Women in Politics

I hope everyone enjoyed our presentation today. Unfortunately we did not get to cover everything that we wanted to cover but at least the conversation was good! One of the main points that we did not get to were the types of roles that first ladies play. Although we discussed stereotypes and how they are expected to act, how they actually behave was not discussed. There are three main roles of first ladies; namely, the ceremonial role, emerging spokeswoman, and independent advocate. Many first ladies, such as Grace Coolidge and Bess Truman were predominantly ceremonial first ladies. As the years progressed first ladies such as Jacqueline Kennedy and Lou Hoover began filling the emerging spokeswoman role. Further yet, women like Nancy Reagan, Lady Bird Johnson, and Hillary Clinton began filling the independent advocate role. Although first ladies have seemingly progressed through time, have they really? Is Lady Bird Johnson's Beautification project all that different from Michelle Obama's Let's Move project? Are these women making change or are they merely symbols of change? Furthermore, what are they promoting?? Motherly, "womanly" projects. They do not actually change policy, rather, they become the face of certain initiatives. While this may be true, we do believe that women in politics have made strides but they are no where near where they need to be.