Hillary Clinton's Historic Record Of Breaking Down Barriers And Smashing Through Glass Ceilings

Hillary Clinton has been breaking barriers and smashing through glass ceilings for decades.

Born to Dorothy and Hugh Rodham on October 26, 1947, Hillary Rodham Clinton attended public schools, eventually graduating from Wellesley College and Yale Law School, where she began dating William Jefferson Clinton in the late spring of 1971. She served as the First Lady of Arkansas for 12 years during Bill’s governorship from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992. She served as the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001. She served as the junior United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. She served as the Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 for the administration of Pres. Barack Obama. And she is currently the nominee for the Democratic Party for President of the United States.

Hillary has successfully navigated around barriers, at times smashing through them, during her career in public service which spans virtually her entire life[1] often setting historic records.

The following list includes some highlights of Hillary’s illustrious history.

First Female Chair of Legal Services Corporation

As her official State Dept. bio notes, “She was an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas School of Law, and after working to strengthen the local legal aid office, she was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to serve on the board of the Legal Services Corporation [LSC], which she later chaired.” For those unfamiliar, “LSC is the single largest funder of civil legal aid for low-income Americans in the nation. Established in 1974 [by the United States Congress], LSC operates as an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that promotes equal access to justice and provides grants for high-quality civil legal assistance to low-income Americans.”

In mid-1978 Hillary became the first woman to become the Chair of the Board. During her tenure, she was highly successful at getting Congress to increase funding for the organization by stressing the non-partisan nature of their role of providing attorneys to low-income individuals to assist them with commonplace legal issues, and by her third year on the board she managed to get their budget tripled.[2]

First Female Associate and Partner in the Prestigious Rose Law Firm

Hillary joined the prestigious Rose Law Firm[3] shortly after marrying Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975,

The Rose Law Firm is the oldest law firm west of the Mississippi and the third oldest law firm in the United States, tracing its history to 1820 according to The New York Times.

Unprecedented Term as First Lady

As Encyclopedia Britannica reports, “During the 1992 campaign, Bill Clinton sometimes spoke of a “twofer” (“two for the price of one”) presidency, implying that Hillary would play an important role in his administration. Early indications from the Clinton White House supported this interpretation. She appointed an experienced staff and set up her own office in the West Wing, an unprecedented move. Her husband appointed her to head the Task Force on National Health Care, a centerpiece of his legislative agenda.”

Wikipedia adds that: “As First Lady of the United States, Clinton led the unsuccessful effort to enact the Clinton health care plan of 1993. In 1997 and 1999, she helped create the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. She also tackled the problems of adoption and family safety and foster care. At the 1995 UN conference on women, held in Beijing, Clinton stated in a then controversial and influential speech, that ‘human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights.'”

First Female Senator from New York, First Woman Elected Statewide In New York, and First Former First Lady to Seek Elective Office

Sworn into office on January 3, 2001, “Senator Clinton continued to push for health care reform, and she remained an advocate for children,” as reported by Encyclopedia Britannica. Hillary served on several committees as Senator to include the Armed Services Committee, the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Budget Committee and the Select Committee on Aging. She was also a Commissioner on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

As a Senator, Hillary worked across party lines as a strong advocate for funding the rebuilding of New York after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and worked to address the health concerns of first responders who had risked their lives working at Ground Zero saving others. As her official State Dept. bio reads, as Senator “She also championed the cause of our nation’s military and fought for better health care and benefits for wounded service members, veterans and members of the National Guard and Reserves. She was also the only Senate member of the Transformation Advisory Group to the Department of Defense‘s Joint Forces Command.”

In 2006, she was easily reelected to the Senate where she served until 2009 at which time she was sworn in as Secretary of State.

First First Lady to Serve in a Cabinet Position (Sec. of State)

In mid-November 2008 President-Elect Barack Obama discussed the possibility of Hillary serving as the Secretary of State for his administration. After some initial reservations, Hillary accepted the position on November 20th, and 0n January 21, 2009, she was sworn in as the 67th Secretary of State of the United States.

During her tenure as Sec. of State, Clinton advocated the use of “smart power” for asserting U.S. leadership and values by combining the hard power of the military with diplomacy and the soft power capacities of the U.S. in global economics, technology and human rights advocacy. The Center for Strategic and International Studies defines smart power as “an approach that underscores the necessity of a strong military, but also invests heavily in alliances, partnerships, and institutions of all levels to expand American influence and establish legitimacy of American action.”

Her official campaign website provides the following list of accomplishments from her time as Sec. of State:

Hillary was instrumental in starting to restore America’s standing in the world. She visited 112 countries, brought smart power—coupling diplomacy with the threat of force or sanctions—to U.S. foreign policy, and helped shape the global conversation.
She built a coalition for tough new sanctions against Iran that brought them to the negotiating table.[4]
She brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that averted a war and protected Israel’s security.
She made advancing the status of women and girls around the world a core part of U.S. foreign policy, working to bring down the barriers that stop women and girls from reaching their potential. She stood up against sex trafficking, expanded opportunities for women and girls in education and business, and led the fight for a U.N. Security Council resolution to combat sexual violence against women and children in conflict zones.
She was a forceful champion for LGBT rights at home and abroad.[5]
And she fought to expand human rights, internet freedom, and rights and opportunities for young people around the globe.[6]

Additionally, The Atlantic reports that Hillary Clinton traveled 956,733 miles during her time as Secretary of State, “spending almost as much time up in the air as she did on the ground.”

The Atlantic goes on to report that: “In the process, she broke records. In July of 2012, during a trip to Finland, Clinton met Madeleine Albright’s most-countries-traveled-to mark — the record, at the time — of 98 countries. She then surpassed it with a trip to Latvia. The new secretary then went on to visit 12 more countries, for a closing total of 112.”

Citing the State Department website’s page detailing Hillary’s travel, The Atlantic provides the following breakdown:

Total miles traveled: 956,733
Which equates to this many times traveled around the circumference of the world: 38.42
Total travel time, in hours: 2,084.21
Total travel time, in days: 86.8
Days of travel, in all: 401
Which works out to: 1.099 years

The Atlantic concludes their piece with the following overview of Hillary’s role as Sec. of State:

Clinton’s time at State will be remembered for many reasons, but one of them is this: The secretary, despite all the telecommuting options available to her, reinforced the power of being there — in a place, in a context, in a moment. She reminded the world that Woody Allen was right even when it comes to diplomacy: 80 percent of success really is simply showing up.

First Woman Nominated for President by a Major Party

The New York Times reported on Tuesday July 26, 2016 that “The Democrat ic convention formally nominated Hillary Clinton for president on Tuesday, making history by choosing a woman to be the first standard-bearer of a major political party, a breakthrough underscored by a deeply personal speech by Bill Clinton calling her ‘the best darn change-maker I have ever known.'”

CNN reported at the time that: “At the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, just three miles from Independence Hall where the nation was born, a sense of history is palpable — as is Clinton’s willingness to finally enjoy it.”

“What an incredible honor that you have given me, and I can’t believe we just put the biggest crack in that glass ceiling yet,” Clinton said via satellite after a video montage showed the faces of all 44 male presidents before shattering like glass to reveal Clinton waiting to address the convention from New York.

“This is really your victory. This is really your night,” Clinton told the cheering crowd. “And if there are any little girls out there who stayed up late to watch, let me just say I may become the first woman President. But one of you is next.”

FOOTNOTE 1: Clinton often tells a story about sending a letter to NASA around 1961 asking about becoming an astronaut only to be told that women were not being accepted into the program. The Washington Post fact-checked the claim in November 2015 giving it the coveted and rare Geppetto Checkmark for “Statements and claims that contain ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

“Now, some of you may know that when I was a little girl growing up in Illinois, I was interested in all kinds of stories about women. And my mother … actually told me about Amelia Earhart. And then when we decided, under President Kennedy’s leadership, that our nation was going to go to the moon and we were going to have an astronaut program, I wanted to be an astronaut. So when I was about 13, I wrote to NASA and asked what I needed to do to try to be an astronaut. And of course, there weren’t any women astronauts, and NASA wrote me back and said there would not be any women astronauts. And I was just crestfallen. But then I realized I couldn’t see very well, and I wasn’t all that athletic, so probably, I wouldn’t be the first woman astronaut anyway.”

— Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speech at event celebrating Amelia Earhart, March 20, 2012 [“Hillary Clinton’s often-told story that NASA rejected her ..,” The Washington Post, retrieved 28 Sep. 2016]

A brief overview of Clinton’s early involvement in politics included the time she served on the student council while attending Maine East High School, served as class vice president for her junior year, and lost the election for class president her senior year running against two boys – one of whom told her that “you are really stupid if you think a girl can be elected president.” As The Encyclopedia Britannica reports: “Although she later became associated with liberal causes, during this time she adhered to the Republican Party of her parents. She campaigned for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964 and chaired the local chapter of the Young Republicans. A year later, after she enrolled at Wellesley College, her political views began to change. Influenced by the assassinations of Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., she joined the Democratic Party and volunteered in the presidential campaign of antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy.”

FOOTNOTE 2: The source for this info is the Wikipedia entry for Legal Services Corporation. Liberals Unite did take the time to confirm the accuracy of their sources for the materials presented here.

FOOTNOTE 3: Once again, we turn to Wikipedia for some background on the firm. For more information you can read about this history of Rose Law Firm on their website.

The firm’s origins go back to November 1, 1820, sixteen years before Arkansas statehood, when Robert Crittenden, born 1797, and Chester Ashley, born 1791, entered into an agreement for a “Partnership in the Practice of Law”. […] Rose Law Firm members have historically been active in politics and civic affairs. Robert Crittenden served as Arkansas’ territorial governor and negotiated Arkansas’ admission to the United States as the 25th state in 1836. Chester Ashley served as a United States Senator from Arkansas. U.M. Rose co-founded the American Bar Association and served as its president in 1901–1902. Rose was later appointed the American representative to the Second Hague Peace Conference and was instrumental in drafting the Hague Convention. Six of the firm’s members have served on the Arkansas Supreme Court (three as Chief Justice), and six members have also served as President of the Arkansas Bar Association. Rose Law Firm members have served as Commissioner of the Uniform Commission on State Laws, President of the National Association of Bond Lawyers and President of the Arkansas Bar Association.

FOOTNOTE 4: Read more – How Hillary Clinton helped enact the toughest sanctions in history on Iran.

FOOTNOTE 5: Read more – Hillary Clinton released her plan to protect and expand rights for the LGBT community.

FOOTNOTE 6: Read more – The world is a better place because Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.

FEATURED IMAGE: By The Official White House Photostream (Pete Souza) – P040909PS-0325, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6661795