10 Groundbreaking Women Who Have Shaped American Politics
Susie Wiles, Kamala Harris, and Shirley Chisholm are just a few women who have made history in U.S. politics.
Women have long contributed to politics in the United States, even before they had the right to vote, and have made history along the way. From the judiciary to the executive branch, American women have risen through the ranks, despite facing many obstacles, to play pivotal roles in the government.
In 1981, Sandra Day O’Connor was appointed as the first woman to serve in the Supreme Court, and nearly 40 years later, in 2020, Kamala Harris became the first female vice president. In another historic first, on Monday, Susie Wiles became the first woman to serve as White House Chief of Staff as part of President Donald Trump’s second administration. They are among the 10 women featured below to have defied the odds, broken historic barriers among women, and shaped the course of American politics.
Jeannette Rankin
Women’s suffrage activist Jeannette Rankin became the first woman to serve in Congress in 1917. After successfully fighting to secure a woman’s right to vote in Washington and her home state of Montana, 36-year-old Rankin was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican in 1916.
Just days after being sworn in, the Montana representative voted against a measure authorizing the United States to get involved in World War I. During her tenure, she also helped create the Committee on Woman Suffrage, which introduced a constitutional amendment to give women the right to vote on a national level. (That effort failed, but women were enfranchised in 1920 with the passage of the 19th amendment.)
Rankin lost her reelection bid in 1918 and spent the next two decades advocating for peace throughout the country and the world. She eventually returned to politics, again running for and winning a U.S. House seat in Montana in 1940. During her second term, Rankin maintained her anti-war position, casting the only vote against the United States’ involvement in World War II. Her no vote made her unpopular with her constituents, costing Rankin, who died in 1973, any chance of reelection.
Shirley Chisholm
Weeks before she turned 44, Shirley Chisholm made history in 1968 when she became the first Black woman elected to Congress. A former educator, Chisholm served seven terms in the House of Representatives, representing New York’s 12th congressional district. The Democratic congresswoman championed civil rights, women’s rights, and anti-poverty programs.
In 1969, Chisholm reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, and led the expansion of the food stamp program, now known as SNAP. She later created the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children Program (WIC) to provide assistance for women and their children in low-income households. Chisholm also co-founded both the Congressional Black Caucus and the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.
In another historic first, she became the first Black candidate to run for president on a major party ticket when she ran for the Democratic nomination in 1972. “I am not the candidate of Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I am equally proud of that,” Chisholm said when she announced her candidacy. “I am the candidate of the people, and my presence before you now symbolizes a new era in American political history.”
After she lost her bid, she continued her work as a congresswoman for more than a decade before retiring in 1983. Chisholm died in 2005.
Sandra Day O’Connor
Another trailblazer, Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. After serving in all three branches of state government—first as Arizona’s attorney general then as a state senator and later a circuit judge—O’Connor ascended the ranks to the nation’s highest court at age 51. Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, she served as an associate justice for more than two decades, playing a decisive role in many landmark cases.
O’Connor, considered a moderate conservative, tended to vote in line with the Republican platform but occasionally sided with the court’s liberal members. She was often the deciding vote in 5-4 decisions and wrote nearly 700 opinions on the bench, around half of which were the majority opinion.
In 1982, she authored the court’s opinion in Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, which ruled that a nursing school’s single-sex admissions policy violated the Equal Protection Clause. Two years later, O’Connor’s swing vote in Planned Parenthood v. Casey upheld the constitutional right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade, and in 2000, she broke the tie in the controversial Bush v. Gore case, settling the presidential election in favor of George W. Bush.
After 24 years on the bench, she retired in 2006. O’Connor died nearly two decades later in 2023.
Elaine Chao
Elaine Chao, now 71, became the first Asian American woman to serve in a presidential cabinet when President George W. Bush selected her as his Secretary of Labor in 2001. She was 47.
A loyal Republican, Chao remained in her post for all eight years of Bush’s presidency, making her the only cabinet member to do so. As Labor Secretary, she updated overtime regulations for millions of workers as well as regulations related to union disclosures of financial information.
Chao returned to serve in another president’s cabinet in 2017 when she became Donald Trump’s Transportation Secretary. During her tenure, she worked to limit regulations on transportation, including relaxing greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars. Chao resigned in 2021 the day after the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice broke barriers in 2001 when the then-46-year-old was appointed President George W. Bush’s national security advisor, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Having previously worked in international affairs and on the National Security Council, the Republican served as an influential advisor to Bush. She was a staunch proponent of the Global War on Terrorism and advocated for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
At the start of Bush’s second term in 2005, Rice made history once again when she became the first Black woman to serve as Secretary of State. In that post, Rice dedicated her department to promoting peace and democracy in the Middle East and imposed sanctions against Iran over the country’s nuclear program. She also led negotiations aimed at persuading North Korea to end its nuclear tests, though this effort was unsuccessful.
In 2009, Rice’s time as Secretary of State came to an end and she returned to Stanford, where she had previously broken ground as the university’s provost, as a political science professor. The 70-year-old remains on faculty today and is also a founding partner of a consulting firm.
Tammy Duckworth
U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth, 56, is the first disabled woman elected to Congress. Duckworth lost both her legs fighting in the Iraq War then defied the odds in 2012 when she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Illinois’ 8th District. With her victory, the Democrat became an example for fellow female veterans and disabled women.
As a two-term congresswoman, Duckworth worked on a number of committees, including the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where she made a name for herself during a 2013 hearing after questioning Strong Castle CEO Braulio Castillo for fraudulently representing himself as a disabled military veteran and receiving millions of dollars in federal contracts. “Shame on you. You may not have broken any laws … [but] you broke the trust of veterans,” she said. “Twisting your ankle in prep school is not defending or serving this nation.”
In 2016, Duckworth successfully ran for U.S. Senate, becoming the first disabled woman and second Asian American woman elected to the chamber. Two years later, she became the first senator to give birth while in office. During her first term, she advocated for the protection of the Americans with Disabilities Act and changed Senate rules to allow officials to bring their children under the age of 1 on the Senate floor. Following her re-election in 2022, Duckworth has introduced legislation to protect access to in vitro fertilization and helped pass a law aimed at improving flying safety.
Hillary Clinton
A former first lady and dedicated public servant, 77-year-old Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to represent a major party in a presidential election. Even before that Clinton was leading a trailblazing career. She initially broke boundaries in 2001 when she became the only first lady to have won a U.S. Senate seat.
Following an unsuccessful presidential bid and a term as Secretary of State for President Barack Obama, she ran for president again and secured the 2016 Democratic nomination, becoming the first woman to accomplish this task. In acknowledging her historic achievement, Clinton said, “Tonight’s victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.”
Her run against Republican opponent Donald Trump was contentious and much closer than pollsters anticipated. In a surprise upset, Clinton lost the electoral vote and her second shot at the White House. Even in her loss, she set more history as the only woman to have won the popular vote for president.
“I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now,” Clinton said in her concession speech.
Kamala Harris
Accomplishing a series of historic firsts in her career, 60-year-old Kamala Harris is the first woman to serve as U.S. vice president and the first Black woman and first Asian American woman to become a major party’s presidential nominee.
After acting as California’s first Black and female attorney general, Harris ran for U.S. Senate and won, becoming only the second Black woman and first South Asian American to enter the chamber. There, the Democrat made headlines as a member of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees for her prosecutorial style of questioning witnesses, including former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
After dropping out of the 2020 presidential race, she became Joe Biden’s running mate and was elected vice president that November. She is the only woman, Black person, and Asian American to have served in the role. As Biden’s second-in-command, Harris promoted legislation addressing immigration, voting rights, and abortion access and cast a record number of tie-breaking votes in the U.S. Senate.
Biden and Harris ran for reelection in 2024, but he withdrew from the race less than four months before Election Day and endorsed Harris for president. Her short-yet-groundbreaking presidential campaign kicked off with a bang. In August, she announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate and accepted the Democratic nomination, a historic feat for Black and Asian American women. Ultimately, Harris lost the race to Donald Trump.
Sarah McBride
U.S. Representative Sarah McBride made history in 2024 when she became the first openly transgender woman elected to Congress. The 34-year-old’s trailblazing didn’t start there.
McBride broke boundaries in 2020 as the first trans person to win a state senate seat. As a state senator in Delaware, the Democrat sponsored legislation promoting paid family leave, media literacy education, and expanded Medicaid funding.
Four years later, McBride secured Delaware’s only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her historic victory has been met with a swell of support as well as backlash from some of her new colleagues. Although her term is just beginning, she has cited abortion, climate change, and gun violence prevention as some of her primary policy concerns.
Susie Wiles
In January 2025, Susie Wiles became the first female White House chief of staff. The 67-year-old has had a lengthy career as a conservative political consultant, working on the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and most recently, Donald Trump.
In 2016, she ran Trump’s campaign operations in Florida to much success and returned to the post in 2020. After he left the White House the following year, Wiles served as the CEO of Trump’s political action committee, Save America, and in 2022, she became co-chair of his third presidential campaign. Having proved herself as a loyal asset, Wiles now oversees the president’s daily operations.
Catherine Caruso joined the Biography.com staff in August 2024, having previously worked as a freelance journalist for several years. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, where she studied English literature. When she’s not working on a new story, you can find her reading, hitting the gym, or watching too much TV.
