The
First Lady: Public Expectations, Private Lives
Public
expectations put first ladies on a short leash
By Ricki
Green, producer/director
The American
public is a tough employer. Americans are still ambivalent about
what is acceptable behavior in a First Lady, and the truth is
public opinion sets the boundaries for what a she can and cannot
do. She has no official job description in the Constitution,
but if she had one, it might read like this:
The
position of first lady is an unpaid volunteer position. Requirements
are extreme modesty, an absence of independent thought, and
a lack of personal ambition. Must be willing to work long hours,
choose menus and color schemes for State dinners, make endless
small talk, and react to intense media scrutiny with patience
and charm. Meddling in state business is forbidden even if you
know more than your husband’s advisors. Fringe benefits: husband
works at home, no cooking necessary.
 From
Abigail Adams, who feared she would have "to look at every
word before I utter it, and to impose a silence upon myself,
when I long to talk" to Jackie Kennedy, who said she did
not want to be called first lady as it sounded like a saddle
horse, first ladies have struggled with the confines of the
role of first lady and the ambivalent feelings of the American
public.
First
lady Barbara Bush reads to school children. (October 16,
1991)
Photo: George Bush Presidential Library |
In a way first ladies are in a bit of a time warp.
More than 30 years after the women’s movement began; behavior
that is acceptable for Americans in their personal lives is not
acceptable for their first lady. Polls show that the first lady
shouldn’t be too independent, too outspoken, or too political.
Never mind that she may have a master’s degree, a legal degree,
or run a major foundation. Never mind that she may have been her
husband’s political confidante and advisor for many years.
One first
lady who was able to be both substantive and effective was Lady
Bird Johnson. She was an early environmentalist before it was
fashionable. Her legacy is "beautification," a non-threatening
project for a first lady. Historian Gil Troy says of Lady Bird,
"You see a woman who was able to have her own voice…but
do it in a way that spoke the language of the 1960s and didn’t
get too far ahead."
Hillary
Clinton thought she was speaking the language of the 1990s but
she was wrong. Both she and her husband thought the public was
ready for a wife to share power with her husband, the President.
Not so fast. The fear of a first lady with too much power is
as old as the nation itself. Many people asked about Hillary
Clinton: "Who elected her?" Historian Allida Black
argues: "We don’t elect his speech writer. We don’t elect
his chief of staff. We don’t elect his liaison with the press…that's
just a lazy argument."
Ultimately
the first lady is a "wife." Hers is derivative power
and, by the nature of the role, it will always be. Hillary Clinton
finally realized that if she wanted to have a voice and to make
use of her political talents, she had to do it the old fashioned
way: run for office herself. So for 17 days we had a first lady
who was a United States senator, a first in American history.
Now many are waiting for the first female president. And will
her husband, the first spouse, have to live by old rules for
the first lady, or will the boundaries of the job finally expand?
The
First Lady: Public Expectations, Private Lives airs Thursday,
October 28 at 10 p.m. on TV12.
|
