SWE - Spring 2009 - (Page 17)

theorizes that our ambivalence about the role of women is mirrored in what we expect from the first lady. “First ladies are judged by this confusion,” she said. The achievements of the first ladies have been, as the historian Robert P. Watson, Ph.D., puts it, “greatly underrated,” by both the mass media and academe. So there is a lot we don’t know about what the first ladies have done and what they really think. For instance, it might surprise a lot of people to know that seven consecutive first ladies, from Pat Nixon to Laura Bush, stated publicly that they were pro-choice. It isn’t widely understood that the purpose of Lady Bird Johnson’s “Lady Bird Special” train trip through the Deep South was to drum up support for LBJ’s civil rights bill. And most people are unaware that during Bill Clinton’s impeachment hearings in 1997, Hillary Clinton was busy working with then-U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on sweeping legislation to reform adoption and foster care. Carpenter, mounted the promotional effort for the Highway Beautification Act. Lady Bird understood the necessity of using the term “beautification” to appeal to a broad spectrum of people, but she disliked the word, saying it was “cosmetic, trivial and prissy .” Despite the fact that Lady Bird and her staff were exceptionally media-savvy, the Chicago Sun Times ran a Bill Mauldin cartoon with the caption, “Impeach Lady Bird,” and, like Eleanor Roosevelt, Lady Bird endured crass jokes about her appearance. As first lady and later as a presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton dealt with antagonism from the media. Dianne Bystrom, Ph.D., former reporter and now director of Iowa State University’s Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, has been analyzing media The camera’s eye One of the most powerful forces in the life of the first lady are the media. The growing speed, reach, and sophistication of mass communication are both a burden and an opportunity. It’s a tug of war, as the first lady uses the media to project a public persona and to promote her projects, while the media shape what the public knows and doesn’t know about the first lady. Despite the great strides women have made since the 19th century, the relationship of the media and the first lady continues to be problematic, prompting Barbara Bush to comment, “The first lady is going to be criticized no matter what she does. If she does too little. If she does too much. And I think you just have to be yourself and do the best you can.” Eleanor Roosevelt’s newspaper column and radio broadcasts enabled her to reach millions, but that didn’t stop political cartoonists from criticizing her activism and cruelly satirizing her appearance. Jackie Kennedy boosted the popularity of her husband’s administration and displayed an extensive knowledge of history, art, and antiques with her televised tour of the White House in 1962. Nevertheless, a New York Times reporter focused on Jackie’s breathy delivery, announcing, “It is now all right for a woman to be a bit brainy or cultured, as long as she tempers her intelligence with a ‘t’rific’ girlish rhetoric.” Having grown up on a ranch in Texas, camping and riding as a girl, Lady Bird Johnson’s connection with the natural world was deep and her understanding of the link between natural beauty and emotional well-being was ahead of its time. She and her press secretary, Liz THE NFLL coverage of women candidates since the 1980s. She found that in the 1996 presidential campaign, would-be first ladies Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Clinton, both high-powered lawyers, both of whom later made a bid for the presidency, were portrayed in the media, by an 8 to 1 margin, in terms of their clothing, personality, and appearance. Dr. Bystrom observed of the 2008 contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, “The way she’s getting covered now is very similar to the biased coverage we saw of women who were running in the 1980s and early ‘90s, with numerous references to her hair, her dress, her family, and her personality.” Dr. Bystrom’s research showed that Hillary Clinton received more positive and issue-related media coverage as senator of New York than she did as either first lady or as presidential candidate. “ Hillary Clinton is capable of getting positive news coverage,” said Dr. Bystrom. “She gets The SaxtonMcKinley House, built in 1841, is part of the National First Ladies’ Library in Canton, Ohio. SWE SPRING 2009 17

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SWE - Spring 2009

SWE - Spring 2009 Heritage Club Contents President's Note View from the Executive Suite Editor’s Page Honoring Women’s History Public Policy Update First Lady: The “Second-Hardest Job in America” Bringing Science and Engineering into Public Policy At the Intersection of Engineering and Public Policy From Research to Reality Coffee Table Dialogues Membership Information & Calendar A&B Winning Essays from the Lava Lounge Engineering World: Issues • Events • Technology • People Point of View: Your Role in Public Policy Career Toolbox: Communicating with Congress; Finding Your Voice Corporate Partnership Council Media Shelf: Women’s History Opportunity Index SWE Scrapbook: Dressed for Success

SWE - Spring 2009

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