“The Hardest Unpaid Job in the World”

That is how author Jill Abraham Hummer, in her new book, First Ladies and American Women, describes how Pat Nixon once summed up her role as First Lady on an official trip to Africa. One of Nixon’s grueling days included a nine-hour sleepless flight and 12 hours of events for her to attend.

Dr. Hummer’s book examines the demanding role of an American First Lady. The hours are endless, there are no guidelines, no salaries...yet somehow the women occupying the White House have risen to the task and all have left their individual fingerprints on history.

From Lou Hoover to Lady Bird Johnson to Nancy Reagan and Michelle Obama... and now Melania Trump, all live with the harsh scrutiny of their personal lives. And all are measured by their impact on history.

First Ladies are unelected...but have tremendous behind-the-scenes access and clout. After all, they have the President’s ear. They are all different, but these wives, mothers, intellectuals...feminists and fashionistas...dwell in the most elite circle of American political life. And in their own unique way, each First Lady partly defines what it means to be a woman in America.

Hummer will provide an intimate glimpse of these unique women in a discussion of her new book First Ladies and American Women: In Politics and at Home. Dr. Hummer, an associate professor of political science at Wilson College, focuses her research on American first ladies and women and the presidency.

Please join us. Free admission. Free parking. Book sales/signing and reception following the program.