The new Nation: 1775 – 1830There 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

Revolutionary War

-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.

remember the Ladies…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

Growing Pains, Slavery and the Civil War: 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

Presidential Hostess-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.

The AssassinationThe Widow Lincoln took it upon herself to have a local policeman assigned to watch over the

presidential box at Ford’s theater, but he was on the wrong side of the door when John Wilkes Booth entered the box, fired the fatal shot, and then leapt to the stage to his escape.

•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

The Post-civil war era, the age of reform, and world war 1: 1865 – 1920

What role did women play in the temperance movement?

-the banning of alcohol and Lemonade Lucy-the Woman’s Christian Temperance Movement (1874); Frances Willard-major grassroots movement that gave women a national political voice-smashing and “hatchetation” of saloons-Eighteenth Amendment (ratified 1919); repealed by the Twenty-First Amendment (1920)

The 19th

What was Woman Suffrage?-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

Modern Times: 1921 – 1969Why was it hard for women to get an education?

-Until the end of the 19th century women had no opportunity to acquire the types of education that had long been available to men.

-Before the Civil War, few women received any higher education, because there were no colleges or universities fully open to women.

- Following the Civil War more women sought the benefits of higher education (Vassar, Smith College, Wellesley, and Radcliffe).

-American Association of University Women (AAUW), 1921.

World War IIRosie the Riveter and Eleanor

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.

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

She is a Gusty Lady-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)

Just Causes:Just Say no to Drugs

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

A first husband?

Thank you!

Questions?