Hillary Clinton

She tied the knot with long time beau Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975, in a Methodist ceremony. The couple has a daughter Chelsea.

Hillary Clinton was born on 26 October 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, to Hugh Rodham and Dorothy Howell. She is the eldest child of her parents and has two younger brothers, Hugh and Tony.

She graduated from Maine South High School in 1965, being a National Merit Finalist. Both her parents wanted her to have an independent career, not limited by gender biasness.

She enrolled at the Wellesley College in 1965, majoring in political science. During her college years, she was active in student politics and was elected as the president of the Wellesley Young Republicans.

Her political standing changed quite a couple of times during the decade of 1960s. She was seen as someone having a conservative mind with a liberal heart. In 1968, she was elected as the President for Wellesley College Government Association and worked at the post with full conviction.

Graduating from the college in 1969 with a BA with departmental honours in political science, she took up various odd jobs before finding herself a seat at the Yale Law School.

In 1974, she was appointed as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff in Washington, D.C., advising the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate scandal. The work of the committee led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

In 1974, she took to teaching criminal law at the University of Arkansas. Two years later, she moved to the state capital of Arkansas after her husband, Bill Clinton was appointed as the Arkansas Attorney General.

In 1977, she took up employment with the Rose Law Firm, specializing in patent infringement and intellectual property law. She even worked pro bono in child advocacy. The same year, she co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.

Her tremendous political capabilities won her an appointment as the chief on the board of directors of Legal Service Corporation by President Jimmy Carter in 1978. Retaining the chair until 1980, she enhanced the funding for the Corporation more than three times, from $90 million to $300 million. Furthermore, she was the first woman to serve the position.

With the appointment of Bill Clinton as the Governor of Arkansas in 1979, she became the First Lady of Arkansas, a position which she held for twelve years, from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992. She was appointed as a chair at the Rural Health Advisory Committee and was endowed with the task of providing medical facilities in the poorest zones.

In 1992, she joined her husband in successfully campaigning for a seat in the Presidential elections as a democratic candidate. She undertook a valuable role in the elections and was a crucial factor for Bill Clinton’s victory.

With the appointment of Bill Clinton as the President of the United States in 1993, she became the First Lady of the United States. She was the first First Lady to hold a postgraduate degree and the first to have an office in the West Wing in addition of the First Lady office in East Wing.

Just as conceived by most, she played an active role in public policies and was often claimed to be the ‘co-president’. She chose almost eleven people for the topmost positions and dozen others at lower levels.

As a First Lady, she was appointed to head the Task Force on National Health Reform in 1993. Popularly known as Clinton health care plan, she aimed at making employers provide health coverage to their employees. However, lack of support led to abandonment of the plan in 1994.

It was the failure of Clinton health care plan that acted conversely and led to the downfall of the popularity of the Democrats and eventual rise of the Republicans in both House and Senate elections. Following this, her role in policy matters was downgraded.