Death of a Trailblazer - Geraldine Ferraro, First Female VP on a Major Party Ticket

_{Geraldine Ferraro © Lawrence Lucier/Getty Images}

Twenty-four years before Hillary Clinton got as far as she did as a US presidential candidate, another woman laid the groundwork that enabled Clinton to run. That woman died earlier today, and her candidacy influenced me at a critical point in my life.

I was an impressionable 23-year-old in 1984 when I first heard a prominent female public figure refer to a female candidate as a "bitch," and it was a turning point for me. I was more than angry that Barbara Bush, wife of then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, would make such a comment and then disingenuously 'apologize' (Bush claimed she had in mind the word "witch"); I was righteously pissed off that the candidate in question, Geraldine Ferraro, was being targeted because her candidacy was a historic first for women, yet she wasn't being accorded the respect she deserved.

Ferraro was the first woman on a major party's presidential ticket, chosen by Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale to be his running mate in 1984.

_{© Kean Collection/Getty Images}

Writing at Salon.com, Steve Kornacki reviews the Barbara Bush incident and other examples of sexism from the Bush camp during the campaign:

Back in October 1984, when her husband was running for reelection as Reagan's vice-president, Bush referred to Geraldine Ferraro, Walter Mondale's running mate on the Democratic ticket, as "the four-million dollar -- I can't say it, but it rhymes with 'witch.'" The comment came the day after Bush and Ferraro met for their only debate -- the same day that George H.W. Bush was caught bragging to a group of longshoremen that he'd "tried to kick a little ass last night." (Earlier that week, Bush's press secretary, Pete Teeley, had also landed in hot water for saying that Ferraro came across as "too bitchy.")

In the wake of all three comments, Ferraro responded that, "People who have the experience of the Bushes don't do those things unknowingly."

Ferraro was the target of plenty of sexist attacks, yet she was able to handle it with the same restraint and grace that she demonstrated in the statement above. It was a credit to her that she did so, because there wasn't nearly the kind of outcry from national women's organizations and media watchdog groups calling out sexist language and demanding apologies from the offending parties as there is today.

Ferraro's candidacy made me truly aware for the first time that a woman running for public office is never judged on qualifications alone. Gender bias is always part of the equation, and women have to have an incredibly thick skin and a strong sense of self to survive a political run.

Ferraro was no lightweight, no Dan Quayle chosen as an attractive bit of eye candy to add excitement to a moribund campaign. She'd started out as a second grade teacher in New York City and earned her law degree while teaching. She juggled family and career, raising her kids as she did pro bono work on behalf of women and children, and in 1974 became Assistant District Attorney in Queens County where she started the Special Victims Bureau. Elected to Congress in 1978, she served three terms representing the district where she'd taught second grade, until she was chosen by Mondale as his vice presidential candidate.

Although the two were soundly beaten by Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Ferraro acknowledged the significance of her unsuccessful run:

Campaigns, even if you lose them, do serve a purpose....My candidacy has said the days of discrimination are numbered. American women will never be second-class citizens again.

Discrimination is still with us, but it's been diminished in part because Geraldine Ferraro broke ground for women in politics. She passed away earlier today at a hospital in Boston, succumbing to a blood cancer after battling the disease for the past 12 years.