From Martha to Laura: The role of the first lady in US politics

Contents

Introduction

1. History of the office of the First Lady
1.1. Internal Influences
1.2. External Influences
1.2.1. Constitutional outlines
1.2.2. Public Expectation
1.2.3. History and Custom

2 Official Duties
2.1. Social Duties
2.1.1. Private Partner
2.1.2. White House Manager and Hostess
2.1.3. Role model
2.1.4. Social advocate
2.2. Political Duties
2.2.1. Presidential Adviser and Public Partner
2.2.2. Campaigner and Spokesperson
2.2.3. Diplomat

Conclusion

Bibliography
Primary literature:
Secondary literature:
Internetsources:

Introduction

The position of the first lady of the United States is unequalled anywhere. In comparison to the wives of other democratically elected leaders, she has a much larger staff, receives immense public attention and is in charge of a considerable amount of federal money. While in Great Britain for example, public attention focuses on the members of the royal family and not on the prime minister’s wife, the American first lady was drawn to a public role from the very beginning of the United States of America on.

While upon inauguration, the president of the United States swears to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, what does his wife, the first lady promise? The president might be limited by party issues and political ties, but which factors influence the first lady in fulfilling her position? The U.S. Constitution is silent on the role of the spouse of the president since “after all, there is only one person that chooses her”^[1] (and maybe someday him). The first lady therefore has no democratic legitimacy, but this has not stopped her from publicly representing the American Nation. Where does the acceptance of the first lady as a spokesperson for the American people come from? These are some of the questions this paper will try to answer. The main attention will focus on possible political weight and/or authority of the first lady.

The first part will give an overview over the historical development of the office from 1789 until today, describing important social, political and historical factors which have influenced this process as well as personal influences the first ladies and their husbands have had on their position. The second part will focus on the specific roles that the first ladies have taken over throughout its history and their effect on American politics. Although the early first ladies and their influence on the office will be considered too, the focal point will be on the modern first ladies of the 20th and 21st century.

Concerning the spelling of First Lady this paper uses the form of leading first ladies’ scholars like Robert P. Watson and use the lower case except when referring directly to a specific first lady.

1. History of the office of the First Lady

1.1. Internal Influences

The political involvement of first ladies has varied greatly during its history. Part of the reason for this lies within the president’s and his wife’s view of the first lady’s role.

The first very influential First Lady, Abigail Smith Adams, ascended to the office in 1797. Mrs. Adams had ideas about women’s role that differed greatly from those of most of her contemporaries who thought that a woman was supposed to be “more lovely than politics”^[2]. Instead, First Lady Adams proved to be a very outspoken person who demonstrated her strong views about matters and persons in the almost two thousand letters she wrote to family and friends. President Adams did not limit, but rather supported her in her outspokenness. He included her in many political decisions and crafted her help with letters, speeches etc., treating her like a secretary without portfolio. With her outspokenness and strong opinions that went far beyond household and motherhood^[3], Mrs. Adams became an exception of her time and serves as an example that even women in the early 19th century could, with the support of their husbands, become important influences outside the traditional women’s sphere. It took nearly half a century though, before a president would come to office that held his wife’s opinion on political matters in such high esteem like John Adams.

President James Polk was proud of his wife’s very good education and encouraged her to talk her mind openly. Like Abigail Adams, Sarah Childress Polk saw herself as a full partner of her husband, on political just as much as on social matters. Mrs. Polk set the standards for modern First Ladies like Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt moved into the White House as the new First Lady. For her, partnership and companionship were the major requirements for a modern marriage. In 1930 in an interview with Good Housekeeping, she expressed her opinion that women had formerly put most emphasis on being wife and mother, but now stressed on being full partners.^[4] Due to his illness, President Franklin Roosevelt sent his wife on countless fact finding missions^[5], relying in his decisions on her judgement of what she had seen. By travelling around the country and reporting to the president what she had seen, Mrs. Roosevelt became the most active and influential first lady until then^[6].

Born in 1947, Hillary Rodham Clinton was one year younger than her predecessor Barbara Bush’s oldest child and represented a totally new generation of women. Mrs. Clinton not only had an education from the prestigious Wellesley College, but had also gone on to earning a degree from Yale law school^[7]. When her husband decided to run for president, Mrs. Clinton was one of the countries most prominent lawyers. As a first lady, she wanted to help the president and the country “without loosing my own voice”^[8]. More than any of her predecessors, Mrs. Clinton was just as qualified for the job as president as her husband, so it was only natural that she would not stay home and “bake cookies”^[9] as she called it. During his campaign, Bill Clinton demonstrated the Clinton’s partnership when he promised that the voters would get two Clintons for the price of one.^[10] As a result, Mrs. Clinton’s First Ladyship brought revolutionary changes to the office of first lady. After her husband’s inauguration, Mrs. Clinton became the first presidential spouse to set up an office for herself in the West Wing of the White House^[11], bringing the first ladyship closer to the center of political power. Until her own election to the U.S. Senate in 2000, Mrs. Clinton became the most influential First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt.

There are other examples though, which demonstrate that an active first lady needs the support from the president as well as the will to take the responsibility that comes with influence. Lucy Webb Hayes was expected by many hopeful feminist leaders to introduce the era of the New Woman in the White House. Two of her aunts had been active in the feminist movement, and Mrs. Hayes herself held strong opinions on the equality of women: a “woman’s mind is as strong as man’s, equal in all things and his superior”.^[12] But after her husband’s inauguration as President, she turned out to be a disappointment for many feminists.

A woman with a college degree was still not a common sight in the 1870s, but instead of putting emphasize on her education, First Lady Hayes acted the same way as wives had done since the colonial times: obedient to her husband, loving to her children, kind to her neighbors, dutiful to her servants. Except for her ban on alcohol in the White House, which earned her the nickname ‘Lemonade Lucy’, she kept silent about political matters.^[13] This silence was not to blamed on President Hayes, on whom she had “great influence”^[14] as he himself admitted. It can only be assumed that Mrs. Hayes kept silent to avoid criticism encountered by her outspoken predecessors.

Some first ladies simply did not have any interest in politics. Bess Truman considered the two most important characteristics for a first lady were good health and a strong sense of humor; taking sides in public controversy was not part of her definition of a lady. President Truman for his part continuously reminded the press that he was the candidate and not his wife. Her immediate successor, Mamie Eisenhower, thought a wife’s role entirely secondary and supportive.^[15] The First Ladies Truman and Eisenhower became very famous not for what they did but what they stood for: the model of womanliness of the 50s set by movie stars like Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot, which they represented so well.

The Nixon administration serves as a reminder that every first lady relies not only on the president to set parameters of her power and effectiveness, but also on his staff. A White House official stated that First Lady. Nixon was continuously ignored by the president’s staff and that, instead of giving her a project to complement her husband’s work, she was sent off to do something insignificant to keep her quiet and out of the way.^[16] President Nixon himself offered his opinion about the first lady’s role during the 1992 presidential campaign, when he referred to Hillary Clinton’s obviously very strong role that “when a wife proves to be too strong and intelligent, the husband often seems weak”. He thought that intellect in a woman was improper.^[17] As an effect, Pat Nixon became successful in her social missions but did not have any political influence in her husband’s administration.

1.2. External Influences

1.2.1. Constitutional outlines

The Constitution of the United States of America does not give any guidelines for the office of the first lady. The office itself only results from marriage with the president of the United States of America, so it is only natural that it is also defined by its standards.

George Washington’s role as the first President of the United States of America remained undefined, falling somewhere between monarch and commoner, but Mrs. Washington’s role was even less clear^[18]. It had simply not been mentioned by the writers of the Constitution. The presidency of the United States combines two jobs that are usually carried out by two distinguished people – head of state and head of government. Meeting the obligations of both with only a limited budget and/or staff equipment was a heavy burden on the early presidents. Since First Lady Washington did not hold a job on her own, George Washington set precedents when he enlisted his wife’s help openly in carrying out his representational functions. Although today the vice-president and the White House staff also assist in these, many of the social and representational functions have remained with the first lady.^[19]

In August 1920, Tennessee ratified the Amendment which gave women the suffrage. It was thus ratified by the minimum number of states to become the 19th Amendment of the US Constitution. In the 1920 presidential elections only few women used their newly acquired right and went to vote.^[20] Thirteen years later, when more and more women used their voice in elections, Eleanor Roosevelt, an active and outspoken First Lady on women’s rights came to the office. It is not possible to determine the exact amount of influence women held in the election of President Franklin Roosevelt, but it can be assumed that women’s right to vote had an influence on their outcome. Today, the female population of the United States holds great influence in elections. This fact must be considered by campaign managers to address topics important to women.

[...]

^[1] University of California at Santa Barbara: The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/site/docs/pppus.php?admin=036&year=1968&id=648 [03.08.2004].

^[2] Betty Boyd Caroli: First Ladies. An intimate Look at how 38 women handled what may be the most demanding, unpaid, unelected job in America, New York 1995, page 8.

^[3] See Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, pages 8 – 9.

^[4] See M. K. Wiseheart: What is a wife’s job today?, in: Good Housekeeping, August 1930, page 34.

Cited in Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, pages 189 – 190.

^[5] See Carl Sferrazza Anthony: First Ladies. The Saga of the Presidents’ Wives and their Power., Two Volumes, Volume One: 1789 – 1961, New York 1991, page 460.

^[6] See Joanne Mattern: America’s Leaders. The First Lady of the United States, Farmington Hills 2003, page 10.

^[7] See Harvard University: Biography of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, http://www.med.harvard.edu/grad98/bio.html [03.08.2004]

^[8] Hillary Clinton: Gelebte Geschichte, München 2003, page 168.

^[9] Margaret Truman: First Ladies. An Intimate Group Portrait of White House Wives, New York 1995, page 327.

^[10] See Clinton: Gelebte Geschichte, page 152.

^[11] See Mattern: America’s Leaders, page 16.

^[12] Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, pages 87.

^[13] See Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, pages 84 – 95.

^[14] Anthony: First Ladies, Volume I, page 231.

^[15] See Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, pages 207 – 211.

^[16] See Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, pages 250, 253.

^[17] Clinton: Gelebte Geschichte, page 153.

^[18] See Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, page 3.

^[19] See Robert P. Watson: The Presidents’ Wives. Reassessing the Office of the First Lady, Boulder/ London 2000, page 46.

^[20] See Boyd Caroli: First Ladies, pages 134, 153.