Dr. Melody Lehn, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Chair of Women’s and Gender Studies, has contributed the chapter “First Ladies, Suffrage, and the Equal Rights Amendment” to the new Cambridge Companion to US First Ladies (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
As Lehn writes, “US first ladies have exercised a complicated kind of activism when it comes to women’s rights. Some have acted as vocal advocates to insist that women’s equality should be a national priority. Others have used their platform more quietly to intervene on behalf of women’s rights. Still others have held and promoted views that have contradicted, undermined, or altogether avoided efforts to advance women’s rights. This chapter traces how US first ladies have addressed and influenced the prevailing women’s rights issues of their day, with a focus on two national campaigns: a federal amendment for women’s suffrage and a federal amendment for equal rights. By engaging or avoiding the debates surrounding women’s suffrage and the ERA, these women stretched the political and rhetorical boundaries of their platform and shaped public understanding about the ongoing struggle for women’s equality in the United States.”
Reviewers have praised the book’s breadth and depth, as topics such as first ladies and media, slavery, civil rights, gender norms, wartime, advocacy, and memorialization are covered. Maurine H. Beasley, Professor Emerita of the University of Maryland, writes, “This volume is a treasure trove of various perspectives of the institution of the First Lady and the remarkable women who have been a part of it. Using a thematic rather than a biographical approach, essays present numerous aspects of the First Lady’s position as a commentary on the roles played by women in the American political landscape.”
Copies are available for purchase through Cambridge University Press and are also for sale through the White House Gift Shop.
