Madeleine Albright

Clinton nominates Albright to succeed Warren Christopher as U.S. Secretary of State.

When my name came up to be Secretary of State, there were those who said that a woman cannot be Secretary of State,  that other countries would not deal with a women. The Arab ambassadors at the U.N said, we have dealt with Ambassador Albright and never had any problems. I had more problems with the men in our government, and not because they were mail chauvinist pigs, but because they had seen me go through this endlessly long rise of being a carpool mother, or a friend of their wives, or on school boards, or the perfect staffer. And all of a sudden, I’m Secretary of State and they wonder why they weren’t.