This essay maps the rise of the rhetorical first lady from Martha
Washington through Laura Bush, contextualizing the public and private
documents of these political women within the gender ideology of their
time. In the process of evidencing the ways in which the first lady
role both empowers and restricts the performance of the first lady, we
illustrate the political contributions of first ladies from 1789 to 1920
in the areas of social politicking and benevolent volunteerism, which
served as political antecedents for the gradual rise of the rhetorical
first lady. When first ladies more routinely spoke from the first lady
pulpit (1920-2002), they mimicked the performances of their predecessors,
taking their volunteer efforts to the public stage. In the process, they
extended the nineteenth-century ideology of republican motherhood; the
twentieth-century republican mother, as performed by many contemporary
first ladies, became a more outspoken advocate on behalf of the nation's
children and other pressing social concerns. While the position often
limited the activities of first ladies to perceived nongovernmental
issues, many expanded the political nature of the position, taking their
social politicking to a public stage and helping to craft a role for
women's participation in the political sphere.