Today marked the last day of lectures in the First Ladies course; the students have quite a bit of reading and research yet to do for their final project. We had a great discussion this afternoon about the First Ladies of the 20th Century. I came away with the feeling that the role of First Lady has not changed so very much since Martha Washington's era. The President's wife remains primarily a hostess, unofficial advisor to the President and wearer of beautiful inagural gowns! We have seen that the most controversial First Ladies have been those who took their unoffical advisory roles into the public eye: from Abigail Adams to Hillary Clinton, the women who had high profile political roles received the harshest criticisms.
Most of the First Ladies of my lifetime are in this lovely picture. My heart is tender for the physically frail Pat Nixon. Mrs. Nixon was really something very special, and I hope History will recognize that about her. She had such a difficult time with the ups and downs of her husband's political career. But the same must be said for all of the ladies married to the Presidents of the United States. Abigail Adams once stated, "when my husband is wounded, I bleed." Surely that simple statement captures the heartaches of these special women.
I have enjoyed exploring this topic with my students, and we have all learned more about our Nation's First Ladies.
4 comments:
Sissy, I would have loved to have taken this class with you and would have even brought along a buffalo. And I bet the buffalo would have enjoyed it, too.
I think my earliest memory of the meaning of courage was of Pat Nixon standing by her husband their last day in the White House. Do you remember that? The girls were crying but her face remained unmoved. What a credit to all women everywhere.
Thank you for the post of the women that brought much dignity to the White House.
Patsy
I enjoyed this course so much. I hope the students will have a deeper understanding of the difficulty of the role and the indviduality each woman has brought to it.
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