Albright acted as model, mentor for generations of women

After graduating from the University of Chicago, she was dissatisfied with the temporary job she accepted and felt the pressure to find work.

She found a full-page ad in the newspaper with a portion of a speech by Madeleine Albright on the effort to negotiate peace between Israel and Palestine. When she moved to Washington, D.C., she took the page with her.

It was the start of a career that was shaped by Albright, who was the first female secretary of state. Albright's death from cancer this week sparked American women to reflect on the influence she had on their lives.

She brought people along with her, whether they were close to her or not, and she said, "I can do that too."

Hannah Riley Bowles, co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard, said that Albright's path and her identity as a child refugee gave women a new vision for their lives.

We should tell her whole story over and over again.

Many women were brought into politics or policy work by Albright without ever meeting them.

Virginia Kase Solomon, CEO of the League of Women Voters, said that she remembers seeing a woman who was small in stature but a powerhouse.

When Albright became secretary of state, she was working as a healthcare executive. She looked to Albright as a model of a woman who was functioning in a man's world without losing herself.

Albright and Condoleezza Rice showed women that their voice could affect public policy.

At each juncture, more and more barriers come down.

Albright shouldn't be reflexively deemed an icon for her status without considering her decisions as secretary of state or her continued presence in party politics, according to some women.

During Saddam Hussein's rule, Albright supported severe sanctions on Iraq, as well as her support of Western intervention in Kosovo. Albright implied that all women had a duty to support Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.

On the eve of the New Hampshire primary, Albright made a joke about women who don't help each other.

Albright framed the phrase as a criticism of women failing to support one another's professional goals. She apologized for applying it to politics in a column. She still argued that a woman in the Oval Office would prioritize gender equality and asked younger generations to consider advice from an aging feminist.

She wrote that when women are allowed to make decisions, society benefits.

Stacie Goddard, director of the Albright Institute at Wellesley College, said that Albright's continued involvement in a program focused on leadership skills for students at her alma mater was spurred by that goal.

Albright encouraged the young women to speak their mind in rooms dominated by men. Women with their own impressive careers in international policy or politics who were invited to address students spoke of Albright's influence.

The field is not populated by a lot of women.