She was the first female secretary of transportation. She is the leader of one of the world’s most powerful public service organizations. She has even been considered as a possible presidential candidate in 2000.

And she’s coming to Iowa State.

Elizabeth Dole, president of the American Red Cross and former secretary of labor under President George Bush, will serve as the Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics during the spring of 1999. She will speak on campus in conjunction with the position.

“It is a great honor for Iowa State and the Catt Center to have such an internationally recognized leader in public service hold the Mary Louise Smith Chair,” said Diane Bystrom, director for the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics.

Dole will speak at ISU during the Strong-Minded Women celebration, which is usually held at the beginning of April. Bystrom said the date of Dole’s appearance has not yet been confirmed.

Bystrom said Dole’s involvement in many different areas of public life, not only as an elected official but also as a public administrator, epitomizes women’s contributions to politics.

“When you focus on women in politics, people tend to think in terms of the electoral process,” Bystrom said. “Both at the state and national level, women have made more gains [in public administration] than in electoral politics.”

Although Dole may be best known to students as being the wife of presidential candidate Robert Dole, Bystrom said Dole’s involvement in politics and public administration predates and outweighs her bid for first lady.

Bystrom also said Dole helped change the view of the “traditional” candidate’s wife when Bob Dole first ran for president in the 1988 Republican primaries.

“Elizabeth Dole was the first presidential candidate’s wife who had a career of her own,” she said.

Bystrom said both Dole and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton have changed perceptions about women who also are known for their husbands’ accomplishments.

“Both of them have been able to carve out their identities, balancing very high-powered careers and being married to high-powered men,” she said.

Dole first held office under President Richard Nixon and was involved in the subsequent four administrations. She was appointed president of the American Red Cross in 1991 but took a 14-month leave of absence to support her husband in his bid for the presidency.

Dole has received many national awards, including the Women Executives in State Government Lifetime Achievement Award, the League of Women Voters Leadership Award and the Raoul Wallenberg Award for humanitarian service. She has also been inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.

The Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics was created in 1995 and has been held by then-U.S. Sen. Nancy Kassebaum and Ruth Mandel, a scholar of women in politics.

The chair was created to honor Smith, an Eddyville, Iowa, native and the only woman to serve as National Chairman of the Republican Party. Bystrom said the chair is an honorary position designed to bring national leaders, female and male, to campus.