Albright was the first woman to ever serve as Secretary of State after coming to the United States as a refugee. She was 84 years old.
Her family said in a statement that she was surrounded by family and friends.
Albright was the highest-ranking woman in the US when she was Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001.
Those who worked with Albright remember her as an effective communicator who explained complex international issues with clarity, and who believed in fostering bipartisanship through conversation.
Albright warned that women who don't help other women are in a special place in hell.
It had not occurred to me that I would ever be in a position to break a glass ceiling, particularly a woman who is married and the mother of twins.
When the Nazis invaded the country, Albright's family left Czechoslovakia for England, where she was a child. They fled again in 1948 after the communists took control of the country. Many of Albright's family members who remained in Czechoslovakia during the war were killed in the Holocaust, Albright discovered through a Washington Post reporter.
Albright graduated from Wellesley College with honors in 1959 after becoming a United States citizen. She married Albright three days later. She was going to pursue a career in journalism, until her editor at the Chicago Sun-Times told her that working at the same newspaper as her husband would violate labor regulations and that she should not work at a competing newspaper in the city.
Albright told TIME in 2016 that there were periods of his life when he was not sure if he would be able to fulfill his desires. I didn't know why I went to college to figure out how to get them in and out of the apartment or give them baths.
Madeleine Albright was one of the 100 Women of the Year.
Albright went back to the workforce after earning her PhD in public law and government at Columbia University in 1976, and studying under Zbigniew Brzezinski, who brought Albright onto the National Security Council when he became National Security Adviser to President Jimmy Carter.
Albright was an influential voice in the Democratic Party. She was a foreign policy adviser to Walter Mondale and his running mate, Geraldine Ferraro.
She was a player in national politics, says Barbara Mikulski, who has been friends with Albright for more than 30 years.
Mikulski sought foreign policy advice from Albright when she ran for Senate in 1986.
Albright was appointed the U.S. ambassador to the UN in 1993. When Clinton's first Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, stepped down, there were rumors in Washington that Albright was not among the top tier of candidates. Albright's circle rallied to change that.
Mikulski says that the Washington women who were rising in power organized on why they thought she would be an outstanding Secretary of State.
Mikulski urged him to consider Albright for the post.
She was able to communicate America's foreign policy to the world and also to the American people. They liked her brilliance. They liked her feistiness and her ability to communicate.
Madeleine Albright spoke about facing fascism and what she thinks about most right now.
Albright was confirmed by the Senate. She promoted the expansion of NATO, led the call for military intervention as Kosovo fought for independence from Serbia, negotiated with Kim Jong Il about nuclear weapons, and promoted the advancement of women around the world as Secretary of State.
The issues of women's rights and children's health were always dealt with in the State Department's culture.
Albright pushed for requirements that women's toilets be located closer to their sleeping quarters in UN refugee camps due to concerns about sexual assault.
Albright was criticized for her response to some foreign policy issues. She described her decision to withdraw the UN forces from Rwanda as her greatest regret as U.N. Ambassador.
Albright returned to the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service as a professor after leaving public office. She wrote six books and was an influential voice in policy debates until her death.
She has had a significant impact on how we think about the world and how we think about the U.S.
It was a huge shift in the way that women leadership is seen, and I think the fact that a woman could be a Secretary of State was not lost on an entire generation or more of women.
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