about it now? Well, there was an unnamed group trying to reform the law, saying that there was a huge drop in men's athletic opportunities because of this law. The Women's Sports Foundation took a close look at the
statistics, and found that, over all, this wasn't true. Why is the NYT saying that this will fuel debate? What the study shows is that even after 35 years there are more than 22% of colleges that do not comply with the law. The opposing numbers and point of view about Title IX comes from the "College Sports Council" who's chairman, Eric Pearson, said about the Women's Sports Foundation report "It just reinforces that all they care about is gender quotas. The chart is a litigation hit list." (personal comment: well ... the law is based on gender .. so ...)
So back to Patsy. What a woman. She received from the University of Hawaii dual bachelor's degrees in zoology and chemistry. However in 1948, none of the twenty medical schools to which she applied would accept women. A disappointed Mink decided the best way to force medical schools to accept women would be through the judicial process. Mink decided to go to law school.
She was the first in many things: the first non-white woman to serve in Congress, first woman to practice law in Hawaii.
It has been 35 years since this law passed, and the guys are still whining about equality not being fair. And although the law is meant to be called Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, her name seems destined to disappear like so many other women's names.