Catherine Cortez Masto, 1964

Photo credit - U.S. Senate Photographic Studio-Rebecca Hammel @ Wikipedia

A lawyer and Democratic politician served as the 32nd attorney general of Nevada. The first Latina in the US Senate and the first woman to represent Nevada.

Catherine Cortez was born in Las Vegas, Nevada. She studied finance at the University of Nevada, Reno, and then law at the Gonzaga University School of Law. In 1995, she became the chief of staff of the former Nevada Governor Bob Miller, as well as served as an assistant to the United States Attorney General. During that time, she married Paul Masto, a former Special Agent in the US Secret Service.

In 1999, Cortez Masto moved to Washington, DC, for a few years to work as a federal prosecutor. In 2006, 42 years old Cortez Masto won the state Attorney General’s elections, serving full two-term after winning the re-election of 2010, the second woman to serve as Nevada Attorney General. In this position, she focused on social issues such as sex trafficking, elder abuse, domestic violence, and the methamphetamine epidemic. As state attorney general, Cortez Masto investigated a nationwide mortgage-fraud, which the settlement of the case brought to the state more than $1.9 billion.

In 2016, Cortez Masto ran for a seat at the US Senate. In her campaign, she asserted topics such as immigration reform, protecting Social Security and Medicare, and raising the minimum wage. She won with 47% of the votes, and when she took office, Cortez Masto became the first Latina in the US Senate and the first woman to represent Nevada. While in office, she advocates for gun control, pro-choice, and federal government limitations on greenhouse gas emissions. She is a member of numerous committees, including the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, the Committee on Finance, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. In her efforts to promote women and children, Cortez Masto introduced two bills addressing missing, murdered, and trafficking of Native Americans and Alaska Natives, as well as introduced the Interdiction of Protection of Child Victims of Exploitation and Human Trafficking Act, providing tools for law enforcement officers to recognize and rescue exploited children.

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“…the people that we hire in government should be just as diverse as the communities we represent.”

“…the people that we hire in government should be just as diverse as the communities we represent.”

Fun Facts

  • Her mother is of Italian descent, and her father is Mexican.
  • Her father was the head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and was the one to greenlighting the city’s slogan “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas.”
  • She is the first in her family to graduate from college.
  • She is a hiker.

Awards

  • Heroes Award by the Alliance of Retired Americans (2020)
  • Named a “Friend of the Farm Bureau” by the American Farm Bureau Federation (2020)

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Category: Law and Politics & Leaders
Tags: Latina Women, Lawyer, and Senator

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Adelina-Otero-Warren-WWP
Activism & Feminism

Adelina Otero-Warren, 1881-1965

A suffrage leader, educator, and politician. The first Latina to run for US Congress and one of the first’s women to serve as a government official in New Mexico.

Adelina “Nina” Otero Warren was born near Los Lunas, New Mexico. Her family was among the early settlers in New Mexico, and her parents were part of the Hispanic elite. When she was 2 years old, her father was killed by an Anglo squatter. A few years later, her mother married an English businessman, and she grew up in a multicultural environment. She was influenced by her mother, who was an advocate for social and educational developments and served as the director of Santa Fe’s Board of Education. At 16, the family relocated to Santa Fe, where she became a socialite. At the age of 26, she married Lieutenant Rawson D. Warren, a cavalry officer who was nine years older than her. Though the marriage did not last long, she kept her x-husband’s last name and called herself a widow, so she would not be stigmatized as a divorced woman.   At 31, Nina moved to NYC to keep house for her brother. There, she became active in Anne Morgan’s settlement house, working alongside the famous suffragist Alice Paul and organizing crafts programs for working-class women. Two years later, her mother died, and Nina returned to Santa Fe to take care of her half-siblings. Upon her arrival, she started working for the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. Soon she became the first Mexican-American state leader of the Congressional Union in New Mexico, raising support from the Spanish-speaking community as well as from the English-speaking community. Using her family connections, she was a successful lobbyist for voting in favor of the Nineteenth Amendment, and she had a key role in its ratification in 1920. In 1922, at the age of 41, Nina ran as the Republican Party nominee for New Mexico to the US House of Representatives – The first Latina to run for the US Congress. During her campaign, she spoke Spanish and advocated for the improvement of education, health care, and welfare services, as well as for the preservation of Hispano heritage and culture. Ultimately, she lost the election by less than 9%, probably because it was discovered that she was a divorcee, not a widow. In 1917 Nina was appointed as the Santa Fe Superintendent of Instruction – one of the first women to serve as government officials in New Mexico. In her 12 years in office, she worked tirelessly to improve the education of Hispano. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Alexandria-Ocasio-Cortez-WWP
Politics & Leaders

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 1989

Democratic Socialist politician, the youngest woman ever to serve in the United States Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in the Bronx borough of NYC to a Puerto Rican family. Her political tendencies were recognized from a young age, and in high school, she participated in the National Hispanic Institute’s Lorenzo de Zavala Youth Legislative Session and later served as its Secretary of State. She attended Boston University, graduating cum laude with a BA degree in international relations and economics. While studying in college, she was an intern in Senator Ted Kennedy’s section of foreign affairs and immigration issues. As the only Spanish speaker in the office, she was the one to assist the families who were separated by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After college, Ocasio-Cortez returned to the Bronx and worked at the nonprofit National Hispanic Institute, as well as a community organizer, a waitress, and a bartender, helping her mother with fighting a Foreclosure on their home. In 2016, she was a volunteered organizer at Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. She became active with the Dakota Access Pipeline protests, traveling across the country speaking to the communities that have been affected by the change of drinking water in the area. The encounter with the local activists inspired her to work for her community. Not long after, she received a call from Brand New Congress, recruiting her as a progressive candidate for the congressional district election. In April 2018, still working as a waitress, Ocasio-Cortez launched her primary campaign for NYC’s 14th congressional district election – the first person in 14 years to challenge Joe Crowley’s seat in US congress. Under the slogan “The Courage to Change,” she organized an all-volunteer grassroots campaign and did not take corporate donations. With a strong social media presence, she defeated her opponent by almost 15%, becoming the youngest woman ever to serve in the US Congress. Arriving at the House of Representatives with millions of followers on social media, Ocasio-Cortez was appointed by her colleagues to give them social media lessons. In congress, she runs on a progressive platform. She is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and a loud advocate for social policies, such as abolishing ICE, universal healthcare, gun control, cancellation of student debt, tuition-free public college and trade school, criminal justice reform, and ending the privatization of prisons. She is also promoting climate policies, and together with Senator Ed Markey, she introduced the “Green New Deal” – a plan to switch to renewable energy sources for the entire country to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Amy-Coney-Barrett-WWP
Law

Amy Coney Barrett, 1972

A Lawyer, federal judge, law professor, and the 103rd US Supreme Court associate justice. 

Amy Coney Barrett was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and grew up in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb. Her family is Catholic, and throughout the years, she studied at catholic education institutes. After high school, she studied English literature and French at Rhodes College, graduating magna cum laude. Afterward, she studied law at Notre Dame Law School, graduating first in her class with a Juris Doctor summa cum laude. At the age of 25, Barrett began to work as a judicial law clerk for Judge Laurence Silberman and then for Justice Antonin Scalia of the US Supreme Court. In 1999, she married Jesse M. Barrett, whom she met at Notre Dame Law School. The couple moved to Washington, DC, where she worked for a prestigious litigation law firm. At 29, Barrett served for a year as a visiting associate professor at George Washington University Law School, before returning to Notre Dame Law School as an assistant professor, soon becoming a full-tenured faculty member. She taught federal courts, statutory interpretation, and constitutional law and was voted Professor of the year three times. In 2010, she was named a Professor of Law, and during 2014-2017 she held the Diane and M.O. Miller Research Chair of Law. At the age of 38, Barrett was appointed to the Advisory Committee for the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, a position she served for six years. In 2017, Barrett was nominated by the US President Donald Trump to the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. At the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, she was asked how her faith could affect her law-making decisions. Barrett answered that her faith would never compromise her work as a judge. The hearing, as well as her opinions on abortion and gay marriage, made her popular with religious right conservatives. She was voted 55–43, and in her confirmation, Barrett became the first woman to serve in the Indiana seat on the Seventh Circuit. While serving in this position, she authored more than 100 opinions that reinforce her name as a textualist. On September 26th, 2020, Barrett was nominated by President Trump to the US Supreme Court, to replace the deceased Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. On October 27th, 2020, Barrett became the 103rd associate justice of the US Supreme Court, the fifth woman in this position. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Arabella-Mansfield-WWP
Law

Arabella Mansfield, 1846-1911

The first female lawyer in the United States, an educator and women’s rights activist.

Born in Benton Township, Iowa, and after her father died in a mining accident in California, the family moved to Mount Pleasant, so that Arabella and her brother will get a better education. Only 16 years old, Mansfield started her studies at Iowa Wesleyan College, where she graduated as valedictorian. After college, she taught for a year at the Des Moines Conference Seminary before returning to Mount Pleasant to get married. With the encouragement of her husband, she started law studies while working as an apprentice at her brother’s law firm. Although Iowa law allowed only white male to take the bar exam, when she was only 23 years old, Mansfield took the test and passed it with high scores. She became the proof that women can qualify for the practice of law, and a year later the Iowa legislature opened the profession to women. By swearing-in, Arabella Mansfield became the first female lawyer in the USA. Eventually she decided not to practice law, but to focus on her academic career and activist work. At the age of 47, she got nominated as the Dean of the School of Art at DePauw, and a year later as the Dean of the School of Music. Mansfield was active in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and gave public lectures on women’s rights, was a member of the National League of Women Lawyers, served as an officer in the Iowa Peace Society, and chaired the Iowa Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1870. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
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