"[94], Ferraro's womanhood was consistently discussed during the campaign; one study found that a quarter of newspaper articles written about her contained gendered language. [32][33][34] Her main issues were law and order, support for the elderly, and neighborhood preservation. [119] He was convicted, and in June 1988, sentenced to four months' imprisonment; Ferraro broke down in tears in court relating the stress the episode had placed on her family. "I thought about that one for a while after, it felt slimy," says Roberts. [119] Ferraro worked on an unpublished book about the conflicting rights between a free press and being able to have fair trials. How does it feel to be a part of history? Ferraro asked the room, after accepting the job. The National Organization for Women (NOW) and its president, Eleanor Smeal, looked at the exit poll data and dubbed the difference the gender gap. While the concept of the gender gap can oversimplify nuanced voter behavior, parsing the meaning of this gulf between men and women voters has become a mainstay of American elections ever since. [213][214] She is buried in St. John Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens, within her old congressional district. [29] In 1984, she championed a pension equity law revision that would improve the benefits of people who left work for long periods and then returned, a typical case for women with families. Her team judged the debate either a win or a tie. "[92] Teeley declined to apologize for the remark, saying it had no sexist implications and the Ferraro campaign was being "hypersensitive" in complaining about it. [35][57][78], Sharp criticism from Catholic Church authorities put Ferraro on the defensive during the entire campaign, with abortion opponents frequently protesting her appearances with a level of fervor not usually encountered by pro-choice Catholic male candidates such as Mario Cuomo and Ted Kennedy. When, in 1980, former California governor Ronald Reagan ascended to the presidency, the exit polls showed two unusual data points: One, women voters turned out at a higher rate than men for the first time since they'd gotten the right to vote nationwide in 1920, and two, a small but significant disparity had emerged between who men and women voted for, with eight percent fewer women than men supporting Reagan. [31] Much of their wealth was tied up in real estate rather than being disposable income,[21] but the disclosures hurt Ferraro's image as a rags-to-riches story. The 2,000-year-old castle is located in the Gaziantep region, about 80 miles south of the epicenter of one of the quakes in Kahramanmaras Province, according to the Reuters news agency. And the country is caught up in the concept. Here, compiled from sources including contemporaneousnews clippings,Ferraros memoir, and interviews with players who were part of this history, is a look back at Ferraros exhilarating, much-scrutinized path to becoming a political standard-bearer. Privacy Statement This was not the power scene you would picture, remembers Joanne Howes, then the executive director of the Womens Vote Project and a member of the small group of behind-the-scenes activists, known as Team A, who worked to propel Ferraro into history books. Her congressional office, she wrote in her memoir, received some two or three thousand letters each day. [17] In this role, she became a strong advocate for abused children. Charismatic. Theres no way, Ferraro herself had said, with typical candor, at a closed meeting at the National Womens Caucus three months earlier, any presidential candidate is going to choose a woman as a running mate unless hes 15 points behind in the polls.. Here are some highlights: Only a little less than a year before, Geraldine Ferraro had journeyed to this city to accept the Democratic nomination as the first woman to run for vice president of. [nb 4] The AFLCIO's Committee on Political Education gave her an average approval rating of 91percent. Ferraro rocketed to celebrity. Im not into losing or being offered up as a sacrifice, Ferraro wrote in her memoir. By a three-to-one margin, voters thought that pressure from women's groups had led to Mondale's decision rather than his having chosen the best available candidate. VII. [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. [170] She partnered with Laura Ingraham, starting in December 1999, in writing the alternate-weeks column "Campaign Countdown" on the 2000presidential election for The New York Times Syndicate. "[110], In 1980, Ferraro co-founded the National Organization of Italian American Women,[159] which sought to support the educational and professional goals of its members and put forward positive role models in order to fight ethnic stereotyping,[160] and was still a distinguished member of its board at the time of her death. Blge 83501 Nolu Cad. She adopted, Finally, a tough Democrat, as her campaign slogan in her first campaign for Congress. "[58] She strongly defended her position on abortion, which earned her applause and a respectful reply from her opponent. [31], Ferraro ran for election to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 9th Congressional District in Queens in 1978, after longtime Democratic incumbent James Delaney announced his retirement. [1] In a three-candidate primary race for the Democratic nomination, Ferraro faced two better-known rivals, the party organization candidate, City Councilman Thomas J. Manton and Patrick Deignan. The prospect of a Democrat putting a woman on the ticket was often placed in the context of electability: Would it help them unseat the incumbent President? The single vice-presidential debate in late October offered the campaign a high-stakes chance to familiarize the public with the magnetic, witty Ferraro that the media often captured as well as a woman who was serious and prepared to be president. [143] She attended the June 1993 World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna as the alternate U.S. There she worked with corporations, non-profit organizations, state governments and political figures. (Only Minnesota and the District of Columbia voted for Mondale and Ferraro.) Green. She was 75. Both the political right and left tried to determine how this new trend would play in the elaborate chess game of electoral politics. [28][140] In 1999, she joined the board of the Bertarelli Foundation,[165] and in 2003, the board of the National Women's Health Resource Center. [60], Ferraro gained immediate, large-scale media attention. GERALDINE FERRARO Obituary (2011) - New York, NY - New York Times [114] Then in October 1986, he was indicted on unrelated felony charges regarding an alleged 1981 bribery of Queens Borough President Donald Manes concerning a cable television contract. In one, a medical worker in New York wrote: While on my way to work this morning, I turned on the car radio and heard what has got to be some of the best news Ive heard in a long time. Through his eyes, the selection was a last-ditch, long-shot political calculation but also a brave departure. was at its nadir in early 1983, the electoral calculus went something like this: A woman might help clinch a Democratic victory in a close race. [150] She sparred effectively with "from the right" co-host Pat Buchanan,[150] for whom she developed a personal liking. [126] Ferraro drew renewed attacks during the primary campaign from the media and her opponents over Zaccaro's finances and business relationships. What struck me the most was how delighted Vice President Mondale was with his choice. Men dont do that., White women have got their representative, a black woman delegate to the convention told Gloria Steinem for Ms. magazine, and that makes me proud as a woman, but I need to know that shes going to fight and stand for me.. [42], As the 1984 U.S. presidential election primary season neared its end and Walter Mondale became the likely Democratic nominee, the idea of picking a woman as his vice-presidential running mate gained considerable momentum. Grilling cant melt her, proclaimed the New York Daily News, while the Washington Post called her spirited. But the Ferraro-Zaccaro press frenzy persisted. Geraldine Ferraro Named Vice Presidential Candidate - History When the 1980 race departed from this normand then state races in 82 again showed women voters breaking more Democratic than menfeminist groups took note and made sure the media did, too. Charismatic congresswoman Geraldine Ferraro forged a path for women in American politics When Geraldine Ferraro accepted the Democratic party's nomination on July 19, 1984, she became the. FERRARO'S HUSBAND: COMPETITIVE, PRIVATE MAN - New York Times 2 Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro during the 1984 US election campaign Credit: Alamy Who was Geraldine Ferraro? [49] She decided that the Reagan Administration's military interventions there and in El Salvador were counterproductive towards reaching U.S. security goals, and that regional negotiations would be better. Ferraro had drawn attention, Sheila Caudle wrote in Ms. Magazines July 1984 issue, because, She is the sort of pragmatic politician that the voting populaceand the men in the back roomscould find most palatable: Attractive, but not beauty-pageant beautifulA modern career woman, but one steeped in Old World values. "[211], A funeral Mass was held for her on March 31 at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer in New York, the site where Ferraro and Zaccaro had been married and had renewed their vows on their 50th anniversary the year before. [53], Mondale selected Ferraro to be his vice-presidential candidate on July 12, 1984. [77] Ferraro said the statements proved overall that she had nothing to hide and that there had been no financial wrongdoing. No, I have confidence in us. She joined the Queens County District Attorney's Office in 1974, heading the new Special Victims Bureau that dealt with sex crimes, child abuse, and domestic violence. What Fiorina Has In Common With Palin And Ferraro - FiveThirtyEight Many expected her to run in the 1986 United States Senate election in New York against first-term Republican incumbent Al D'Amato,[111] and during 1985 she did Upstate New York groundwork towards that end. She is, in essence, something of a fairy-tale candidate., III. Women currently constitute under one-fourth of Congress. But his liberal view of the country won out. [37][68]) This was also the first time the American media had to deal with a national candidate's husband. She stated, "I am absolutely thrilled. "[187][190] (Ferraro had made a similar comment in 1988 disparaging Jesse Jackson's candidacy in the party's presidential primaries, saying that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race. "[73] Republicans saw her finances as a "genderless" issue that they could attack Ferraro with without creating a backlash,[70] and some Mondale staffers thought Ferraro might have to leave the ticket. [199] She thought Obama had behaved in a sexist manner and that she might not vote for him. Bush, won in a rout, with all but one state voting for the incumbents. [9][10] At Marymount Ferraro was a member of the honor society, active in several clubs and sports, voted most likely to succeed,[4] and graduated in 1952. [113] A Senate candidacy had been her original plan for her career, before she was named to Mondale's ticket. [200][205] Ferraro criticized the media's scrutiny of Palin's background and family as gender-based and saw parallels with how she was treated by the media during her own run;[200][206] a University of Alabama study also found that media framing of Ferraro and Palin was similar and often revolved around their nominations being political gambles. [219], During her time in Congress, Ferraro received numerous awards from local organizations in Queens. [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. [99] Of the tenth of voters who decided based on the vice-presidential candidates, 54percent went to MondaleFerraro,[81] establishing that Ferraro provided a net gain to the Democrats of 0.8percent. [117][118] Ferraro said her husband never would have been charged had she not run for vice president. Team A recruited Eleanor Lewis, Ferraros top aide, to join them as well. The Untold Story of Ronald Reagan's 'Slimy' Team That Worked to Smear Like Kamala Harris, Ferraro was the daughter . Ferraro had been eight or nine at the time of her parent's arrest and only learned of the charges from the Post story. [1][4][8], Ferraro stayed on at Mount Saint Mary's as a boarder for a while, then briefly attended a parochial school in the South Bronx. The third-term representative, a second-generation Italian-American, was the evenings guest of honor; the other women had concluded she was the right woman to do the glass-shattering. The gender gap first appearance of the term in the media, Washington Post, 1981. "[87] Mondale and Ferraro rarely touched during their appearances together, to the point that he would not even place his palm on her back when they stood side by side; Ferraro later said this was because anything more and "people were afraid that it would look like, 'Oh, my God, they're dating.'". [184], Ferraro was a member of the board of directors of Goodrich Petroleum beginning in August 2003. . and then move on, but decades later, she labelled the medias treatment of her and her family as sexist. In his memoir, Mondale himself discussed the two threads of the decision to renovate the image of the white, male vice president. In her magazine, Ms., Steinem wrote, Im struck again by the difference between this reality of huge, cheering crowds touched by Ferraros magic, and the rest of the world that barely knows who she is.. Today, Ferraro, who died in 2011 at the age of 75, is remembered less for the elections she lost, and more for the elections that her 1984 vice presidential candidacy helped other women win.. Humility isn't one of her strong points and I think that comes through. [174] For much of the last decade of her life, Ferraro was not in remission, but the disease was managed by continually adjusting her treatments. Mar 16 - Mar 17. Several of them became some of the founding mothers of EMILYs List, a prominent PAC that funds Democratic women who support reproductive rights. But in December 1985, she said she would not run, due to an ongoing U.S. Justice Department probe on her and her husband's finances stemming from the 1984 campaign revelations. "[212] Sarah Palin paid tribute to her on Facebook, expressing gratitude for having been able to work with her the year before and saying, "She broke one huge barrier and then went on to break many more. She had far less experience than the other Democrats . [31] As she later wrote, "I had created a monster. "[82][83] Ferraro was criticized by Cardinal John O'Connor, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, and James Timlin, the Bishop of Scranton, for misrepresenting the Catholic Church's position on abortion. [170] She did not publicly disclose the illness until June 2001, when she went to Washington to successfully press in Congressional hearings for passage of the Hematological Cancer Research Investment and Education Act. It highlights the ambivalence, the nervousness, that even supporters felt about women taking the next stepSome people felt, and still feel, fearful of competent, ambitious, powerful women. [137][138][139], Following the Senate primary loss, Ferraro became a managing partner in the New York office of Keck, Mahin & Cate, a Chicago-based law firm. "[187] Her comments resonated with some older white women, but generated an immediate backlash elsewhere. "[91] Barbara Bush soon apologized, saying she had not meant to imply Ferraro was "a witch". Zaccaro did plead guilty in January 1985 to a misdemeanor charge for submitting fraudulent information as part of a mortgage application. "[4] Unsatisfied, she decided to attend law school;[4] an admissions officer said to her, "I hope you're serious, Gerry. Echoing a statement she wrote about herself in 1988,[31] Ferraro said that "I was talking about historic candidacies and what I started off by saying (was that) if you go back to 1984 and look at my historic candidacy, which I had just talked about all these things, in 1984, if my name was Gerard Ferraro instead of Geraldine Ferraro, I would have never been chosen as a vice-presidential candidate. "[145] The Clinton administration named Ferraro vice-chair of the U.S. delegation to the landmark September 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing; in this role she picked a strong team of experts in human rights issues to serve with her. [21][22] They would buy a condominium in Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1983. Theres no question that EMILYs List is a direct outgrowth of the political force we saw in women as voters and potential voters, says Howes. Geraldine Ferraro Broke A Barrier For Women, But Roadblocks Remain - NPR Bettman via Getty Images; National Museum of American History, The Ferraro Factor: The Womens Movement, the Polls, and the Press, Colorado senator Gary Hart and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, speaking at an Alpha Kappa Alpha convention. [11] Her vote shares increased to 58percent and then 73percent and much of her funding came from political action committees. The gender gap is the new wild card in political sweepstakes.. [69] Zaccaro did not understand the greater public exposure that his wife's new position brought to their family, and resisted releasing his financial information. [92], On October 18 the New York Post accurately reported that Ferraro's father had been arrested for possession of numbers slips in Newburgh shortly before his death, and inaccurately speculated that something mysterious had been covered up about that death. [35][41] Her personality, variously described as blunt, feisty, spirited, and somewhat saucy, was also viewed as an asset. I think the candidacy opened a door for women in national politics, and I don't regret that for one minute. After studying gargantuan briefing books prepared by advisers like future secretary of state Madeleine Albright, she rehearsed rigorously. Ferraro was born in 1935, in Newburgh, New York, the daughter of a first-generation Italian-American mother and an Italian immigrant father. Perhaps rupturing the glass ceiling could generate enough enthusiasm to shake up the race in the Democrats favor. [1] In 1982, she said her experiences as assistant district attorney had changed some of her views: " because no matter how concerned I am about spending, I have seen first hand what poverty can do to people's lives and I just can't, in good conscience, not do something about it. [102], After the election, the House Ethics Committee found that Ferraro had technically violated the Ethics in Government Act by failing to report, or reporting incorrectly, details of her family's finances, and that she should have reported her husband's holdings on her Congressional disclosure forms. | Ferraro twice ran campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate from New York, in 1992 and in 1998, both times starting as the front-runner for her party's nomination before losing in the primary election. ), About midway through the debate, Ferraro and Bush fielded questions from a moderator about abortion. In Mississippi, she was asked whether she could bake a blueberry muffin; in one "Meet the Press" interview, moderated Marvin Kalb questioned both Could you push the nuclear button? and whether Mondale would have chosen her if not for her gender. [118] Meanwhile, in February 1986, the couple's son John had been arrested for possession and sale of cocaine. [29] On the House Select Committee on Aging, she concentrated on the problems of elderly women. Her new-found fame led to an appearance in a Diet Pepsi commercial in 1985. Get the latest History stories in your inbox? Shes married; shes a mother; she waited until her kids were older to run for public office, and she comes from Queens, which is a very diverse district, and she has a moderate to liberal portfolio. Ferraro, a fundraiser and outspoken supporter for Clinton, was Walter Mondale's 1984 Democratic vice-presidential nominee the first woman nominated by a major political party as its candidate for vice president of the United States. [187] Again speaking to the Breeze, Ferraro responded to the attacks by saying: "I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. The Ferraro snowball, as one Washington Post reporter called it, had been set into motion in the months between Team As takeout meeting with the congresswoman and the summer of 1984. Ger-ry! Oh wait. [220] In 2008, Ferraro was the initial recipient of the annual Trailblazer Award from the National Conference of Women's Bar Associations,[221] and received the Edith I. Spivack Award from the New York County Lawyers' Association. [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. When. Her husband John Zaccaro had pleaded guilty in January 1985, to fraudulently obtaining bank financing in a real estate transaction and had been sentenced to 150hours of community service. Are we going to win in November?. If you purchase an item through these links, we receive a commission. 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. I'm proud of that. But I just wish it could have been done in a different way. "[110] She still retained admirers, though. She also threatened to greet him by his not-favored nicknamePoppy. (For the real deal, Ferraro went with a handshake and no monikers. II. [28], As part of the D.A. Unlike the slate of women in 2020, We didnt have a whole lot of people in the arsenal.), they landed on 48-year-old Geraldine Ferraro, an up-and-coming-star who represented New Yorks Ninth District. I am a devout Catholic, she answered, I would never have an abortion, but I [am] not quite sure if I were ever to become pregnant as a result of a rape if I would be that self-righteousI will accept the teaching of the church, but I cannot impose my religious views on someone else.. [136][131] The feud between Ferraro and Holtzman from the 1992 Senate primary lingered, as the following year Ferraro supported Assemblyman Alan Hevesi's successful primary challenge that unseated Holtzman as New York City Comptroller; Ferraro denied that her endorsement was motivated by revenge against Holtzman, saying it was due to his liberal State Assembly voting record. Ferraro did not hold elected office again. My candidacy has said the days of discrimination are numbered. [29] She broke with her party in favoring an anti-busing amendment to the Constitution.
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