Geraldine Ferraro

When Walter Mondale needed help in his long-shot 1984 bid to challenge President Reagan, he turned to a rising star in the House of Representatives, Geraldine Ferraro, to become his running mate.

Ferraro, the first woman on a major party ticket and the only Italian American to be nominated for a national office, had served just three terms in Congress. She was a “door opener,” said Joel Goldstein, a vice presidential historian at St. Louis University. In the years and decades following her run, the number of women in Congress grew steadily.

Ferraro, who represented Queens in Congress, sat on the Budget Committee and the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, which made committee assignments and formulated strategies. 

She was an advocate for women’s rights. In her address to the Democratic convention, she made a priority of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Her candidacy was also the first time the modern media had to cover a woman running for national office — coverage that did not always overcome the sexist lens through which women are still covered today. One national news anchor introduced Ferraro as “the first woman to be nominated for vice president — size 6!”

Ferraro served as an ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in the Clinton administration. She died in 2011 of cancer, at 75.

— Rachel Frazin