Elizabeth doles biography
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Dole continued to be a popular guest speaker and delivered the 1997 commencement address at Duke University. Most recently, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Biden. Marrying late in life (she was nearly forty and the senator was fifty-three), the Doles had no children. The resolution of the Pittston Coal Strike, which lasted nearly a year, was a key achievement for Dole.
In 2002, she was the Republican nominee for the open U.S. Senate seat from North Carolina. She has also received the Sylvanus Thayer Award from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; the George Catlett Marshall Medal from the Association of the United States Army; the Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service; and the Hiring Our Heroes President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement bestowed by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce Foundation. In 2012, she founded the Elizabeth Dole Foundation, a charitable organization that supports veterans.
Senator Elizabeth Dole served in five presidential administrations, including as President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Transportation and President George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of Labor, which makes her the first woman to serve in two different cabinet positions of two different presidents.
She went on to earn a master’s degree in education from Harvard in 1960, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1965. During her time in the Senate, she was the Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee 2005-2007, also the first woman to serve in the position.
Signature Accomplishments
Increased safety was Dole’s top priority at the Department of Transportation.
A colleague at the FTC remembered her priorities as "the poor, the handicapped, minorities, and women."
Elizabeth Hanford married Robert Dole, the senior senator from Kansas, in 1975. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996. She has also received the Distinguished Service Medal from the American Legion; the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Department of the Army; and the Military Officers Association of America’s National Service Award.
At virtually the same time, she issued a landmark regulation which is credited with widespread enactment of the first state safety belt laws and airbags in cars.
For More Information
Dole, Bob, and Elizabeth Dole. In 1979, she left the Federal Trade Commission again when Bob Dole ran for president.
Throughout the 1970s, Elizabeth was actively involved in various women's movements and worked to change laws to ensure equal rights for men and women.
Headed the American Red Cross
In 1990 Dole resigned as secretary of labor to become the president of the American Red Cross, an organization for emergency relief. They quickly became known as Washington's top "Power Couple" because of their important roles in national politics.
Despite her identification with liberal (in favor of individual rights) consumer issues and her former support for the Equal Rights Amendment (the ERA; a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which would have guaranteed equality under the law to all Americans regardless of sex), which Reagan opposed, Dole received strong backing from the conservative (in favor of preserving tradition and gradual change) Reagan administration.
Although that campaign was unsuccessful, by 1980 "Liddy" Dole was becoming well known as one of the Republican Party's most outstanding female leaders and recognized as a competitor for high political office. Elizabeth Dole: A Leader in Washington. She also oversaw efforts to break "glass ceiling" restrictions that prevented movement of women and minorities into high executive positions.
These three safety measures, known as the “Trifecta,” have saved nearly 500,000 lives to date with a projected 20,000 per year going forward. Despite her efforts, the senator was defeated by then-president Bill Clinton.