Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the US State Department, and one of the most influential political figures of her generation, has died at the age of 84, after suffering from cancer, her family announced Wednesday.

The family said in a statement that Albright passed away "surrounded by family and friends."

The statement praised "a loving mother, grandmother, sister and friend", and "a tireless defender of democracy and human rights."

At the State Department, spokesman Ned Price praised Albright as "the pioneer as the first female Secretary of State, who effectively opened the door to large parts of our workforce."

Albright, who fled the Nazis in her childhood years from her native Czechoslovakia during World War II, rose the ladder of American diplomacy until she became the first woman to hold the position of Secretary of State in her country during the era of President Bill Clinton between 1997 and 2001, and she was also the United States ambassador to the United Nations.

Below is a statement from the family of @Madeleine: pic.twitter.com/C7Xt0EN5c9

— Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) March 23, 2022

The Rise of Albright

Albright, known for her tough-talk during her tenure in the Clinton administration and reluctance to get involved in the two biggest foreign crises, rose to prominence in the 1990s, the Rwandan genocide and the Bosnia-Herzegovina crisis.

"The only way for a woman to express her views on foreign policy was to marry a diplomat and then pour tea on the lap of an abusive ambassador," Albright once said.

"Today, women are involved in all aspects of international affairs," she added.

And her influence at the international level was compared to the role of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the eighties of the last century.

Albright - who became the US ambassador to the United Nations in 1993 - had lobbied for a tougher stance against the Serbs in Bosnia, but during President Bill Clinton's first term, the US involvement in the Vietnam quagmire was still stuck in the minds of many senior experts. Foreign policy who made sure not to repeat this mistake in the Balkans.

Instead, the United States worked with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to launch air strikes that ended the war, but after it lasted for 3 years.

In the midst of US efforts to pressure North Korea to end its ultimately unsuccessful nuclear weapons program, Albright traveled to Pyongyang in 2000 to meet with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, becoming the most prominent US official to visit North Korea.

With the end of the Clinton administration and the end of the 1990s, Albright became an icon for a generation of young women looking for inspiration in their pursuit of opportunities to excel and earn respect in the workplace.

One of Albright's favorite quotes: "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help each other."