Shirley Chisholm Quotes
I am a candidate for the Presidency of the United States. I make that statement proudly in the full knowledge that, as a Black person and as a female person, I do not have a chance of actually gaining that office in this election year.
She was the first Black woman to be elected to Congress and was the first Black woman to actively campaign for the Presidency. Virginia Woodhull was the first female Presidential Candidate.
Shirley A. Chisholm, U. S. Congresswoman (Democrat, NY), Presidential candidacy announcement, June 4, 1972
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Her husband had been assassinated. It is not uncommon that after a political assassination, the widow of the slain male politician, carries on the political legacy. But otherwise there are few female politicians in the Third World in general and the Middle East in particular. Arab and other cultures so severely restrict a woman’s mobility within the society that death of a husband or father seems to be the only vehicle whereby a woman enters politics.
There are two ethnic groups in Fiji. The indigenous Fijians and immigrants from India and their descendants. The Indians originally came to trade and represent a globalized, mercantile culture whereas the indigenous tribes did not have the tradition of business. Over time, the minority Indians were economically more successful than the majority, which tended to resent the Indians. As the Indians were the political minority with no strong tradition of protection of minority rights, they became victims of discriminatory behavior in a nation where the traditional political structure of tribal chiefs and tribes dominated politics. Religion also separated the Hindu Indians from the Christian tribals. In the early 21st century, an Indian was elected prime minister, but this led to a revolt and coup by some traditional tribals. Finally the coup was put down but the society had been split apart and there was continuous argument over rights and whether the coups plotters should be punished.
Despite this pronouncement which kept Caliphs from being female, modern Islamic states (Pakistan, Indonesia) have had female Presidents.
Shirley Anita Chisholm was an American politician, educator, and author. In 1968, she became the first black woman elected to the United States Congress, representing New York's 12th congressional district, a district centered on Bedford-Stuyvesant, for seven terms from 1969 to 1983. In the 1972 United States presidential election, she became the first African-American candidate for a major party's nomination for President of the United States, and the first woman to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.
