How's that? [17] The following year, Ferraro was assigned to the new Special Victims Bureau, which prosecuted cases involving rape, child abuse, spouse abuse, and domestic violence. The race for the White House was on. Her congressional office, she wrote in her memoir, received some two or three thousand letters each day. You will win big in 84, read the piece of paper inside Queens congresswoman Geraldine Ferraros cookie. [182], In December 2006, Ferraro announced her support for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Geraldine Ferraro: When Walter Mondale Put a Woman on His - History [103][104] Ferraro said, "I consider myself completely vindicated. Because I couldn't look like I was whining or upset about it. Within the campaign, tensions arose; after she wasnt given the chance to weigh in on their campaign schedule in an early strategy meeting, Ferraro suggested Mondales staffers imagine her as a grey-haired Southern gentleman and treat her accordingly. ", "Gender Issue Lives on as Clinton's Bid Wanes", "Huckabee & Ferraro on 'Hannity & Colmes', "Ex-rivals Bush, Ferraro preview Biden-Palin face-off", "Geraldine Ferraro accuses media over 'sexist' scrutiny of Sarah Palin", "Study: Media treat Ferraro, Palin the same", "Geraldine Ferraro: This friend was a fighter", "Ferraro And Palin Most Exclusive Club Down To One Member", "Ferraro, first female vice president candidate, dies at 75", "At Funeral, Recalling Ferraro's Grit and Humor", "Ferraro Eulogized, Laid To Rest in Queens", "To Understand Clinton's Moment, Consider That It Came 32 Years After Ferraro's", "Hillary Clinton, Geraldine Ferraro 32 years later the gender debate lingers", "Hillary Clinton Doesn't Get My Feminist Heart Pumping The Way Geraldine Ferraro Did: The Goosebump Gap", "Geraldine Ferraro Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Sons of Italy", "Geraldine Ferraro Honored at National Conference of Women's Bar Associations with Trailblazer Award", "Geraldine Ferraro to Receive NYCLA's Edith I. Spivack Award on March 17", "Bill passes to rename Queens Post Office after Geraldine Ferraro", "Former Queens Elementary School To Be Named For Geraldine Ferraro", "New school campus named for Geraldine Ferraro", "National Women's History Month: What is it, when did it begin, who is being honored this year? P.S. [31] As she later wrote, "I had created a monster. Women currently constitute under one-fourth of Congress. Let me just say, first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy, she said, an unrehearsed rejoinder. [164] By 1993, she was serving on the Fordham Law School Board of Visitors, as well as on the boards of the National Breast Cancer Research Fund, the New York Easter Seal Society, and the Pension Rights Center, and was one of hundreds of public figures on the Planned Parenthood Federation of America's Board of Advocates. March 26, 2011, 9:43 AM. But this win wasn't easy. [187] Again speaking to the Breeze, Ferraro responded to the attacks by saying: "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. Team As maneuvering helped Ferraro become the first woman Democratic platform committee chair, tasked with wrangling her partys factions into articulating a single policy vision for the election. [129] In addition, a report by an investigator for the New York State Organized Crime Task Force found its way to the media via a tip from a Holtzman aide; it said that Zaccaro had been seen meeting with the DiBernardo in 1985. [35][57][58] Mondale had been 16points behind Reagan in polls before the pick, and after the convention he pulled even for a short time. In the Democratic attempt to unseat President Ronald Reagan, former Vice President Walter Mondale, lagging by some 12 to 19 points, selected Ferraro as his running mate. [169], Ferraro joined Fox News Channel as a regular political commentator in October 1999. We [women] look at ourselves and think, I couldnt handle it so I dont know if she could, either, Tennessean Carol Roberts said to New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd, who was surveying everyday voters. After the convention, the polls sloped up momentarily, offering a glimmer of hope. Once Mondale became the presumptive nominee in June, he began interviewing a roster of Democratsincluding Ferraro, then-mayor of San Francisco Dianne Feinstein, Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and San Antonio mayor Henry Cisnerosfrom significantly more diverse backgrounds than all of the white men elected vice president to date. [45], Ferraro also worked on some environmental issues. "[191]) Ferraro justified the statements by referring to her own run for vice president. [28] She became president of the newly established International Institute for Women's Political Leadership in 1989. Geraldine Ferraro: First Female Democratic VP Candidate - ThoughtCo Geraldine Anne Ferraro (August 26, 1935 March 26, 2011) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. What was Geraldine Ferraro's cause of death? - The Sun Team A recruited Eleanor Lewis, Ferraros top aide, to join them as well. [213][214] She is buried in St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, within her old congressional district. New York Representative Shirley Chisholm had become the first black woman to run for president 11 years prior, and in 1977, tens of thousands of women had gathered at the National Womens Conference in Houston to brainstorm policy ideas that would improve the daily lives of American women. [90] To one Bush statement she said, "Let me just say first of all, that I almost resent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy. [129] Ferraro said in response that those two had never met. Mondale remembered by Geraldine Ferraro's daughter | Fox News Kamala Harris is the nation's third woman vice presidential candidate from a major party. The gender gap persistedReagan and Bush were more popular with men than women. "All-male control of national political leadership is no longer written in stone, or engraved on voting machines" Bella Abzug and Mim Kelber, in a New York Times op-ed. Ferraros path to politics involved night classes at Fordham Law in Manhattan while working a day job as an elementary school teacher in Queens, a stretch of time devoted solely to raising her children, and a return to the workforce at age 38 as a prosecutor for the Queens Special Victims Bureau. When the New Yorker, dressed in suffragist white, strode onto the stage, the crowd went wild. "[202] McCain and Palin ended up losing, but regardless of the 1984 or 2008 election result, Ferraro said that "Every time a woman runs, women win. [170] A portion of the Act created the Geraldine Ferraro Cancer Education Program, which directs the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish an education program for patients of blood cancers and the general public. Ferraro had been eight or nine at the time of her parent's arrest and only learned of the charges from the Post story. Gerry was smart, funny, beautiful, compassionate, creative, and a lot of fun. [8] She became a protg of House Speaker Tip O'Neil,[39] established a rapport with other House Democratic leaders,[29] and rose rapidly in the party hierarchy. [97] The ticket even lost Ferraro's congressional district, which had long been one of the more conservative districts in New York City; it tended to vote Republican in presidential races. I was kvelling.. The battle of the surrogate presidential campaigners took another unexpected twist today when Geraldine Ferraro stepped down from a fundraising post in Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign after. Im not into losing or being offered up as a sacrifice, Ferraro wrote in her memoir. [17] In this role, she became a strong advocate for abused children. [101] Political observers generally agree that no combination of Democrats could have won the election in 1984. ), The Smithsonians National Museum of American History political historian Lisa Kathleen Graddy, who curated the museums exhibit on suffrage, says Ferraros candidacy mirrors the challenges women have faced professionally, in the 80s and today. [105], Ferraro is one of only four U.S. women to run on a major party national ticket. [71] The exposure diminished Ferraro's rising stardom, removed whatever momentum the MondaleFerraro ticket gained out of the convention, and delayed formation of a coherent message for the fall campaign. Terms of Use She has a profile that many women voters have. Three weeks later, the sense of post-convention momentum deflated as the national spotlight on Ferraro also put its glare on her family: her mother, in honor of whom Ferraro had decided to use her maiden name professionally; her three children, who took time off from college and work to campaign; and especially her husband, John Zaccaro, and his real-estate business. [37][68]) This was also the first time the American media had to deal with a national candidate's husband. Theyd note her frankness (Hey, listen, its very heady stuff. It had nothing to do with my qualification. "[187] Her comments resonated with some older white women, but generated an immediate backlash elsewhere. In bracing for this onslaught, it's instructive to look to the first woman who ever ran for vice-president on a major-party ticket: Geraldine Ferraro. [21][22] They would buy a condominium in Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1983. The Ferraro-Holtzman fighting of the campaign was viewed as a disaster by many feminists, however, with Ferraro denied her political comeback while Holtzman also politically damaged herself. [13][37] She was the Chairwoman of the Platform Committee for the 1984 Democratic National Convention, the first woman to hold that position. | Geraldine Anne Ferraro was born on August 26, 1935, in Newburgh, New York,[1] the daughter of Antonetta L. Ferraro (ne Corrieri), a first-generation Italian American seamstress, and Dominick Ferraro, an Italian immigrant (from Marcianise, Campania) and owner of two restaurants. Gerry was a very real, down-to-earth, relatable person. She was the first female vice presidential candidate from a major U.S. political party . In 2008, she campaigned for Hillary Clinton and then stepped down from her post after drawing fire for her remark that if [Barack] Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. But her legacy is no small thing: She laid a template for other women in politics to follow.