Government Officials
- Madeleine Albright is a 1959 graduate of Wellesley College and the first woman Secretary of State
- Mary McLeod Bethune was an 1894 graduate of Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College) and was an adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- Benazir Bhutto was a graduate of Radcliffe College and was the first woman elected to lead a Muslim state. She was Pakistan's first (and to date only) female prime minister, serving twice from 1988–1990 and 1993–1996.
- Elaine Chao is a 1975 graduate of Mount Holyoke College and, as the Secretary of Labor, is the first Asian American woman to be appointed to the President's Cabinet
- Hillary Rodham Clinton is a 1969 graduate of Wellesley College and current Secretary of State in the Obama administration. Clinton was formerly the junior United States Senator from New York and is a former First Lady of the United States (1993-2001).
- Ruth A. Davis is a 1966 graduate of Spelman College and the first woman of color to be appointed Director General of the Foreign Service and the first African-American Director of the Foreign Service Institute.
- Geraldine Ferraro is a 1956 graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and was the first woman to represent a major U.S. political party as a candidate for Vice President during the United States presidential election, 1984 (Ferraro and running mate Walter Mondale were defeated by Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush)
- Katherine Harris is a 1979 graduate of Agnes Scott College and was the former Florida Secretary of State and U.S. Representative.
- Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick was the first female U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. and was a graduate of Stephens College (then a 2-year institution) and later Barnard College
- Nancy Pelosi is a 1962 graduate of Trinity College (now Trinity Washington University) and is the first woman Speaker of the House. Like Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Speaker Pelosi is a graduate of the Institute of Notre Dame in Baltimore.
- Frances Perkins was a 1902 graduate of Mount Holyoke College and was the first woman cabinet member (U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933-1945 under Franklin D. Roosevelt)
- Susan Philips 1967 graduate of Agnes Scott College was the first woman to chair a financial regulatory agency (the Commodity Futures Trading Commission)
- Barbara Mikulski is a 1958 graduate of Mount St. Agnes College, now part of Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. A graduate of the Institute of Notre Dame, Senator Mikulski is the senior woman in the United States Senate as well as Maryland's senior Senator.
- Virginia Shehee is a graduate of Stephens College and was the first woman elected to the Louisiana State Senate (1975).
- Elizabeth P. Hoisington was a 1940 graduate of the College of Notre Dame of Maryland. She was one of the first two women to be promoted to Brigadier General in the United States Army, at the time being Director of the Women's Army Corps. President Nixon announced her promotion on 15 May 1970, effective 11 June 1970.
- Emily J. Reynolds a 1978 graduate of Stephens College served as the Secretary of the United States Senate from January 2003 to January 2007 and currently is the Senior Vice President for Government Relations with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Read more about this topic: List Of Alumnae Of Women's Colleges In The United States
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