The politics of the president's wife [electronic resource] / MaryAnne Borrelli.
Borrelli, MaryAnne.
2011
E176.2 .B67 2011eb
Available Online

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Title The politics of the president's wife [electronic resource] / MaryAnne Borrelli.
Author Borrelli, MaryAnne.
Edition 1st ed.
ISBN 9781603444217 (electronic bk.)
9781603442848
1603442847
9781603442855 (pbk.)
1603442855 (pbk.)
9781603444224 (electronic bk.)
Imprint College Station [Tex.] : Texas A&M University Press, 2011.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xii, 252 p.) : ill.
Call Number E176.2 .B67 2011eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 973.09/9
Summary As the West Wing has grown in power and organizational complexity during the modern presidency, so has the East Wing, office home to the First Lady of the United States. This groundbreaking work by MaryAnne Borrelli offers both theoretical and substantive insight into behind-the-scenes developments from the time of Lou Henry Hoover to the unfolding tenure of Michelle Robinson Obama. Political scientists and historians have recognized the personal influence the First Lady can exercise with her husband, and they have noted the moral, ethical, and sometimes policy leadership certain presidentsʼ wives have offered. Nonetheless, scholars and commentators alike have treated the personal relationship and the professional relationship as overlapping. Borrelli offers a compelling counter-perspective: that the presidentʼs wife exercises power intrinsic to her role within the administration. Like others within the presidency, she has sometimes presented the presidentʼs views to constituents and sometimes presented constituentsʼ views to the president, thus taking on a representative function within the system. In mediating president-constituent relationships, she has given a historical and social frame to the presidency that has enhanced its symbolic representation; she has served as a gender role model, enriching descriptive representation in the executive branch; and she has participated in policy initiatives to strengthen an administrationʼs substantive representation. These contributions have been controversial, as might be predicted for a gender outsider, but they have unquestionably made the First Lady a representative of and to the president and, by extension, the presidentʼs administration.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Series Joseph V. Hughes, Jr. and Holly O. Hughes series on the presidency and leadership
Available in Other Form Politics of the president's wife.
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Introduction
Before they were First Ladies
The nation's hostess: the First Lady and symbolic representation
Voice and message: the First Lady and descriptive representation
Gender and policy: the First Lady and substantive representation
Conclusion.

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