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- Patsy Takemoto Mink Ignored The Closed Doors
Happy Friday, everyone! What you missed last month:
Madam C.J. Walker taught us how to find product-market fit
Let’s get into it!
public domain photo + my design skills
Patsy Tomeko Mink had a problem: She graduated from the University of Chicago Law School in 1951, but Chicago law firms wouldn't hire her. They didn't like that Patsy was a Japanese American married woman. She took the jobs she could get, working as a department store model, clerk, and library worker.
This door was closed; it didn’t stop her.
In 1952, Patsy and her family relocated to Hawaii. She was born and raised there, so Patsy assumed she could take the bar, pass, find a job, and practice. But when she applied to take the state bar exam, Patsy discovered she was ineligible thanks to this pesky thing called “coverture”.
Under coverture, a woman has no legal persona; her political identity is covered by her husbands. A woman couldn’t sue or be sued, sign contracts, buy, sell, or own property. States had been disassembling coverture in the 1800s, but Hawaii was still putting some parts of coverture into practice. When Patsy got married, she was no longer considered a resident of the state of Hawaii. Because the man that she married was not a resident of Hawaii.
🤬 🤬 🤬
Another closed door.
She challenged her exclusion from the bar and was eventually allowed to take the state bar. Patsy passed the exam in 1953. Once again (sigh), she found it hard to find employment because she was married and had a child. So she started her own law practice.
This is who she is at her core - a woman who, when presented with a closed door, ignores it and still gets what she wants. Which is why she became the first WOC elected to the US House of Representatives, and the first Asian-American woman to serve in Congress.
So be like Patsy; ignore the closed doors.
Best,
LaToya
p.s. Resources for you
