The key ideas

First Women: The Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies

Kate Andersen Brower, 2016

A first lady has no salary, election, or job description, yet the author believes she can be one of the most influential people around the president. A former White House correspondent spoke to more than two hundred aides, friends, and staff members to tell the stories of ten women, from Jacqueline Kennedy to Michelle Obama. A secret visit, a suitcase packed before surgery, and letters, some previously unpublished.

Who it is for

For anyone interested in how power works behind the scenes, who enjoys stories about strong women and wants to understand how influence differs from an official position.

It is one of the hardest jobs a woman can have because there is no job description.

What the book is about

This job has no salary or job description. Nobody votes a woman into the role: she generally acquires it through a marriage entered years before the election. Yet the author sees the first lady as one of the White House’s most influential figures and the president’s chief confidante.

Kate Andersen Brower worked as a White House correspondent. For this book, she says, she spoke to more than two hundred people: first ladies’ aides, friends, and relatives, and staff from the living quarters known as the Residence. Her ten subjects span Jacqueline Kennedy to Michelle Obama.

Keep the book’s status in mind: this is journalism based on interviews and letters. Much of it consists of eyewitness recollections and the author’s judgments rather than historians’ conclusions. Ahead are a secret White House visit, a packed suitcase in a bedroom, an unusual tax-return entry, and friendships that proved stronger than party disputes.

Idea 1. The letter that was hard to write

It is 1971, more than seven years after John Kennedy’s assassination. Official portraits of him and Jacqueline are ready at the White House, and its hostess, Pat Nixon, invites her to their unveiling. Jacqueline replies by letter: the very thought of returning is painful, and she cannot summon the courage for a ceremony before cameras. Could she come quietly, with her children?

The Nixons agree. Jacqueline, Caroline, and John spend a day at the White House, viewing the portraits and dining with the Nixon family. Later, she writes to Pat that the day she had always dreaded became one of her most cherished days with her children.

The author says some of this correspondence had not been published before. Yet their husbands had been rivals in the 1960 election.

A new manager calls their predecessor and asks not about reports, but how to get through the first few months.

People who have held the same rare role may share something invisible to outsiders. Sometimes that understanding proves stronger than rivalry between their families.

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About the author

Kate Andersen Brower is an American journalist. She worked at CBS News and Fox News and covered the White House for Bloomberg News during Barack Obama’s first term. She has written several books about the White House, including the bestseller The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House.

All books by this author: Kate Andersen Brower

Terms from the book

  • First lady: The unofficial title of the US president’s wife. It is neither an elected nor a paid position, and has no clear job description.
  • West Wing: The part of the White House containing the Oval Office and presidential advisers’ offices.
  • East Wing: The part of the White House where the first lady’s team traditionally works.
  • Residence: The White House’s living quarters, home to the president’s family, and their permanent staff. These staff members are among Brower’s sources.
  • Sisterhood: An image from the book rather than an official term: the informal bond among first ladies who support one another regardless of their husbands’ parties.

All terms

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