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Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, And Second Wave Feminism, Lauren A. Stealey

Honors Theses

The First Ladyship is an ambiguous, constitutionally undefined role. The women who have inhabited this role since Martha Washington have had to interpret this role in their own ways and encounter the scrutiny or approval of their country along the way. On this national stage, these women have influenced and been influenced by contemporary conceptions of American womanhood. National discussion shifted to focus prominently on the role of women particularly during the 1960s and 1970s, in the resurgence of an organized women’s rights movement known as Second Wave Feminism.

In this qualitative study, I focused on two First Ladies during …