I've been looking up extraordinary women this Women's History Month and sharing them on my personal Facebook page. A few days later it has occurred to me to share them here as well!
Patsy Takemoto Mink December 6, 1927 – September 28, 2002 was an American politician from the U.S. state of Hawaii. Mink was a third generation Japanese American and member of the Democratic Party. She also was the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
Mink was the first non-white woman and the first Asian American woman elected to Congress. She was the first woman elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii, and became the first Asian American to seek the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in the 1972 election, where she stood in the Oregon primary as an anti-war candidate. From 1978 to 1981 Mink served as the president of Americans for Democratic Action.
Mink served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a total of 12 terms, representing Hawaii's first and second congressional districts. While in Congress she was noted for co-authoring the Title IX Amendment of the Higher Education Act (which states that you cannot discriminate for financial assistance or educational opportunities-if you're a woman who went to college, there's a good chance you have her to thank for it, she was turned down by every medical school she applied to). She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously but the page on the White House site has been removed. A link to her Foundation.
Sources:
The Patsy Mink Foundation
Wikipedia external links