Women Want a Contemporary First Lady
Posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 and is filed under Political & General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Michelle Obama
Over 50 percent of American women want a first lady who’s contemporary and takes a visible role on issues that are important to her, a survey shows.
A study conducted by YWCA USA, What Women Want: A National Survey of Priorities and Concerns, showed that most women  (57 percent) want a first lady who is not in the background, but playing a visible, and active role on issues that she cares about. Only 22 percent of the 1,000 women surveyed want a first lady who is traditional, standing “behind her man.” But only 18 percent of women want a first lady who is a political equal, involving herself in the everyday policies of the president.
“The first lady of the United States has the inherent potential to be one of the most influential women in the world,” said Lorraine Cole, PhD, YWCA USA’s CEO. “Yet each of them can shape this role to reflect her own values and personal style, as well as larger cultural trends.” Cole citied Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton as recent first ladies who left an impression on their roles.
Women ages 18 to 70 years old were surveyed. And women from each generation had different opinions about a first lady’s role. For example, senior women wanted the first lady to stay behind the scenes and support her husband, but only 20 percent of Generation Y women, ages 18 to 29, shared the same opinion. Generation X women, ages 30 to 39, remember when, now, Senator Hillary Clinton was the first lady, and how she helped shape public policy, which is what these group of women tend to prefer.
YWCA USA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advocacy, education, development and racial justice. Established in 1858, it has affiliates in 122 countries and serves 25 million women and girls worldwide. Visit http://www.ywca.org for more information.
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I think it is contradictory for women to say that they want a conservative first lady but don’t want her to influence policies. In my opinion, women have come a long way and to state that it is okay to have an opinion as long as it does not influence policies is outrageous! Being in a relationship is a partnership and partners consult with one another before major decisions are made.
Even though I was a Hillary Clinton supporter early on (then later Obama), I had a tough time with Sarah Palin’s “red” shoes making headlines. I didn’t recall none of the other male candidates’ clothing items making news–and I’ve got a few words to say about some of their shoes!
I want a contemporary first lady. I think it is important that she is in touch with the women of her time. The first lady should seek to set an agenda that improves the position of women in our current society.