Michelle O and Mamie E: Reinventing America's Traditional Women

Michelle Obama’s latest Gallup poll numbers reflect an 11-point slide, “stumble — some might call it a tumble” according to Politico.

Polls take Michelle Obama’s measure explores the attitudes and expectations around First Ladies, differentiating between our expectations of Republican and Democratic administrations.  I hadn’t considered this analysis and yet it makes perfect sense.

Mamie Eisenhower in WH basement, 1958 via White House MuseumWe expect Republican first ladies to be traditional and Democratic first ladies to behave like Eleanor Roosevelt and Hillary Clinton, even if Hillary did suffer magnificantly through the cookie-baking debacle.

It’s no secret that I adore our First Lady, but not enough to keep writing Michelle-Style, which was always about more than fashion. I ran out of substantative topics for writing and am not good at small talk.

It’s true that getting America to change its eating habits just might be the most effective influence Michelle Obama could have on Americans. Like Michelle, Anne of Carversville is devoted to healthy eating as a way of staying sensually robust and full of vitality.

photo vis Babble.comJust between us, I affectionately call Michelle ‘Mamie E’, after the wife of our great president General Dwight Eisenhower. The term of endearment just rolled off my tongue one day, and it stuck.

Granted, Michelle Obama is a much hipper dresser, but I think of Michelle as ‘Mamie E’.

Being a globalist, my tendency is to position Michelle Obama on an international political stage, where several members of the wives club have very articulate voices. Just now I posted Queen Rania’s new letter on Huffington Post about the Berlin wall coming down, while the Palestinian wall rises.

Granted, Michelle Obama could not write such a letter, but her contemporaries Sarah Brown, Carla Bruni and Queen Rania are much more involved in international philanthropy and activism. They are allowed to Twitter and Facebook and even YouTube, in the case of Queen Rania. These women are much more modern than Michelle Obama.

Two weeks ago, the World Economic Forum reminded us of just how far America is behind the rest of the globe in gender equality. We rank 31 in the world, behind Cuba and a miserable 61 in political gender equality.

Through this lens, Michelle being the lovely, traditional ‘Mamie E’ is spot on for what America wants in its women. I’m the one who is guilty of looking at life through rose-colored glasses.

Perhaps I hoped that Michelle Obama would help move us forward in the gender equality gap worksheet. Every action of public figures is symbolic and a metaphor for their place in American life.

Mamie Eisenhower’s HatIf I face the sad music about America’s measurable lack of progress on gender relations, Michelle fits right in. One cannot fault her in the role, especially when the Obamas are refreshingly not a dysfunctional American family.

America is behind the curve these days in jobs and manufacturing. All is not well in our economic future, being in over our heads in deficit debt. We lag in math and science.

Not only has the auto industry bypassed Detroit, but the advancement of women is light years ahead of America in 30 other countries.

Relax, Anne, my friends say. The Obama Administration has a whopping seven women in key positions,compared to President Clinton’s six.

We must be patient; change comes slowly.

I figure that if we’re a 61 this year in political representation, we’ll see 65 or 70 in the near future. As other countries in the world conduct aggressive campaigns to increase women’s participation in government, America could see 100 one of these years.

After all, in America we’re 10 years late in filling even the mandated 5% of government contracts to women-owned businesses. Nobody cares except our buddy Senator Olympia Snowe, who considers the situation beyond disgraceful.

In South Africa, 50% of government contracts MUST have a woman in a high percentage of ownership. These kinds of policies put South Africa with the Scandanavian countries in the Top 10 best countries for women.

Laura Bush in Afghanistan July 2008I’m not sure America has as much mop-up work to do in embellishing the image of the stay at home mom as we think we do.

Reality is that we’re starting to look like country bumpkins on the world stage, when it comes to the liberation and advancement of “our” women.

In voting for change, I never considered that we would be getting Laura Bush, who I also adore and have never said one teeny bad word against.

In fact, Laura Bush was out in the world by herself moreso than Michelle, who is on an unusually tight leash at the White House. 

Bo would know. I’ll ring him up and get back to you. Anne

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