The Politics of the President's Wife

2. Before They Were First Ladies

2 Before They Were First Ladies The successful presidential campaign is an ending and a beginning for the woman who becomes first lady. Immersed in public outreach—traveling independently or with the presidential candidate, confronting the scrutiny of the media and the electorate, responding to diverse gender and partisan ideologies —future first ladies refine their skills and talents throughout the campaign . The key word, however, is “refine.” These women, like their husbands, have had rich lives before entering the White House. Their actions during the presidential term rest on wisdom acquired in their pre-presidential years. It is in this sense that the successful presidential campaign is both an ending and a beginning: the first lady and the president bring experience and knowledge to the White House, which they rely upon in responding to the expectations, requirements, and demands of the presidency. This chapter, accordingly, investigates the modern first ladies’ prepresidential careers. Though not always sharing their husbands’ White House ambitions, these women have been highly political. More often than not, they have been strategic entrepreneurs within their families, the private sector , the not-for-profit sector, the public sector, or some combination of the four. Their associated successes and failures foreshadow the representation they provide once they become first ladies. The Expertise That the Presidency Requires Like every other member of a presidential administration, first ladies bring considerable and diverse expertise to the White House. Their pre-presidential careers typically encompass work outside the home, before and sometimes during their marriages; marital and family responsibilities; and partisan political experience, including but not limited to campaigning and policy making . Their marriages sometimes evidence profound power inequities, but at 26 chapter 2 other times are partnerships. As several first ladies acknowledge in their autobiographies , marriage and politics set the context for their lives. Like others in the White House Office, personal, partisan, political, and professional relationships decisively shaped the modern first ladies’ careers. To inventory the first ladies’ pre-presidential lives in terms of employment , family, and politics, however, is to echo the biographical approaches of the past. What is needed instead is an analytic framework that draws connections between the expertise that the women acquired before they became first ladies and the learning and expertise that they demonstrated throughout their husbands’ presidential terms. Just such a framework can be drawn from White House Office studies. After interviewing senior staff members in presidential administrations of the later twentieth century, political scientist Martha Joynt Kumar concluded that an effective White House Office required the following four kinds of expertise: Knowledge of the future president, so that the chief executive’s thought processes and values are recognized, understood, and anticipated. This expertise facilitates communication, especially the negotiations associated with agenda setting, legislative bargaining, and programmatic implementation . However, this knowledge may also lead to groupthink, with alternative perspectives and possibilities disregarded. Knowledge of campaigning and governing, so that the staff appreciates the strategic impact of campaign promises on the administration, and in turn, the effect of the administration’s actions on a reelection campaign. The constant campaign makes these effects infinitely more complex, especially given the heightened scrutiny of the 24/7 news cycle. Knowledge of policy, so that partisan bargaining does not ignore or discount the substantive consequences of political decision making. Party polarization has made this empirical knowledge even more important , as a counter to misinterpretations or misstatements, and as a source of credibility in the midst of acrimonious debates. Knowledge of the Washington community, its rituals and symbols, so that the expectations of the powerful are anticipated. The formal practices and informal expectations that govern relationships in the capital are critically important to any administration. Trust and credibility facilitate all forms of representation and decision making. Conversely, betrayal—whether real or imagined—inhibits dialogue well into the future. before they were first ladies 27 As the executive of a unit within the White House Office, the first lady needs access to each type of expertise. As a member of the White House Office herself , the president’s wife must possess and demonstrate at least some of these different kinds of knowledge. The first lady’s expertise, at its most expressive and expansive, will bridge the masculine gender role constructions and politics ascribed to the president’s senior staff, and the feminine gender role constructions and politics...