Geraldine Ferraro

Today we saw that in the 1984 presidential election, Walter Mondale nominated the first woman for vice president of a major party. Ferraro was an english teacher by day and a law student by night. After being admitted to the NY bar, she practiced for a little more than a decade. In 1978, she was elected to the House of Representatives in district 9 of New York. After losing the presidential race with Mondale, she tried twice to run for Senate office. However, she again lost. Interestingly, Ferraro actually stepped down from a position in Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2008. She made a comment about how Obama's success was because he was black.
The house.gov synopsis about her time as a house representative describes how she was politically adroit, which enabled her to keep close ties with other important democrats. Her skills also helped her pursue a "liberal, feminist agenda" while also adhering to the whims of her conservative district. She voted in favor of various conservative policies like tuition tax credits for private schools. Ferraro was a feminist, though. She sponsored the Economic Equity Act in 1981. It was supposed to reform pension options for women, which would protect the rights of widows/divorceés. Despite her conservative base, she staunchly supported abortion rights. She didn't want to let her Catholic beliefs get in the way of her duty to keep church and state separate.
I find that last point interesting, as she actually voted in favor of legislation that had something to do (the House site doesn't go that in depth into this) allowing school prayer. That contradiction is interesting, as she based her stance on abortion on the separation of church and state.