For the 21st century, I chose women who ran for president from each party.
Elizabeth Dole (1936- ) was born in North Carolina. She graduated from Duke University in political science. She went on, in 1960, earning a master’s degree in education, and in 1965, and a JD from Harvard Law School, one of 25 female graduates in a class of 500.
After law school, she moved to Washington, D.C., working in various government agencies. In 1973, she was named one of five commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission.
In 1975, she married Robert Dole, a senator from Kansas. When her husband ran for vice-president in 1976, and later, in 1979, for the Presidential election, she campaigned for him full time.
In 1983, President Reagan appointed her as Secretary of Transportation—the first woman to hold that position. She also served as Secretary of Labor for the first President Bush in 1989. She was the first female Senator to be elected from North Carolina.
She did a short stint as president of the American Red Cross in 1990 with 32,000 employees and 1.4 million volunteers.
In 2000, she ran for the Republican presidency. Due to insufficient campaign funds, she dropped out before primaries. She still continues to be active in politics.
Hillary Clinton (1947- ) was born in Illinois. In 1964, as a young woman, she campaigned for Barry Goldwater. In 1968, after hearing a speech by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., she became a Democrat.
In 1969, she graduated from Wellesley College, and continued her education for law degree from Yale University in 1973. After college, she became a faculty member of the University of Arkansas Law School. There she met her classmate from law school, Bill Clinton, a fellow teacher. They were married in 1975.
In 1977, she joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. She also campaigned for Jimmy Carter, and under him she was chairman of the Legal Services Corp. As first lady of the state of Arkansas, she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee.
In 1998 and again in 1991, in the “National Law Journal” she was named as one of the 100 most powerful lawyers in America.
Under her husband, President Bill Clinton, she served as first lady from 1993-2001. In 2001 -2009, she was elected to the U.S. Senate and became the first First Lady to win an office seat.
In 2007, she made a serious run for the Presidency, conceding the nomination when Barack Obama won the majority of the delegate votes. In a speech to her supporters she said, “Although we were not able to shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it has 18 million cracks in it.”
Under President Obama, she was appointed the 67th Secretary of State, serving from 2009-2013.
By 2015, she was again ready and announced her run for the Presidency. She was the first woman in our history to become a nominee of a major political party. In what some called a “unconventional campaign” she lost to Donald Trump.
She authored a number of books: A Memoir, Hard Choices, Living History, Unique Voice, It Takes a Village, What Happened.
Whether Democrat or Republican, I do hope a woman again tries to run for President and makes more cracks in that glass ceiling and shatters it completely.
Bravo! Bravo, to all the brave women mentioned and those 194 that my readers are going to research. Bravo to my readers, too!
