told<\/a> Alta Journal in 2018. \u201cSomehow, I don\u2019t carry that title so well, or I don\u2019t gravitate toward it.\u201d<\/p>\nThe spotlight is even more intense for America\u2019s first ladies.<\/p>\n
Martha Washington \u2014 America\u2019s first first lady, although such a title had not yet been coined \u2014 was reluctant to move to the new presidential household in New York and struggled with her new role as a hostess of presidential drawing rooms. In a letter to her niece, she wrote that she felt \u201cmore like a state prisoner than anything else\u201d and there were \u201ccertain bounds set for me which I must not depart from.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, she took on her duties with stoicism. \u201cThe greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions,\u201d she later noted, \u201cand not upon our circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Jacqueline Kennedy entered the White House in 1961, she instructed her staff to address her as Mrs. Kennedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one thing I do not want to be called is \u2018first lady,\u2019\u201d she quipped. \u201cIt sounds like a saddle horse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, the role of first lady has long been traditional \u2014 so much so that historians note the exceptions, such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton.<\/p>\n
In the 1930s and \u201940s, Eleanor Roosevelt famously became Franklin D. Roosevelt\u2019s \u201ceyes, ears and legs\u201d because he was limited by polio, said Barbara A. Perry, a professor of governance at the University of Virginia. During World War II, she went to the theaters of war in the South Pacific and wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column six days a week for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was just hounded and just critiqued with terrible jokes,\u201d Perry said, but she didn\u2019t back down. \u201cShe just didn\u2019t care. She wanted to do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Hillary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783429002_475_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton.<\/p>\n
(Joyce Naltchayan \/ AFP )<\/p>\n
When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he liked to joke that a vote for him was a \u201ctwofer\u201d \u2014 a nod to his wife Hillary Clinton\u2019s career as a successful lawyer.<\/p>\n
But the reality proved more complicated. After he won and he tasked his wife with coming up with a universal healthcare plan, Perry said, she generated controversy, in part because it was a major public policy role and she kept much of it secret. The Clintons\u2019 finances were scrutinized during the Whitewater scandal and Hillary Clinton was also criticized for comments she made about not being a \u201clittle woman standin\u2019 by my man like Tammy Wynette.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason Americans will have a backlash if the first lady gets out too far over her skis, as they say, is that they are unaccountable,\u201d Perry said. \u201cThis is not an office, it\u2019s nowhere defined.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Clinton, Laura Bush, a librarian, played a more traditional role, focused on literacy. Michelle Obama, an attorney who graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, focused on the relatively uncontroversial topics of healthy eating and nutrition.<\/p>\n
Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, said Michelle Obama likely chose not to take on a heavy policy position because she was targeted just for being a Black woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe racism and the sexism combined was brutal,\u201c she said.<\/p>\n
In 2021, Jill Biden became the first first lady to continue her professional career outside the White House, working as a teacher at Northern Virginia Community College.<\/p>\n
Walsh said the role will likely change over time \u2014 not just because women have their own careers separate from their husbands, but as more women and LGBTQ+ politicians take on leadership roles and their husbands and partners take on the role of first spouse. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be less of an expectation of a person in that role being that kind of silent partner or supportive partner … whether it\u2019s the president or governor,\u201d Walsh said, noting the example of Doug Emhoff, who served as second gentleman to Vice President Kamala Harris while pursuing his own professional life. <\/p>\n
Still, Walsh said, Siebel Newsom could be opening herself up to extra criticism right now by positioning herself as \u201cpartner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are at a point in our history where this more nontraditional role of a first lady or a first spouse will garner scrutiny and criticism from the other side,\u201d Walsh said. \u201cIt will be yet another way of potentially attacking the candidate, and it\u2019s unfortunate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perry agreed that the \u201cfirst partner\u201d label might not play well in Middle America.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ll see that as part of this trans business and gender fluidity,\u201d she said. \u201cShe does have to be careful about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Jennifer Siebel Newsom rejected the term \u201cfirst lady\u201d and decided to go by \u201cfirst partner,\u2019\u2019 she became…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7625,2926,156856,156860,76039,41589,156857,2209,156859,10816,4264,48,52,51,47,50,49,46033,6049,17151,156858],"class_list":["post-389146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-america","tag-california-governor","tag-debbie-walsh","tag-eleanor-roosevelt","tag-first-lady","tag-first-partner","tag-first-wife","tag-gender","tag-great-part","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-husband","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-perry","tag-role","tag-title","tag-u-s-president"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}