Should the First Lady Get a Paycheck?

By Sheila Gibbons, Women's eNews. Posted January 5, 2009.

What followed was a video retrospective of recent first ladies that offered glimpses of them in social, diplomatic and cause-related roles. Mitchell asked only two sources -- historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and Lisa Caputo, former press secretary to Hillary Clinton -- if the position should be salaried.

Caputo said no, because it's not an elected position. Goodwin said that while the first lady's contributions deserve to be valued, the fact that they are not "is part, unfortunately, of women's work being devalued." Goodwin got to develop this more fully in a companion piece on the "Nightly News" Web site, but viewers of the newscast didn't see that.

Then it was on to a clip of Hollywood dance duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, with Mitchell noting that Rogers did everything Astaire did except backwards and in high heels. This is a well-known cliche that implies that women doing the same work as men have often been shortchanged, but does it even make sense when asking about compensation for the U.S. president's spouse?

In her foreword to Beasley's book on first ladies, Caryl Rivers of Boston University asked, "Why, each political season, does the Dragon Lady specter arise?"

Demonizing the Dragon Ladies

Eleanor Roosevelt stoically continued her work on behalf of women and minorities in the face of withering criticism. Nancy Reagan was depicted as a clothes horse who often found fault with her husband's staff. Hillary Clinton was viciously demonized.

In September 1992, Rivers notes, the New York Times reported that "at least 20 articles in major publications this year involved some comparison between Mrs. Clinton and a grim role model for political wives: Lady Macbeth."

Michelle Obama has already felt the hostility of those eager to find fault. She's been called unpatriotic for saying: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country." (Some news accounts shortened the quote, dropping the "really" and thus altering the meaning.) Those eager to believe that she and her husband are radicals didn't get the joke when a New Yorker cover depicted her as an armed terrorist fist-bumping her husband.

In a pre-election post from Oct. 23, Corynne Corbett ("That Black Girl Blogging"), said Michelle Obama "will have to consider her role carefully ... Coming on as strong as Hillary did is a risk, especially for a sister. Black comedians are already joking that if Obama is elected she'd actually be running the show. And frankly, that scares some people."

Her platform offers a huge opportunity, too, wrote Allison Samuels in the Nov. 10 edition of Newsweek: "For the first time, people will have a chance to get up close and personal with the type of African American woman they so rarely see" in media depictions of black women.

We can have that "up close and personal" experience if reporters and pundits will stop invoking outdated filters and silly stereotypes to describe accurately the development of a presidential spouse who has power, presence and pizzazz. Yes, we can.

Copyright 2009 Women's eNews. All rights reserved.

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Sheila Gibbons is editor of Media Report to Women, a quarterly journal of news, research and commentary about women and media.

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