Sumario: | The rhetoric of republican motherhood describes the ostensibly ideal female patriot as domestically focused, self-sacrificial, deferential, and defined by her relationship to others, particularly her husband. Moms in Chief combines the study of history, gender, communication, and politics to show how the spouses of the major parties' presidential nominees from 1992 to 2016 at times fulfilled, at other times flouted, but at all times were handicapped by this stereotype. From Barbara Bush as dynastic mother to Michelle Obama as "Mom-in-Chief," from Laura Bush as all-American wife to Melania Trump as model immigrant, from Teresa Heinz Kerry as assertive heiress to Bill Clinton as past president and prospective first gentleman, Tammy R. Vigil explores the function of presidential consorts in their spouses' campaigns, and she scrutinizes how their portrayal by opponents, the press, and themselves has challenged or reinforced perceptions of the role of gender, and the place of women, in American political life.
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