First Ladies of America

2. The new Nation: 1775 – 1830
There is something fascinating about her…
Where does the term first lady come from
-Your highness, Your majesty
-Mr. President and Mrs.
-Lady Washington
-First Lady: the earliest public use of First Lady came shortly after Dolley Madison’s
death in 1849

3. RevolutionaryWar
-Women under the new government were civilly dead once married.
-English laws said that once a woman married, she and her husband were “one”
under the law and that “one” person was the husband.
-Following the war, no rights at all to their children, no rights to buy or sell property
once they were married, no rights to keep whatever wages they earned, no legal
existence apart from their husband’s.
-If a husband died, then his widow could inherit his property, manage it, or continue
to run the business or farm.
-If women were single or widowed, she paid taxes on her property just as men did.
Ironically, this would be considered taxation without representation.

4. remembertheLadies…
By the way, in the new Code of laws which I suppose it will be necessary for you to make I
desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them
than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands.
Remember all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not
paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves
bound by any laws in which we have no voice, or representation.
-Abigail Adams, Spring 1776

5. GrowingPains,SlaveryandtheCivilWar: 1830-1865
Why Isn’t there more information about the Women’s lives?
-Very little is known about their lives
-History often has been defined as the lives and deeds of great men whose activities took place in the
world of military, economics, or public life
-Historians often rely on written records and many women did not keep written records
-Informal ways of keeping historical records: letters, diaries, recipes, and medical treatment books

6. PresidentialHostess
-Historically, it has been an important part of a woman’s role to help advance the
business and career of her husband by planning social events.
-In her role as the nation’s hostess, the first lady oversees the planning, preparation,
and entertainment of state dinners at the White House.

7. TheAssassination
TheWidowLincoln tookituponherselftohavealocalpolicemanassignedtowatchoverthe
presidentialboxatFord’stheater,buthewasonthewrongsideofthedoorwhenJohn
WilkesBooth enteredthebox,firedthefatalshot,andthenleapttothestagetohisescape.
•The theater had always been one of Mary’s greatest pleasures, but she never set foot in one again after
the night her husband was assassinated
•The night before his assassination, Abraham said he dreamed that he saw mourners filing into the East
Room
•Mary stayed behind at the White House while the country was paying its final tribute to her husband
on the route to Springfield, Illinois
•After Abraham’s death, Mary unsuccessfully petitioned Congress for $100,000, the amount her
husband would have earned as salary during the rest of his unexpired term

8. ThePost-civilwarera,theageofreform,andworldwar1: 1865–1920
Whatroledidwomenplayinthetemperancemovement?
-thebanningofalcoholandLemonadeLucy
-theWoman’sChristianTemperanceMovement(1874);FrancesWillard
-majorgrassrootsmovementthatgavewomenanationalpoliticalvoice
-smashingand“hatchetation”ofsaloons
-EighteenthAmendment(ratified1919);repealedbytheTwenty-FirstAmendment(1920)

9. The19th

10. WhatwasWomanSuffrage?
-the first women’s rights convention was held in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York
(First Lady Sarah Polk), organized by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton
-Declaration of Sentiments—right to vote
-National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), 1890
-Radical group known as the National Women’s Party (Alice Paul and Lucy Burns)
-Wilson’s Administration and Edith Wilson

11. ModernTimes: 1921–1969
Whywasithardforwomentogetaneducation?
-Untiltheendof the19th centurywomen hadnoopportunitytoacquirethetypesof educationthat
hadlongbeenavailabletomen.
-BeforetheCivilWar,few women receivedanyhighereducation,becausetherewere nocolleges
or universitiesfullyopentowomen.
- FollowingtheCivilWar more women sought thebenefitsofhighereducation(Vassar,Smith
College,Wellesley,andRadcliffe).
-AmericanAssociationof UniversityWomen (AAUW), 1921.

12. WorldWarII
RosietheRiveterandEleanor
How have first ladies contributed to campaigning?
-Campaigning developed as a male activity in the 1800s as political parties grew and
battled each other to elect candidates.
-Eleanor Roosevelt often campaigned on behalf of her husband, Franklin Roosevelt,
due to his limitations from suffering polio.
-Eleanor Roosevelt traveled more than 38,000 miles on inspection trips around the
country during her first year as First Lady.
-Mamie Eisenhower and Pat Nixon were presented to the American public as the first
and second ladies.

13. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqzJQE8LYrQ

14. SheisaGustyLady
-Equal Rights Amendment: ERA was a proposed amendment to the United States
Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women. The ERA was originally
written by Alice Paul and Crystal Eastman. In 1923, it was introduced in the Congress
for the first time. (Ratified by 35 states—3 short)

15. JustCauses:
JustSaynotoDrugs
Youth Against Drug Abuse (YADA)
-To help fight drag abuse Nancy Reagan hosted the two-day First Ladies' Conference
on drug abuse in 1985
-Literacy: reading by the grandmother and daughter-in-law
-Universal health care reform (1994): Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before
Congress about the plan to reform health care. The First Lady headed the president’s
task force on health care and played the leading role in developing the plan
-Obesity: Let’s get moving

16. Afirsthusband?

18. Thankyou!
Questions?