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发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com March 26, 2011
Geraldine Ferraro Dies at 75
By Advocate.com Editors
GeraldineFerrarox180 (Screengrab) | Advocate.com
Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to run on a major party ticket as a vice
presidential nominee, died Saturday at the age of 75 after a long battle
with blood cancer.
NBC New York reports that Ferraro, who shared the unsuccessful 1984
Democratic ticket with Walter Mondale, died at Massachusetts General
Hospital from complications of multiple myeloma.
A New York native, Ferraro worked as a New York City schoolteacher and
attorney before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978.
She served three terms in Congress before being selected by Mondale for the
vice presidential slot.
“Her legislative achievements included creating a flextime program for
public employees, which has become the basis of such programs in the private
sector,” reports NBC New York. “She also successfully sponsored the Women
's Economic Equality Act, which ended pension discrimination against women,
provided job options for displaced homemakers, and enabled homemakers to
open IRAs.”
In later years, Ferraro worked for international human rights, serving as
the U.S. Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Commission appointed by President
Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1996. She served as head of the U.S. delegation
to the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna in 1993 and headed the
delegation to China for the Fifth World Conference on Women.
Ferraro entered the fray of the 2008 presidential election with criticism of
Barack Obama as inexperienced that some interpreted as racist, and she
later criticized the media for sexist treatment of Sarah Palin, the first
woman Republican vice presidential nominee, comparing it to her own
experience.
In a statement reported by NBC New York, the Ferraro family said, "Geraldine
Anne Ferraro Zaccaro was widely known as a leader, a fighter for justice,
and a tireless advocate for those without a voice. To us, she was a wife,
mother, grandmother and aunt, a woman devoted to and deeply loved by her
family. Her courage and generosity of spirit throughout her life waging
battles big and small, public and personal, will never be forgotten and will
be sorely missed." |
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