Dole, Elizabeth Hanford (1936– )

US lawyer, Republican politician, and cabinet member. While President Reagan's secretary of transportation 1983–87, she promoted road safety. As President George Bush's secretary of labour 1989–90, she ended the Pittsdown Coal Strike. She became president of the American Red Cross in 1991.

Elizabeth Dole was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, and is the wife of the Republican politician Bob Dole. She was active in US politics from 1968, when she worked for the White House office of consumer affairs. Originally a Democrat, Dole was a Washington consumer protection lawyer in the 1970s. Her last political post was in 1990 as secretary of labour under President Bush.

Elizabeth Dole worked for five presidents. Under President Richard Nixon she became deputy assistant to the president of consumer affairs and, in 1974, took up the post of federal trade commissioner. Between 1980–81 she was director of president-elect Ronald Reagan's human services group. With Reagan in the White House, she became head of public liaison and then secretary of transportation. After a year as the secretary of labour under Bush, she left to take up her role for the American Red Cross and remained there – taking a year off in 1995 to campaign with her husband Bob Dole for the US presidential election. She also campaigned as a cnadidate in 1999.