Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton is an outspoken advocate for social justice and women’s rights, and is considered by many to be the first major U.S. female political figure since Eleanor Roosevelt.

Hillary Diane Rodham was born in 1947 near Chicago, Illinois to Hugh Rodham and Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham. Clinton’s father’s textile business provided the family with a comfortable income and her parents placed a strong emphasis on hard work and academic excellence.

Clinton was an active student leader in school and adhered to the Republican Party of her parents. In 1964, she campaigned for Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and was the chair of the local chapter of the Young Republicans. After hearing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in 1962, Clinton’s political views began to shift and she started to develop strong opinions a surrounding civil rights, social justice and the Vietnam War.

Clinton entered Yale Law School in 1969 where she interned with children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman, and it was while working with Edelman that Clinton began to develop a strong interest in family law and issues affecting children. 

After graduation, Clinton moved to Massachusetts where she continued to work with Edelman for the Children’s Defense Fund. In 1974, Clinton participated in the Watergate inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Richard Nixon. When Nixon resigned, Clinton moved to Arkansas where she taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law. In October 1975, she married Bill Clinton, whom she had  first met while studying at Yale.

Clinton began work at Rose Law Firm in 1977 and a year later, she became the first woman ever to be named a full partner.  Bill Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas in 1978, while Hillary continued to work on social programs to benefit children and the disadvantaged. 

Clinton served as the First Lady of Arkansas for 12 years. In 1993, Bill Clinton ran for and was elected President. Hillary Clinton became the first First lady to have a post graduate degree, her own professional career and her own office in the West Wing of the White House. Clinton continued to work alongside her husband and played an important role in his administration in the White House.

In 1994, Clinton helped create the Department of Justice's Office on Violence Against Women and travelled to more than 80 countries where she was a forceful advocate for the rights of women.

Clinton continued to make history after Bill Clinton’s second term as President and was elected to the US Senate; she was the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from New York and she was the first wife of a president to seek and win national office.

In 2007, Clinton set her sights on another first, the first female president of the United States. She was an early front runner for the Democratic nomination, although she ultimately lost to Barak Obama, who would go on to win the 2008 Presidential Election.

Obama named Clinton his Secretary of State shortly after winning the election and Clinton made women’s rights and human rights a central talking point of U.S. initiatives. Clinton was one of the most widely travelled secretaries of State in U.S. history and her tenure was widely for improving U.S. foreign relations. Clinton resigned her post as Secretary of State in 2013. Clinton remains the object of speculation surrounding the 2016 Presidential election. She is heavily favoured to win the Democratic nomination if she chooses to run. Clinton has not officially stated her intentions at this time, saying she’ll make a decision in early 2015.

Sources:

Hillary Clinton Biography
Hillary Rodham Clinton | The White House 
Hillary Rodham Clinton Encyclopedia Britannica 
Hillary Clinton Biography National First Ladies' Library 
Hillary Rodham Clinton American Experience 
Hillary Clinton Recalls Eleanor Roosevelt, Advises Women To 'Grow Skin Like A Rhinoceros' 
Hillary Rodham Clinton Facts 
Hillary Clinton All But Announces Her 2016 Campaign In Iowa 
Bill Clinton Biography 
Hillary Clinton would face uphill fight in Arkansas in 2016