It all started in an eighth-grade classroom in Forest City.

The teacher asked students what they wanted to become when they grew up. Most of the students had common responses, like firemen and policemen.

One student, however, gave a response that is still remembered by others in the class. “I want to become the governor of the state of Iowa!” said a young man.

After centuries of women being kept, for the most part, out of participating in politics, U.S. news publications heralded 1992 the “Year of the Woman” after a historic number of women were elected to the U.S. Senate. There were only four of them.

On a crisp, fall night in downtown Des Moines, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the stage to address a room filled with more than 6,600 people.

The atmosphere of the room resembled a concert- glow sticks were waving, lights were flashing and even pop stars were present. Just the year before, nearly everyone that attended the Jefferson-Jackson dinner was seated at a table and fed dinner.