Title IX does not just prohibit gender quotas in school admissions; it also promotes equity in hiring and compensation; prohibits discrimination against pregnant and parenting students; and prohibits sexual harassment and gender-based violence.  

Significant progress has been made in women’s educational attainment since the passage of Title IX in 1972. Between 1968 and 2009, the number of women aged 25-34 with a college degree more than tripled. From 1971 to 2016, the number of girls participating in high school athletics increased over 1,000%, and the number of women participating in college athletics increased about 700%. Impacts of this progress extend beyond education, too: higher educational attainment has been linked to higher earnings, lower poverty, and better health. 

Yet there is still progress to be made. As of 2011, women earned less than half of all bachelor’s degrees in mathematics, physical sciences, engineering, and computer science. Gender-based pay inequity persists in higher education. Scholars have also been calling for more analysis of how gender-based violence and discrimination intersect with race, sexuality, gender identity, and citizenship. Therefore, Title IX, who it applies to, and how it is enforced, will almost certainly continue to change. 

Mink left Congress in 1977 after an unsuccessful bid for Senate. After two years serving in the Carter administration as Assistant Secretary of State for Ocean and International, Environmental, and Scientific Affairs, she returned to Hawaiʻi. Back home, she served on the Honolulu City Council then ran for governor of Hawaiʻi and then mayor of Honolulu. Mink returned to Congress in 1991, where she continued to fight for social welfare legislation. 

Patsy Mink died unexpectedly from pneumonia in 2002. Though she is most closely associated with Title IX, she is also known for her authorship of the Women’s Educational Equity Act, her vocal opposition to the Vietnam War, and her opposition to nuclear testing in the Pacific, which led to a lawsuit (Mink v. Environmental Protection Agency) that resulted in strengthening the Freedom of Information Act. Among her most enduring and inspirational legacies are her commitment to working for the collective good and her belief in a government that serves all of its people.