Women’s Worldwide Web mourns the loss and celebrates the life of Geraldine A. Ferraro—the first woman in the United States to run as vice president on a major party national ticket, and a great leader in women’s rights and social equality efforts.
In 1978, Ferraro was elected as Congresswoman from New York’s Ninth Congressional District and fulfilled three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. During this time, Ferraro ardently piloted the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, helping to protect women against legal discrimination on the basis of sex. She also advocated for the Women’s Economic Equity Act in 1984 to guarantee women’s freedom from pension discrimination, to grant homemakers the ability to open individual retirement accounts, and to allow homemakers access to further state assistance in times of need.
In 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter F. Mondale appointed Ferraro as his running mate owing to her great intellect and her familiarity with a diverse range of national issues. In his memoir, The Good Fight, Mondale explains that he also chose Ferraro with hopes that “skeptical voters would see what an effective woman candidate could accomplish” and that “young women could see new horizons open up”. Ann Richards, a former governor of Texas, has described her reaction to Ferraro’s inspirational nomination: “the first thing I thought of was not winning in the political sense, but of my two daughters… To think of the numbers of young women who can now aspire to anything.”
Among the other women who succeeded in breaking barriers and achieving high positions in national office is Shirley Chisholm, whose life and work we would also like to celebrate. In 1968, Chisholm became the first African-American woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress; and she later became the first African-American woman to make a bid for the U.S. presidency, campaigning at the Democratic nominating convention to serve as the party’s presidential candidate for the 1972 elections. Although she was not nominated to run, she received a substantial number of votes at the convention and held her position in the U.S. House of Representatives for over a decade. Before her death in 2005, Chisholm described the way in which she wished her legacy to be written into history: “When I die, I want to be remembered as a woman who lived in the twentieth century and who dared to be a catalyst for change. I don’t want be remembered as the first black woman who went to Congress, and I don’t even want to be remembered as the first woman who happened to be black to make a bid for the presidency. I want to be remembered as a woman who fought for change in the twentieth century. That’s what I want.”
Women’s Worldwide Web pays tribute to Geraldine A. Ferraro and Shirley Chisholm—pioneers of women’s political progress and defenders of the basic moral principles of equality and fairness. Their life-long, impressive work served as a stepping stone for ambitious young women and their legacies offer ongoing inspiration.
We invite you to read a New York Times article that eloquently describes Geraldine A. Ferraro’s particular role in opening the door for women to the executive branch—a branch of government traditionally reserved for men: She Ended the Men’s Club of National Politics
© Women’s WorldWide Web 2011
