Читать книгу First Ladies For Dummies - Marcus A. Stadelmann, Marcus A. Stadelmann PhD - Страница 29

The Siena Research Institute Survey was the first survey on First Ladies in the United States. It’s conducted about every ten years, and it asks history and political science professors at American universities, as well as other experts on First Ladies, to rank the U.S. First Ladies on a scale of one to five based on ten separate categories (see the section “Discussing ten evaluation criteria”). Unlike surveys on American presidents, there were no other surveys to compare results to and thus the Siena College Research Institutes findings are the only comprehensive survey on U.S. First Ladies, establishing a benchmark for First Lady studies. Table 2-1 presents its rankings in order.

TABLE 2-1 First Lady Rankings

Ranking	C-SPAN Academic Survey
1	Eleanor Roosevelt
2	Abigail Adams
3	Jaqueline Kennedy
4	Dolley Madison
5	Michelle Obama
6	Hillary Clinton
7	Lady Bird Johnson
8	Betty Ford
9	Martha Washington
10	Rosalynn Carter
11	Barbara Bush
12	Laura Bush
13	Edith Roosevelt
14	Edith Wilson
15	Nancy Reagan
16	Bess Truman
17	Lou Hoover
18	Louisa Adams
19	Ellen Wilson
20	Lucy Hayes
21	Grace Coolidge
22	Julia Grant
23	Sarah Polk
24	Mamie Eisenhower
25	Helen Taft
26	Francis Cleveland
27	Julia Tyler
28	Lucretia Garfield
29	Caroline Harrison
30	Elizabeth Monroe
31	Mary Lincoln
32	Abigail Fillmore
33	Pat Nixon
34	Ida McKinley
35	Margaret Taylor
36	Florence Harding
37	Letitia Tyler
38	Eliza Johnson
39	Jane Pierce

Source: Siena College Research Institute/C-Span study of the first ladies of the United States, 2014. Retrieved at: https://scri.siena.edu/first-ladies-study/

If you compare the results from the first survey taken in 1982 to the last one, conducted in 2014, the top ten and bottom ten First Ladies have been fairly consistent. At the bottom are Jane Pierce, Eliza Johnson, Letitia Tyler, and Florence Harding. Even Mary Lincoln falls into the bottom ten category. Mary Lincoln and Jane Pierce are considered neurotic women whose behavior and attitude made their husband’s life more difficult. Instead of being helpful during their husbands’ presidencies, they did the exact opposite and undermined their husband’s reputation and proved to be a handicap for effective policy making. Florence Harding is often blamed for being too ambitious and pushing her unqualified husband to become president. He turned out to be one of the worst presidents in American history. Letitia Tyler and Eliza Johnson, on the other hand, had no interest in being First Lady. Both claimed to be ill and made their daughters surrogate First Ladies for their husbands.

At the same time, Eleanor Roosevelt has held the top spot in all five surveys taken since 1982. She was an exceptionally active First Lady who became a co-president to her husband. She clearly changed the role of First Ladies in U.S. history, and for this she is still admired and rewarded with the number one spot in all surveys on First Ladies.