The Politics of the President's Wife

Notes

Notes Chapter 1 1. Gil Troy has extensively investigated the gender-related controversies surrounding the first ladies. His class- and gender-based analysis led him to conclude, in marked contrast to this author, that the first lady’s power is rooted in her celebrity status. Consequently, her power is significantly determined by her public approval ratings. Her collaboration with the president should therefore be focused upon image making, not upon policy making, in order to maximize her effectiveness and to minimize the likelihood of “lasting damage.” Troy, “Image-Making Not Power-Sharing.” See also Troy, Affairs of State. 2. On the public expectations directed at political wives, see Arvonne S. Fraser, “Political Wives Strike Back,” New York Times, April 28, 1989; Schultz, And His Lovely Wife. See also Bostdorff, “Hillary Rodham Clinton and Elizabeth Dole.” 3. On the masculinity of the presidential office, see Duerst-Lahti, “Reconceiving Theories of Power” and “‘Seeing What Has Always Been.’” On the increasing emergence of the presidency as an institution, see Ragsdale and Theis, “Institutionalization of the American Presidency.” 4. Duerst-Lahti, “Reconceiving Theories of Power,” 21–22. 5. Friedan, Feminine Mystique. 6. See, for example, Schlafly, Feminist Fantasies. See also Klatch, Women of the New Right. 7. Borrelli, “Competing Conceptions of the First Ladyship,” 399–400. 8. Laura Bush, “Remarks at the 6th Regional Conference on Helping America’s Youth.” 9. White House Office of the Press Secretary, “Presidential Memorandum—Establishing a Task Force on Childhood Obesity,” February 9, 2010; [Michelle Obama], “Remarks by First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House Garden Harvest Party,” June 16, 2009; “Let’s Move!” letsmove.gov; [Michelle Obama], “Remarks of First Lady Michelle Obama,” February 9, 2010. See also [Michelle Obama], “Remarks by First Lady Michelle Obama at a ‘Let’s Move’ Event,” March 3, 2010; [Michelle Obama], “Remarks by the First Lady at Event on Surgeon General’s Report,” January 28, 2010. 10. Elshtain, Public Man, Private Woman; Templin, “Hillary Clinton as Threat to Gender Norms”; Borrelli, “Competing Conceptions of the First Ladyship.” 11. When Betty Ford responded to press questions by stating that she shared a bedroom with her husband, she was denounced as “disgraceful and immoral.” Ford, Times of My Life, 173. 12. As quoted in Patterson, White House Staff, 284. 13. Dovi, Good Representative. See also Dovi, “Theorizing Women’s Representation in the United States”: Mansbridge, “Should Blacks Represent Blacks and Women Represent Women?” 14. Pitkin, Concept of Representation, 92–111. 15. For a contrary argument, see Pitkin, Concept of Representation, 107. 16. Pitkin, Concept of Representation, 61–90. 17. Pitkin, Concept of Representation, 83. 204 notes to pages 11–19 18. Pitkin, Concept of Representation, 80. 19. Pitkin, Concept of Representation, 220–22. 20. Ritter, “Gender as a Category of Analysis in American Political Development.” 21. Weldon, “Beyond Bodies.” 22. Dovi, “Theorizing Women’s Representation in the United States,” 156–58. 23. See West, Upstairs at the White House, 191–282; Baldrige, Of Diamonds and Diplomats , 154–276; Perry, Jacqueline Kennedy, especially 15, 76–81. 24. Klatch, Women of the New Right, 142–47. 25. Borrelli, “Competing Conceptions of the First Ladyship.” 26. Hult and Walcott, Empowering the White House; Walcott and Hult, Governing the White House. 27. First lady scholar Lewis Gould similarly observed, “First ladies are not a leading indicator. They are a lagging indicator. Social change will happen and about 15 years later, we’ll say it’s ok for first ladies, too.” As quoted in Krausert, “From Baking Bread to Making Dough.” 28. The ideological debate has also generated a significant legal debate. For example, see Broyde and Schapiro, “Impeachment and Accountability.” 29. On the challenges associated with presidential transitions and start-ups, see Kumar and Sullivan, White House World. 30. In her memoir, Barbara Bush reported that she was surprised at the escalation of press coverage when she transitioned from the second lady’s to the first lady’s office. Bush, A Memoir, 253. 31. Betty Ford encountered especially heavy demands with regard to symbolic representation . A state dinner was to be held within a week of her becoming first lady. On the one hand, there was the need to provide continuity; on the other, this occasion was to be the first statement of the new administration’s priorities in social outreach. See Ford, Times of My Life, 177–84. 32. Postal Revenue and Federal Salary Act of 1967, Public Law 90–206, Section 221; Edwin S. Kneedler...