Hillary Rodham Clinton
October 25, 1947, in Park Ridge, Illinois
Hillary and former President Bill Clinton divide their time between New York and Washington, D.C.
Hillary Rodham Clinton served as first lady throughout her husband Bill Clinton’s two terms in the years 1993-2001. The Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, sometimes assisted Hillary with her first lady responsibilities.
Though many first ladies transformed the expectations that surrounded the traditional role of a presidential spouse to meet their own requirements, Hillary completely disregarded any preconceived notions about what she should do and created a role that matched her own expectations and goals. Not only was she the first first lady to hold an advanced degree, she was also the first to maintain a career throughout her married life. Furthermore, Hillary was the first first lady to run for an elected office, that of New York senator.
As a first lady who had years of legal experience on her resume, Hillary sought an unprecedented active role in government. The president quickly appointed her as the chairperson of the President’s Task Force on National Health Care Reform. Though many were critical of a first lady serving in such a high-level position, she worked tirelessly to interview hundreds of doctors and patients around the country to determine how to best reform American health care. Though Congress rejected her plan, she was undeterred in continuing to advocate for expanded health coverage, as well as children’s issues and women’s rights around the world throughout her tenure. In the years that followed the Clinton administration, Hillary proved her political ambitions did not end as senator, and she ran an historic and compelling race for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. Though Mrs. Clinton was not the first woman to seek our nation’s highest office—that distinction belongs to Victoria Woodhull who ran for president as the nominee of the Equal Rights Party in 1872—Mrs. Clinton was the first to launch a viable campaign and to win a presidential primary.
In her commencement speech from Wellesley College in 1969, Hillary said, “The challenge that faces . . . us now is to practice politics as the art of making possible what appears impossible.”
In her concession speech in the Democratic primary race of 2008, Clinton proclaimed, “Although we weren’t able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it’s got about 18 million cracks in it. And the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time.”