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13 The Presidential Partnership A Gender Seesaw Karen S. Hoffman Throughout history presidents have relied on their spouses in the White House. In jobs as diverse as hostess, political advisor, campaigner, and fund-raiser, first ladies have worked hard to help their husbands. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell describes the presidency as a two-person career that “requires their cooperative efforts if it is to be successful.”1 Not surprisingly, virtually every president has said that he could not have succeeded without his wife. As the possibility of a female president has become greater, discussion of the partnership between the president and a first gentleman has occurred. During Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the 2008 Democratic nomination, one journalist noted, “The Clintons have committed themselves now to campaigning as a couple.” He went on to say that if Hillary were elected president, Bill “would be a force in American government.”2 Similar discussions were prompted by speculation about Sarah Palin’s possible run for the presidency in 2012. Examining her role as the governor of Alaska for clues to her style as chief executive, some found that Todd Palin was a significant partner in the governorship, implying that should Sarah Palin ever become president, he would be an active first gentleman. One headline announced, “First Dude Todd Palin Heavily Involved in Governing Alaska.”3 That we are talking about a partnership between a female president and male spouse suggests that the idea of female political leadership is gaining more legitimacy. The 2008 candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin—not to mention Nancy Pelosi’s election as Speaker of the House in 2007—were “major breakthroughs.”4 The 2012 Republican nominating process featured discussion of Sarah Palin as a serious presidential contender as well as the entrance of 269 270 Karen S. Hoffman Representative Michele Bachmann into the race. Despite these positive steps, the persistent challenges facing women in the institution of the presidency are sobering. In a discussion of gender and the presidency Georgia Duerst-Lahti argued that media discussion of presidential aspirants for the 2008 election demonstrates “the glacial pace of progress in opening this space for women.”5 Another scholar concluded that despite the advances made by women in the 2008 presidential election, media coverage of both Clinton and Palin “indicates a retreat to gender stereotypes and blatant sexism not generally seen in the past six years.”6 Yet another examination of Clinton’s and Palin’s candidacies notes that the challenges of gender are “uniquely amplified in candidacies for the highest executive offices—the presidency and vice presidency.”7 Even now that a partnership between a female president and a male spouse is more a question of when than if, we still perceive the role of first spouse to be extremely gendered and defined strictly in terms of a male presidential role.8 The first spouse is firmly established in American culture as the partner of the president, an important position, but strictly a feminine supporting character whose talents and accomplishments are expected to complement, not duplicate or overshadow, those of the president.9 The entrenched belief in a male president supported by a female spouse is evident in the way popular culture continues to masculinize the presidency and feminize the first spouse. Despite the increasing appearance of female political leaders in television and movies, to a great extent popular culture confirms the gendered boundaries of the first spouse’s role. The West Wing, Commander in Chief, and 24 were all television shows that included women as part of the presidential partnership, either as president or first lady. On The West Wing, the first lady was forced to adjust and subordinate her own goals to the president’s. The relationship between the female president and her husband on the Commander in Chief similarly reinforced the gendered nature of the partnership. The president was attributed masculine characteristics to demonstrate her fitness for the office, while her husband was viewed in a feminine light and became a national joke. A comparison of Commander in Chief with a 1964 movie featuring a female president, Kisses for my President, demonstrates the absence of change over time in society’s gendered understanding of the first couple. Finally, the female presidents in both Commander in Chief and 24 approved the use of violence in order to highlight the office’s masculinity. Ultimately, this view of the presidential partnership in popular culture is borne out in political discourse as society struggles to apply the traditional...

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