Feisty First Ladies
Saving the Constitution, defending democracy, and...running the country?
ADVOCATE: And then there was Eleanor Roosevelt. "No one will ever parallel her contributions during wartime," says Kearns Goodwin. "The central thing to be remembered is that she argued that you could not fight for democracy abroad without strengthening it at home." She persuaded Roosevelt to soften discrimination against blacks and women in factories and shipyards building tanks and ships and weapons, and she urged him to open more opportunities for blacks in the armed forces. She was instrumental in creating government-sponsored day-care centers and flew with the Tuskegee Airmen to show her confidence in black pilots. She toured an Arizona internment camp for Japanese-Americans and pressed (unsuccessfully) for their release. For all those reasons, she is justly revered. But it is also true, says Schneider, that "Eleanor Roosevelt would not have grown into the woman she became had FDR not genuinely respected her and expected high performance from her. That takes a man confident in himself."
LOW PROFILE: Before, during, and after the Korean War, Bess Truman kept public appearances--mostly at charity and veterans events--to a minimum. Events may also overshadow a first lady's impact. Little remembered in the wake of Watergate is Pat Nixon's visit to a Vietnam combat zone in support of her husband's policies. Also rare for first ladies, she publicly disagreed with him, speaking out in support of amnesty for draftees who had fled the country. Both Barbara Bush and Laura Bush have defined their job as giving security and comfort to the president. So far, Laura Bush has kept a low profile, but as the Iraq war evolves, so may her role.
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