Former Hawaii congresswoman Patsy Takemoto Mink will posthumously receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom this month, according to a news release issued by U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

The award will be presented at the White House on Nov. 24.

Mink, a Democrat, served as a U.S. representative for Hawaii from 1965 to 1977 and again from 1990 until 2002, the year she died. 

Raised in Paia, Maui, Mink graduated at the top of her class from Maui High School in 1944. She went on to earn undergraduate degrees in zoology and chemistry. Mink went on to attend the University of Chicago School of Law, graduating as one of only two female students in her class in 1951. 

She was the first Japanese-American to practice law in Hawaii and later became the first Asian-American woman and woman of color in Congress.

Her personal and professional experiences dealing with sexism led her in 1972 to co-author landmark federal legislation largely known as Title IX. The law, which bars discrimination based on sex in educational programs receiving federal funding, opened up higher education and athletic opportunities to women. 

It has since been renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

“Congresswoman Patsy Mink broke down long-standing barriers to create equal access to opportunities for women and girls, and courageously defied those who told her she couldn’t succeed simply because she was a woman. In the 1940s, she was denied entrance to over a dozen medical schools for being a woman, but went on to attend law school and committed her entire life to changing the status quo,” Gabbard said in the release.

Gabbard, who serves in Hawaii’s congressional delegation, added, “Many women and girls, and countless others who have benefited from her unwavering fight for equality, owe a debt of gratitude to Hawai’i’s Patsy Mink. As a testament to the importance of her hallmark Title IX legislation, her legacy lives on in the millions of girls who today are guaranteed equal opportunities in education.”

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.