Hillary Clinton | Biography, Politics, & Facts
Hillary Clinton encyclopedia encyclopeadia britannica article
Betty Boyd Caroli
Hillary Clinton, American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. first lady and later as U.S. senator and secretary of state. She was the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2016, thereby becoming the first woman to top the presidential ticket of a major party in the United States.
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Early life

The first president’s wife born after World War II, Hillary was the eldest child of Hugh and Dorothy Rodham. She grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, where her father’s textile business provided the family with a comfortable income; her parents’ emphasis on hard work and academic excellence set high standards.

A student leader in public schools, she was active in youth programs at the First United Methodist Church. Although she later became associated with liberal causes, during this time she adhered to the Republican Party of her parents. She campaigned for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964 and chaired the local chapter of the Young Republicans. A year later, after she enrolled at Wellesley College, her political views began to change. Influenced by the assassinations of Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., she joined the Democratic Party and volunteered in the presidential campaign of antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy.

After her graduation from Wellesley in 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she came under the influence of Yale alumna Marian Wright Edelman, a lawyer and children’s rights advocate. Through her work with Edelman, she developed a strong interest in family law and issues affecting children.

Lawyer and first lady of Arkansas

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Although Hillary met Bill Clinton at Yale, they took separate paths after graduation in 1973. He returned to his native Arkansas, and she worked with Edelman in Massachusetts for the Children’s Defense Fund. In 1974 Hillary participated in the Watergate inquiry into the possible impeachment of Pres. Richard M. Nixon. When her assignment ended with Nixon’s resignation in August 1974, she made what some people consider the crucial decision of her life—she moved to Arkansas. She taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law, and, following her marriage to Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975, she joined the prominent Rose Law Firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she later became a partner.

After Bill was elected governor of Arkansas in 1978, she continued to pursue her career and retained her maiden name (until 1982), bringing considerable criticism from voters who felt that her failure to change her name indicated a lack of commitment to her husband. Their only child, Chelsea Victoria, was born in 1980.

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Throughout Bill’s tenure as governor (1979–81, 1983–92), Hillary worked on programs that aided children and the disadvantaged; she also maintained a successful law practice. She served on the boards of several high-profile corporations and was twice named one of the nation’s 100 most influential lawyers (1988, 1991) by the National Law Journal. She also served as chair of the Arkansas Education Standards Committee and founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. She was named Arkansas Woman of the Year in 1983 and Arkansas Young Mother of the Year in 1984.