Trailblazing First Ladies Analysis

Top 10 Trailblazing First Ladies

Another presidential election is now in the books. Whether you are happy, sad or just indifferent to the outcome, the White House will shortly have a new First Lady (or in this case, a stand-in First Daughter). We have had 46 First Ladies (Link 1). While every President was not married, every President had someone serve as First Lady and two Presidents had two First Ladies as they remarried in office. The role of First Lady is often overlooked, since it is neither elected nor paid. The role is as personal as the women who hold it. Here are 10 of the more interesting First Ladies and how they brought their own unique stamp to this role.

10. Abigail Fillmore, the first cougar to occupy the White House.

Eleanor Roosevelt, a woman of the future. – Eleanor Roosevelt was in many ways a woman out of time. She was a trail blazer and one of the most influential first ladies ever. She was the measuring stick for the First Ladies that followed her. Due to her husband’s condition, Eleanor travelled all across the country, serving as Franklin’s eyes and ears (Link 25). She was a passionate woman’s rights advocate, urging her husband to hire more women into the federal work force. She also held hundreds of press conferences for women reporters only during her tenure in the White House (Link 26). She was an early champion of the civil rights movement. Most notably, for our media driven world, she was the first and only First Lady blogger, writing a weekly syndicated newspaper column entitled “My Day for nearly 30 years, from 1935 to 1962 (Link 27).

1. Hillary Clinton, a presidential nominee in her own right. Hillary Clinton sought to expand the role of the first lady during her tenure. She championed health care reform and her husband, President Bill Clinton often stated that “voters were getting two for the price of one” (Link 28). She very much followed in the steps of Eleanor Roosevelt, advocating for issues she felt strongly about such as children and health care. Her newspaper column “Talking it Over” described her experiences as First Lady and often highlighted women, children and families she met on her worldwide travels (Link