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GARVEY, BARBARA ONEY A RHETORICAL-HUMANISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FIRST LaJIES AND THE WAY WOtyEN FIND A PLACE IN SOCIETY.

THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, PH.D., 1978

University Micrdnlms International 30 0 n . z e e b b o a d . a n n a r b o r, mi 4bio6

© Copyright by Barbara Oney Garvey 1978 A RHETORICAL-HUMANISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP

BETWEEN FIRST LADIES AND THE WAY WOMEN

FIND A PLACE IN SOCIETY

DISSERTATION

Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for

the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate

School of The Ohio State University

By

Barbara Oney Garvey, A.B., M.A.

The Ohio State University

1978

Reading Committee: Approved By

John J. Makay James L. Golden Robert R. Monaghan

Department! of Communication ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

To Professor John J. Makay, thank you for all the ways you went beyond the role of adviser, particularly the numer­ ous and lengthy long distance phone calls. To Professor James L. Golden, thank you for your concern, which has lasted seven years, for my academic and personal life. To Professor Robert R. Monaghan, thank you for intro­ ducing me to the Humanistic Method by your behavior both inside and outside the classroom. To my Ohio State friends, Mary Bartels, Marcelita Haskins, and Joyce Swayne, thank you for making it possible for me to finish my graduate work off-campus. To the 50 women who participated in the repertory grid experience, thank you for your cooperation and the quality of your responses. To all my students, especially the ones at Hanover College, thank you for your constant encouragement and interest in this dissertation. To Stanley P. Caine, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Hanover College, thank you for your many sensitivities, especially your belief that "peace of mind" is more impor­ tant than a finished dissertation. To my parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Oney, thank you for your deep faith that a daughter can do whatever she attempts. A special thank you to my mother who gave up a summer of leisure so that I might have a typist. To my husband, Michael M. Garvey, to whom this disserta­ tion is dedicated, thank you for your unconditional love without which neither a dissertation nor anything else is possible. VITA

April 1, 1949 ...... Born - Carrolton, Kentucky

197 1 ...... A.B., Transylvania University, Lexington, Kentucky

197 2 ...... M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

1972-1975 ...... Instructor of Speech, Allegany Community College, Cumberland, Maryland

1974-1975 ...... Chairman of Speech and Drama Department, Allegany Community College, Cumberland, Maryland

1975-1977 ...... Teaching Associate, Department of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

• s . 1977-1979 ...... Instructor of Communication, Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana

FIELDS OF STUDY

Major Field: Rhetoric

Studies in Rhetorical Criticism. Dr. John L. Makay, Dr. James L. Golden, and Dr. William Brown

Studies in Humanistic Research. Dr. Robert R. Monaghan

Studies in Organizational Communication. Dr. Gary Hunt

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... ii

VITA...... iii

LIST OF TABLES...... vii

Chapter

I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1

Method...... 8 Procedures...... 14 N o t e s ...... 19

II. AN ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLIC COMMUNICATION OF THREE UNIQUE FIRST LADIES: JACQUELINE KENNEDY, LADY BIRD JOHNSON, AND BETTY FORD . . 21

Jacqueline Kennedy— A Study of an Aloof and Sophisticated Style, Nonverbal Communication, and an Enchanted Public . 22 Lady Bird Johnson— A Study of Traditional Public Speaking Within Unusually Complex Rhetorical Situations...... 30 Betty Ford— The Study of a Different Kind of a Woman, First Lady and an "Off- the-Cuff" Rhetorician...... 40 S u m m a r y ...... 49 Notes ...... 51

III. THE RHETORICAL VISIONS CREATED BY FIRST LADIES AS A TOOL TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WOMEN FEEL IS THEIR ROLE IN SOCIETY...... 56

The Importance of the Concept of Rhetorical Vision Within the Issue of Women's Role in Society ...... 57 First Ladies as a Continued Re-enforcement of a Traditional Rhetorical Vision About Women...... 62 Chapter Page

The Permanence of the First Ladies 1 Contributions to Rhetorical Visions. . 78 N o t e s ...... 81

IV. THE REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE AND UNDER­ STANDING WOMEN'S ROLE IN SOCIETY ...... 8 6

Kelly's Personal Construct Theory .... 87 The Administration of the Repertory G r i d ...... 93 The Analysis of the Repertory Grid. . . . 98 The Focused Interview as a Complimentary Technique to the Grid...... 99 N o t e s ...... 105

V. THE RESULTS OF THE REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE AS A TOOL TO UNDERSTAND WOMEN'S ROLE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY ...... 107

The Repertory Gr i d ...... 107 The Focused Interview ...... 147 The Relationship Between Grids,Inter­ views, and Rhetorical Visions Presented by First Ladies...... 165 Summary ...... 171

VI. ROSALYNN CARTER— AN EXAMPLE OF A NEW KIND OF FIRST LADY, THE NEW MEDIA TREATMENT OF FIRST LADIES, AND A NEW KIND OF WOMAN...... 174

Rosalynn Carter— Who She Appears to Be. . 175 The Rhetorical Vision Created by Rosalynn Carter...... 192 The Changing Print Medium Coverage of Past and Present First Ladies..... 200 S u m m a r y ...... 209 N o t e s ...... 212

VII. CONCLUSION ...... 218

Implications for Theory Building..... 221 Implications for Women's Groups ...... 229 Implications for First Ladies ...... 233 N o t e s ...... 237

v Page APPENDIXES

A. Grid Score Matrixes Representative of Each of the Five Groups of Women...... 239

B. Notes on Attempting to Reach Rosalynn Carter. 245

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 25.2 LIST OF TABLES

Tables iV Page 1. Behavioral Constructs Chosen By College Students...... 118

2. Non-Behavioral Constructs Chosen by College Students...... 119

3. Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Young Women . 120

4. Non-Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Young W o m e n ...... 121

5. Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Middle-Aged W o m e n ...... 122

6 . Non-Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Middle- Aged Women...... 123

7. Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Older Women . 124

8 . Non-Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Older W o m e n ...... 125

9. Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Women Without High School Diplomas...... 126

10. Non-Behavioral Constructs Chosen By Women Without High School Diplomas...... 127

11. Related Constructs According to Grid Scores . 132

12. Grid Scores of Constructs "As I Am" and "I Wish To Be"...... 138

13. Range of Variances...... 144

vii CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

I am woman, hear me roar in numbers too big to ignore, and I know too much to go back to pretend. 'Cause I've heard it all before and I've been down there on the floor, no one's ever gonna keep me down again.

I am woman, watch me grow. See me standing toe to toe as I spread my lovin' arms across the land— But I'm still an embryo with a long, long way to go until I make my brother understand. ^ Oh, woman! I am woman! I am woman! These are the first and last verses of Helen Reddy's song, "I Am Woman." In her popular song, Ms. Reddy defined

a woman as a person who had known great pain, but the pain was replaced with determination. Today's woman has used

the determination to reach a goal that means, "I can do any­

thing." Although Ms. Reddy felt women still had a lot of

growing to do, women and society would grow together. As

the result of personal experience and the research I have

done, I feel that Ms. Reddy's definition fails to reach

deeply into American society.

How do women living in 1978 view themselves? No simple

answer exists, but one place to start is with the Equal

1 2

Rights Amendment. The ERA states that equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the

United States or by any state on the account of sex. It adds that the Congress would have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

The Amendment concludes by stating that it shall take effect two years after the date of ratification. If we look at the reaction the ERA has gotten in Kentucky, which was typical of what was happening in many states, we see how emotional an issue it has become. Women constantly traveled to the state capitol to debate the ERA question. The propon­ ents of the Amendment proclaimed it the best of the

"American Way." But the opponents quickly■added that hidden between the lines of the Amendment existed ways to promote abortion, homosexuality, and state-run day care centers for children. Interestingly, both sides of the issue got support 2 from the same people— housewives, mothers, and career women.

We also can see differing ideas about women's self- images in the National Organization of Women. NOW recently hired a leading advertising consultant to change its defen­ sive image, particularly where the Equal Rights Amendment was concerned. Jane Trophey, the chief consultant, felt that the anti-ERA forces backed the Women's Movement into a corner with myths about everything from coed bathrooms 3 to women in trenches. However, an internal struggle created deeper problems than advertising campaigns. In 3

May of 1977, Karen De Crow resigned as president of NOW.

She stated that her reasons were declining membership and

dissenting voices so strong that NOW founder, Betty Friedan,

threatened to start a rival organization. Ms. Friedan

believed that De Crow's "pseudo-radical rhetoric" diverted

the interests of NOW from the majority of American women—

white, middleclass women. Ms. De Crow's behavior, such as

challenging "men-only" policies at famous New York bars,

increased the negative image many American women had of

NOW. After becoming president of NOW, De Crow had pledged

’ to take NOW "out of the mainstream and into the revolution,"

by making poverty, racism, and lesbian rights the concern 4 of the Women's Movement. Unfortunately for NOW, it needed

the mainstream direction to relate to most American women.

As a reaction to NOW, other organizations developed and

offered a variety of images to American women. Marabel

Morgan founded the women's group least like NOW. After

making her own marriage change from an unhappy one to a

"superlative" one, she wrote a book on her experiences.

She called the book, The Total Woman, and submissiveness

summarized her philosophy.

It is only when a woman surrenders her life to her husband, reveres and worships him, and is willing to serve him, that she becomes really beautiful to him. She becomes a priceless jewel, the glory of feminity, his queen.* 4

This book was a best-seller and resulted in women through­ out the United States forming groups called "Total Women."

One such famous member was Anita Bryant who credits the success of her own marriage to "Total Women." Phyllis

Schlafly took a stand somewhat similar to Ms. Morgan's, but a more politically active one. She created the "Stop

ERA" campaign. Friends and foes alike have noted her sharp skills as a speaker, writer, and organizer to defeat the

ERA. The Phyllis Schlafly Report, which circulates monthly to a readership of 15,000 women, rejected the ERA as an attack on the wife, homemaker, family, and religious life of America. She and her "Stop ERA" have received much of the credit for the ERA stalling after passing in 34 of the g 38 states needed for ratification.

In 1976 the Martha Movement emerged to fill the gap between Marabel Morgan's "total woman" and the extreme feminists. Jinx Melia, a 40 year old housewife, mother,

and teacher founded the movement to give a voice to 60 million women who identified themselves as homemaker.

Eleanor McGovern, one of the 6500 members, served on the

Board of Directors. The Marthas defined as people who wanted to strengthen their marriages, who raised children, kept their wits about them, made money when they needed

to, and who developed emotional, social, and financial 7 non-dependence. Although not feminists, the Marthas were different from Marabel Morgan's definition of the ideal 5 woman who devoted herself slavishly and singlemindedly to the pursuit of her husband's happiness. Nevertheless,

activists criticized the Martha Movement as phony and cowardly because it took no position on ERA or abortion.

Like the non-political Martha Movement, other groups formed to have an impact on women without political compli­ cations. Ms. Magazine editors created one such group in

1972; it began to function three years later. The Ms.

Foundation attempted to coordinate nationally women's pro­ grams and budgets. The Foundation helped finance 1977 projects ranging from an upstate New York children's health clinic for low income rural families to a San

Francisco program for alcoholic women and their children

to Alaska's only feminist newspaper. The money came from

a variety of sources— Exxon, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,

and royalties from Mario Thomas' book, Free to Be You . . .

and M e .8

Finally, a look at the 1977 Women's Year Conference

offered a picture once again of the variety of ways women

defined what it meant to be a woman. During the opening

ceremonies, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, and Lady Bird

Johnson praised what women were accomplishing. Women from

across the nation had come to the conference to vote on 26

resolutions, called the National Plan of Action, which

included calls for ratification of the ERA and federal fund­

ing of abortion. 6

From the beginning, the lack of unity among the women threatened to weaken the Conference. Jean O'Leary, the only avowed lesbian of the commissioners, was concerned because the sexual preference plank was number 23 on the list of resolutions. Betty Friedan felt that the ERA was the only issue for that year. However, five miles away from the Conference the opponents of abortion and the ERA held a "Pro-Family" rally. The whole idea for the weekend conference had been to give American women a chance to decide what problems they faced and what kinds of solutions they needed. Yet, what came out of all those meetings was a "conscpicuous lack of agreement" on the solutions or the 9 problems or the needs .for a comprehensive meeting.

Nevertheless, we can draw some conclusions about women from their involvement in these many and varied activities.

(1) Women are thinking about what it means to say, "I am woman." We can see the potential for definitions being influenced by philosophies held by NOW or Marthas or Total

Women groups. (2) These groups proclaim association with known political women. The Women's Year's Conference opened with past and present First Ladies. The Martha Move­ ment chose Eleanor McGovern to serve on its board. Interes­ tingly, Marabel Morgan referred to Jackie Kennedy as an example of what she wrote about and the Ms. Foundation

announced Jacqueline Onassis as a financial backer. My

initial question for the dissertation is what relationship 7 exists between the image a First Lady holds of her posi­ tion and the image American women hold of their place in society?

The First Ladies have a unique attraction for large numbers of American women. We know them well; we call them by their first names. We talk of them like family— if Mamie knew Ike had had an affair, she never let on, or Betty felt it was time to check into a hospital to be treated for drug dependency. As one historian wrote, "history cast a ledger sheet eye at Presidents, but their wives achieved enduring celebrity status and are always remembered more kindly.

As our society has changed, is it not possible for American women to look to the First Lady as an example of what their own behavior is to be? Rosalynn Carter may represent a new image of the "total woman"— a bit of Betty Friedan's NOW, the Martha Movement, and even Marabel Morgan's philosophy.

The words by one interviewer of Mrs. Carter suggested such a possibility.

At six months of age as First Lady, Rosalynn Carter has initiated new programs in mental health, for slum children, in Latin American relations and for the aged. . . . As with most of the Carter programs, they are just starting from nowhere and no one knows exactly what to do. But never imagine this will stop her. She is one determined lady— in many ways, an alternate and fascinating example of what a 'liberated' but loved woman can be, with an odd combination of cer­ tainty about her role and ingenuous wonderment over it .11 8

Method

The Review of Literature

As the result of the rising interest about women in society, the problem is not failing to find literature about women. The Women's Studies' field devoted itself to such literature. Also, studies about women in the media’ are popular. The Journal of Broadcasting has articles from counting the number of executives to the effect of sex stereotyping in advertising. Business journals look at such issues as the relationship between-job satisfaction and female administration. Interestingly, researchers at

Rutgers University are in the process of looking at the influence mothers had on daughters who became politically famous. Several First Ladies are to be included in the book. Nevertheless, as Sue-Ellen Jacobs observed, many scholars asked questions about women because the topic was relevant, not because the questions were relevant. Ms.

Jacobs, a sociologist at the University of Illinois, com­ piled a reference book covering the literature on women.

In the preface she stated that the kinds of questions raised were based not necessarily on the pragmatics of daily living and that answers were sought which only mani- 12 pulated data to fit the relevant topic.

Nevertheless, much of the literature about women focuses on the Women's Movement. In Gary Wills' article,

"Feminists and Other Useful Fanatics," we see a favorable 9

analysis of the Movement. Wills suggested that women in

the Movement have discovered an important truth about

American politics— creative change does not come about

by the calm and open discussion of an issue on its meirts,

leading to a verdict by the judicious public. He argued

that the Women's Movement brought changes to the lives of

women because an instransigent minority made a nuisance of

itself until most of the public said, "All right, give 13 them what they want; shut them up." On the other hand,

Urie Bronfenbrenner, professor of human development and

family studies at Cornell University, represents a more nega­

tive response to the Women's Movement. Bronfenbrenner did

not question what he called the "justifiable rebellion" of women against the situation in which they are placed. How­

ever, the professor of human studies was concerned that

the Women's Movement gave even less status to the failing

status of parenthood in the United States. He argued that

when a woman was encouraged to "do your own thing," she was 14 discouraged from being a parent. Another major focus for the literature of women con­

cerned the working mother. Most of the articles followed

Margaret Mead's deep concern about the children of working

mothers. Although Mead did not predict that the children

of the working mother failed to develop into happy, normal

children, she encouraged mothers to re-evaluate the use of

day care centers for children between the ages of eight 10 months and two years. According to Mead, the infant who is given satisfactory continuity of care, day after day, for this sensitive age period can survive a great many changes of place and person later. Margaret Mead argued that no state-supported child care center could afford enough well-trained persons to foster trusting relation- 15 ships in the babies.

Besides looking at the effect of the mother's work on children, some of the literature considers the effect of women working in the business world. Several articles study how many women are employed and how much the women 16 are paid, but a more frequent issue is the impact of the woman executive. Pearl Meyer wrote in the Dun's Review that by 1980 the number of women in managerial positions would triple the number of positions in 1975. As of 1975,

250•employment discrimination suits had been filed against unions and corporations. According to Meyer's analysis, the biggest mistakes made by companies have been to hire a token female at the board level and to fill the balance of their quota with women at the entry level. Meyer argued that women needed to be given exposure to new jobs on the same level in order to provide them the necessary

"seasoning" for upward advancement. At present, women can take comfort in the fact that companies have stopped talking about the best man for the job and insist instead on the 17 best person for the 3 0 b. 11

Another area of literature focuses on the new ways women and men may think of themselves. Many articles

have suggested that the time has come for women to escape

the "Beauty Cult." Nora Scott Kinzer wrote that if we

look at the female patterns of culture and standard of

beauty in our society, we see how women are denigrated and

made forever unhappy in their continual striving for bodily perfection. The theory suggested is that the American

female is always in a state of becoming. No matter what

she buys, wears, or looks like, something is missing. If

her skirt is .short, the magazines tell her it should be

long. If her hair is brown, the television advertisements

tell her that blonds have more fun. If she bleaches her

hair and buys the latest fad clothes, the next message she

hears is that the natural look is in. Ms. Kinzer wondered

'if modern woman with her risky cosmetic surgery has come

very far from the days when Victorian women had their lower 18 ribs surgically removed to attain a tiny waist.

The articles about men in relationship to the Women's

Movement also suggest that men are confused about how they

view themselves in society. Dr. Robert E. Gould, profes­

sor of psychiatry at New York Medical College, argued

that the men of the 1970's are struggling with a defini­

tion of themselves somewhere between John Wayne and

"liberated" man. Although most men want to be society's

ideal— silent, unemotional, and strong— , most men are 12 not the John Wayne type. The "he-man" role is too restric­ tive, yet men are confused about how much emotion to show.

Gould wrote that no sure answer existed as to how far men would be willing to break away from old stereotypes and 19 ideals..

Finally, the literature considers women movements in other cultures. One such article looks at the Japanese

Women's Movement. In 1948, a Japanese woman senator chose a flat rice spoon as the emblem of her newly organized

Union of Women. The flat spoon was associated with some­ thing of vital importance— the economic product, rice.

These women proclaimed that they aimed to strengthen the traditional role of Japanese women in response to the needs of the modern world. From its beginning to the present, the women in the Union united in an economic stand to 20 effect domestic and international issues.

As Jacobs pointed out, much of the literature offers only a current reaction to a popular topic. The review of literature suggests once again the confusion about under­ standing what it means to be a woman in 1978. However, two pieces of literature served as the foundation of this study. The first was Ernest Bormann1 s ''Fantasy and

Rhetorical Vision: The Rhetorical Criticism of Social

Reality." He defined a rhetorical vision as that which is constructed from fantasy themes that chain-out in face- to-face interacting groups, in speaker-audience 13 transactions, in viewers of television broadcasters, in

listeners to radio programs, and in all intimate communica- 21 tion in a given society. I argue that a meaningful way to talk about women's images within society is through a study of how women get their visions. As a rhetorical critic, I wish to look at how First Ladies helped American women construct fantasy themes. For me, as a rhetocial critic, this is Bormann's enlarging process, not what

Ms. Jacobs warned as manipulation of data around a rele­ vant topic.

The second piece of significant literature was Betty

Friedan's The Feminine Mystique. She traced the growth of the mystique by looking at women's magazines and by talking to advertising researchers and theoretical experts on women's images. Ms. Friedan believed that the vision women had of themselves was an unnatural confinement of their energies.

She wanted women to have a new vision of themselves, and her book offered a type of fantasy for building a new vision. She argued that the first step was for women to

* • say "no" to the housewife image and to view marriage more realistically. The second step was to find herself as a person functioning to her fullest abilities. Friedan wished

to create an awareness for women of the need for a new vision of themselves. From Betty Ford to Marabel Morgan, women applauded, denied, or feared the vision, but the

issue emerged for debate. 14

Procedures

Although specific procedures are covered in each chapter, the basic procedure used to develop this disser­ tation followed three stages. In first stage, I studied the

First Ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to Betty Ford. The reason for starting with Mrs. Eisenhower was that Friedan wrote that the "women's issue" began to rise and grow in the mid 50*s. Also, I did not want to begin with Eleanor

Roosevelt because she was a totally unique woman independent of her times. I read the autobiography of Mrs. Johnson as

First Lady, the biography of Mrs. Kennedy, and an auto­ biography of Mrs. Ford as First Lady. Also, several people close to the First Ladies, from reporters to White House staff, have written their accounts of the women. Since

Mrs. Ford is a recent First Lady, I followed the New York

Times' account of her days in the White House. Finally, I studied the coverage given the First Ladies by all the major women's magazines— Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home

Journal, Redbook, and McCalls.

In the second stage I determined the kinds of visions some American women held about what it meant to be a woman.

I used the Repertory Grid technique, not to find "one true vision" of all American women, but to see what ways various women pictured themselves. The .women came from a variety of states and a variety of groups— women with less than a high school education, college women, young women, 15 middle-aged women, and elderly women. In the grid, the women were asked to choose both their peers and First

Ladies as discussion elements. After women participated in the grid experience, I engaged them in a focused inter­ view concerning their feelings about the grid, themselves, and the First Ladies.

In the last stage of this dissertation, I focused specifically on Mrs. Carter. Also, since she is the current First Lady, I used the same technique as I did for

Mrs. Ford— following the New York Times1 record of her acti­ vities. I had hoped to get in contact with Mrs. Carter to get her reactions to the conclusions drawn from this study.

The analysis of these data took two forms— rhetorical and humanistic. These were not separate techniques, but the labels have explanatory power. First, I developed an approach from Carroll Arnold of how the First Ladies used public communication to deal with the kinds of situations they faced in their positions. Secondly, because of what

Bormann said about media forms creating fantasies to chain- out a vision, I looked at what women's magazines wrote about the First Ladies and what the First Ladies chpse to say when interviewed.

After developing what seemed to be rhetorical visions concerning women's images based on the First Ladies, I moved into the main stream of daily life of women to see what visions they held. Understanding "pictures people 16 have in their heads" about themselves is difficult and com­ plex, because people use different sets of categories for making sense of the world. People often deliberately or not deliberately hide true feelings. To understand how a person feels about a given concept, we must understand it in relationship to the way he or she looks at other things around the concept. Robert Monoghan wrote that the Reper- * * tory Grid permits•checking out the ways in which a person 23 deals with the world without being judgmental. George

Kelly suggested that people look at the world through transparent patterns (concepts) which they create and apply to decisions they must make. People decide what they want to do today by linking their past with anticipation for 24 the future. Out of such a reference I analyzed the sense of a vision a.woman has about her place in society by (1 ) the specific constructs she chose to talk about,

(2 ) the strength of the constructs she talked about, and

(3) the focused interview that followed each grid exper­ ience.

Although such a method offered less sure outcomes, I believe it was an exciting undertaking to combine rhetor­ ical criticism with the Repertory Grid as a checkpoint of today's controversial issue, "I am woman." 17

Thus, the dissertation asked these questions:

1. What kind of public communicators were the

various First Ladies?

2. How have the First Ladies contributed to a

rhetorical vision of what it means to be a

woman?

3. What was the image of womanhood according to

general view of the daily lives of American

women?

4. In what direction is the vision of American

women and the influence of First Ladies

headed?

To answer the questions posed in this chapter, this study was organized in.the following manner. Chapter I considered the public communication of the three most visible First Ladies— Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, and Betty Ford. Each of these three women used a different style of communication. Mrs. Kennedy's was nonverbal;

Mrs. Johnson's was public speaker; Mrs. Ford's was "off the cuff" interaction. Chapter II studied the variety of the

First Ladies' images of womanhood presented in the women's magazines. Mamie Eisenhower was the unassuming wife; Jacque­ line Kennedy was the fashionable wife; Lady Bird Johnson was the political wife; Pat Nixon was the "true-blue" wife;

Betty Ford was the outspoken wife. Chapter IV discussed the George Kelly philosophy behind the repertory grid, 18 the administration of the grids, and the technique of a focused interview. Chapter V analyzed the individual grids as well as the total picture they projected about a societal definition of womanhood. Also, this chapter compared and contrasted the grids, interviews, and rhetor­ ical visions. Chapter VI looked not only at Rosalynn

Carter's communication style and rhetorical vision, but the changing rhetorical vision about the.life of a First Lady.

Chapter VII evaluated the method of this study and its future implications.

In summary, much of this study questions First Ladies but the main focus is still on images women have about them­ selves. The First Ladies served as the one stable way to study women, because women are so split and confused about issues from the ERA to the "Total Woman." However, as in all serious studies, another significant area emerged,in this case a recognition of the important place of the First

Lady in society. 19

Notes

^Helen Reddy, "I Am Woman," Irvin Music, Inc., Music, Copyright 1972.

Richard Whitt, "Emotionalism over the ERA won't die ** after the House votes," The Louisville Courier-Journal, March 15, 1978, p. 1.

3 Nan Robertson, "NOW's drive to push ERA stand," The Louisville Courier-Journal, March 12, 1978, p. 20.

^Mary Piess, "Crusader McCrow leaves job as NOW presi­ dent," Columbus Dispatch, May 1, 1977, p. E-15. 5 Marabel Morgan, The Total Woman, Gulf & Western Cor­ poration, New York, pp; 96-97.

g Joseph Lelyveld, "Normally proper GOP women come out fighting over ERA," The New York Times. August 17, 1978, p. 36. 7 Nan Robertson, "A voice from home . . . Martha Move­ ment speaks for housewives," Louisville Courier-Journal, Nov. 8 , 1977, p. G-4.

8 Anna Quindlen, "Growing Ms. Foundation decides to involve public," Louisville Courier-Journal, Nov. 18, 1978, p. 1 2 . g Joe Ward, "Opposites may distract," Louisville Courier- Journal . Nov. 17, 1977, p. 1.

10 Harry F. Rosenthal, "Our Former First Ladies: Bess and Mamie and . . The Columbus Dispatch, March 30, 1977, p. S-8 .

^Georgie Anne Geyer, "Rosalynn Carter self-determined," The Columbus Dispatch, August 11, 1977, p. B-2.

12 Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Women in perspective, (Chicago: Uni­ versity of Illinois Press, 1976), p. vii.

13 Gary Wills, "Feminists and Other Useful Fanatics," Harpers, June 1976, p. 37. 20

"Liberated Women— How they're changing American life— Two Views, " U.S. News and World Report. June 7, 1976, p. 47.

15 Margaret Mead, "Working mothers and their children," Manpower, June 1970, p. 6 .

16 Robert Terry, "The white male club," Civil Rights Digest, Spring 1974, p. 6 6 .

17 . Pearl Meyer, "Women Executives, are different," Dun's Review, January 1975, p. 48.

18 Nora Scott Kenzer, "The Beauty Cult," The Center Magazine. January 1974, pp. 2-4.

■^"Now 'Man's Lib' is the trend," U.S. News and World Report, March 18, 1974, p. 49.

20 Miciko Inukai, "Japanese Women Raise the Rice Spoon of Revolt," UNESCO Courier, August/September 1975, p. 13.

21 Ernest Bormann, "Fantasy and Rhetorical Vision: The Rhetorical Criticism of Social Reality," The Quarterly Journal of Speech. 1972, p. 398.

22 Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1977), pp. ii-62.

23 Robert Monaghan, "The Repertory Grid Application for Ascertaining Viewer Needs," EBR, February 1972, p. 40.

24 Monaghan, p. 42. CHAPTER II

AN ANALYSIS OF THE PUBLIC COMMUNICATION OF THREE UNIQUE FIRST LADIES: JACQUELINE KENNEDY, LADY BIRD JOHNSON, AND BETTY FORD

When a woman becomes First Lady of the United States, she finds herself in an awkward situation concerning the role. First, the Constitution failed to mention the duties or the limitations relating to the position of

First Lady. Secondly, most of the women have felt intimi­ dated by the attention they got as First Ladies because philosophically they believed, "Good girls do not make news." Finally, the public has put an added strain on them by demanding behavior, not bland, but not self- involved or politically active.'1'

Until recently, even White House historians have taken the role of First Lady for granted. At best, the authors described her as the person who moved into the White House with the President to be the homemaker and to "tidy up" 2 and personalize the Mansion. Yet, most First Ladies com­ bined strongly individualistic personalities with an appreciation of custom to positively affect history.

21 4 22

Historian Charles Hurd praised the women and called the

effect a "fantastic accident."

One of the fantastic accidents of history is the role collectively played by the succession of more than 30 wives of Presidents in their succes­ sive occupancy of the White House, and the cumu­ lative influence that they have exerted upon the American scene.3

Thus, what kind of influence have various First Ladies

had? In Haynes Johnson's Bicentennial essay, he described

the White House as enduring, working home and office for

.. Presidents, and remaining symbol of American promise for

the world.^ How have the First Ladies used the White House

as a home and office to contribute to a symbolic American

promise? I chose to study the specific public communication

of Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, and Betty Ford

because of their visibility to the public, yet each with

unique communication methods and American promise messages.

Jacqueline Kennedy— A Study of an Aloof and Sophisticated Style. Nonverbal Communication, and an Enchanted Public

Harry Truman wrote that Abigail Adams would have made

a better president than her husband, but unfortunately she

was born at a time when women, like children, should be seen,

notheard.^ As First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy chose to be

seen, not heard. Although early in her tenure as First Lady,

critics felt she was not a "proper" First Lady because she

loved horses, knew good furniture, and abhorred bad taste;

her obvious obstacle in coping with the public was an 23 unusually shy personality. Reporters frequently noted her dislike of crowds. Longtime White House reporter, Helen

Thomas, wrote that this "polished American aristocrat" was human, vulnerable, shy, and feared contact with the public.

She was never able to greet crowds of people with campaign- g style handshaking. Mrs. Kennedy's reputation for avoiding all possible official functions lasted throughout her time as First Lady. Presidential aide, Dave Powers, said that it constantly concerned the whole Presidential staff. At the functions Mrs. Kennedy attended, the shy First Lady gravitated to those she knew because they made her more comfortable. However, despite her shy nature, Jacqueline

Kennedy became an idolized First Lady, in some ways, even more so than Eleanor Roosevelt.

In the case of Jacquline Kennedy, the nonverbal symbol was more important than the verbal one. To do more than say

Mrs. Kennedy was a shy, aloof, but extremely popular First

Lady, we must develop a method to analyze the why of her behavior as well as the success of this woman who cared more to be seen than heard. In developing such a method, we must not'simply detail Mrs. Kennedy's concern for fashion and for the White House. Such detail is the descriptive nonverbal research Carroll Arnold warned against.

Randall P. Harrison, Professor of Communication at

Michigan State University and of Psychiatry at the University of California, studied the nonverbal works of Birdwhistel 24

and Edward Hall. Harrison concluded that nonverbal communi­

cation consisted of four dimensions which he called codes.

Each code contained certain specific types of behavior which

gave the code meaning. The four codes and their specific

behaviors are:

1. Performance codes— produced with the body,

such as voice, face, or hands.

2. Artifactual codes— manipulation of objects,

such as clothing, furnishings, and architec­

ture.

3. Mediatory codes— use of media, such as

pictures, graphs, and recordings.

4. Spatio-Temporal codes— use of time and 8 space.

After recognition of these codes in the nonverbal communica­

tion behavior, we can carry Harrison's analysis one step

further by looking for a message separate from the codes, yet created by them.

The Spatial-Temporal Code

Although Mrs. Kennedy gave the impression of shyness, we must wonder if it were only a tool she knew how to use

advantageously as a result of her father's influence. The

space Jacqueline Kennedy kept between herself and the public, as well as the little time she spent with the public, was basic to her communication method. Mr. Bouvier taught 25

his daughter, at an early age, to be withdrawn, reserved,

slow to yield to someone's advances; as someone pursued her, she must retreat. Her father told her to charm by

silence because reticense, not revelations, brought admira­

tion. And, because she was a woman, all she did must be 9 an illusion of difference, for difference brought mystery.

Thus, both the literal and figurative distance Mrs. Kennedy kept between herself and the public came from a philosophy

learned in childhood.

Her father's influence to be different, to be distant,

and to be difficent colored all Mrs. Kennedy's actions,

including her standard of personal etiquette. By her rules

it was no disgrace not to be "chummy" and on a first name basis with all people. Unlike the President, Mrs. Kennedy maintained no easy comaraderie with the public. The First

Lady found small talk difficult and distasteful. She believed participation in cultural projects more signifi­ cant than the discussion of intimate experiences. Conse­ quently, during Jacqueline Kennedy's days in the White

House, culture became something to strive for, not some­

thing to be feared as dangerous.

The Performance Code

Although not as significant a factor as spacial dis­

tance, the First Lady's vocal quality produced a special element of nonverbal communication. When this woman of 26 few public words spoke, she nearly whispered. White House

Chief-Usher, J. B. West, wrote that Mrs. Kennedy spoke so

softly that a person was forced to listen, to focus on her face, and respond to her eyes.'1'0 Once again we see

Mrs. Kennedy as a different kind of public person, so remote from people that she whispered. Yet, the public,

as West noted, focused on her and responded to her. At a strained time in American-Canadian relations, a reporter wrote that Jacqueline Kennedy captured the Canadian capitol without firing a shot I^ The First Lady did it with a whisper, a smile, and a wave.

The Artifactual Code

Modern man manipulates a vast array of artifacts from personal jewelry and clothing to cars and houses to enduring 12 monuments and buildings. As part of her nonverbal method,

Jacqueline Kennedy used fashion and the White House.

Mrs. Kennedy's father taught her to use dress to create a mysterious difference about herself. Thus, the

First Lady planned the impact her clothes would have on the concept of fashion in the United States. Early in her

White House tenure, Mrs. Kennedy chose one person, an

American man she knew, to design her complete wardrobe as well as most of her hats and accessories. The First Lady wanted to be confident that at all times she would present the same "covered-up" and never "dressy" appearance. 27

Although Mrs. Kennedy had worn simple clothes before becoming First Lady, she felt even more strongly that as

First Lady, she must emphasize simplicity. Whereas most women wore full, colorful, elaborate formal gowns, Mrs.

Kennedy chose short, simple cocktail dresses for afternoon 13 and long, straight, plain dresses for evening.

Mrs. Kennedy used the White House to communicate an image of both a public mansion and a private home. Much has been written about the cultural effect of the historic restoration of the mansion, but the white House needed the

. ..(t* v ' tasteful touch Mrs. Kennedy gave it as her home. Pearl S.

Buck wrote that before Jacqueline Kennedy, the White House looked like a Statler Hilton hotel; even the ashtrays 14 seemed straight out of the army PX! If we read a letter that Mrs. Kennedy wrote to J. B. West about the cigarette boxes and ashtrays, one sees the depth of her concern for the White House image.

In the Queen's room, Lincoln's room, third' floor hall, and guest rooms we need cigarette boxes and ashtrays. All modern china ones look so tacky-— could we find some flat ones which are not too vulgar. I wonder if . . . cut glass • . . for Queen's room, black lacquer for third floor . . . something to replace ones with fly­ ing fish and dollar bills on them.-1-5

Besides wanting the White House decorated tastefully,

Mrs. Kennedy worried constantly about the White House culin­ ary results. J. B. West wrote that the First Lady issued severe critiques of the food and its service after each State 28 dinner. Typical comments were: "food fantastic and service record time" or "10 to 15 minute wait for first 16 course" or "name of dessert misspelled on menu." Also, because both the President and Mrs. Kennedy grew up in country places with delightful gardens^ tended trees, and smooth lawns, the typical White House potted palms arrange­ ments depressed the First Lady. During her early days as

First Lady, she reorganized the whole concept of flowers in the White House and left to her successors a year-round 17 masterplan of floral decorations.

The cut glass ornaments for ashtrays, the carefully supervised dinners, and the creatively arranged flowers were only a small part of Mrs. Kennedy's new image for the

White House. But such things caused one British journalist to write, "Mrs. Kennedy substituted gaiety, informality, 13 and culture for the traditional stuffed shirt atmosphere."

The Mediatory Code

Jacqueline Kennedy feared that newspapers and magazines might present an image of her other than the one she con­ structed so carefully. One reason she chose to have all her clothes made by Oleg Cassini was so she could keep all information controlled by one source. Thus, she need not worry that pictures and descriptions coming from other sources would be journalistic guesswork. Although Mrs.

Kennedy may have partially feared the media because of 29 shyness, her need to be mysterious was the reason she kept her distance from the press. The First Lady opposed personal publicity; she avoided interviews; and she dis- 19 couraged stories about her children. This way the mystique remained intact.

What message did these merging codes produce? Because

Jacqueline Kennedy shared so little of herself with the public, her nonverbal communication created a mystique that fascinated the public. White House reporter, Helen Thomas, wrote that although Eleanor Roosevelt often made front page news with her liberal activism, Jacqueline Kennedy, in her dramatically different way,-was news 24 hours a day. One quizzical look from this First Lady or a spill from a horse could launch 1000 headlines. Ms. Thomas believed, "there was a mystique about her in and out of the White House that 20 the public longed to know more about." Even famed histor­ ian Alistair Cook admitted being a confirmed "Jackie 21 watcher," trying to understand her intriguing personality."

Jacqueline Kennedy enchanted her public. Her air of difference and aloofness drew people to her, as her father had predicted. In her stand for culture, beauty, and fashion, she captured the imagination of the nation. The so-called common man accepted her; the young and the old accepted her; and the males accepted her. Women and young girls alike copies her sleeveless dresses, short white gloves, and breathless, little-girl speech. Politicians 30 wanted her presence because of her power as a drawing card. Dave Powers once replied to the President's ques­ tions about the size of a crowd, . . same as before 22 . . . only about 100,000 more have come to see Jackie."

Her power even crossed national boundaries, because foreign leaders felt snubbed if they failed to meet Mrs. Kennedy when they visited the White House.

In conclusion, out of Jacqueline Kennedy's mystique came an American Promise for a new life style. She never spoke of it, but the First Lady's nonverbal presence implied— dignity and beauty, not the commonplace, are the highest of ideals!

Lady Bird Johnson— A Study of Traditional Public Speaking Within Unusually Complex Rhetorical Situations

Critics of Lady Bird Johnson doubted that she could ever replace Mrs. Kennedy as First Lady. The new First Lady had no mystique. She refused to make a career of dressing for the job of First Lady and she refused to make art her major concern while she was First Lady. However, Mrs. John­ son came to the White House with a rare love of the workings of the American government. She once explained these deep feelings, so foreign to Mrs. Kennedy, during an introduction of President Johnson.

He is an exciting man to live with. . . . A man from whom I've learned that putting all the brains and heart and skill you have 31

into trying to make your government work a little bit better can make a wonderful life for a man and his wife .23

Although when Lyndon Johnson became President, Mrs.

Johnson immediately looked upon her rol to be his calm sus- tainer and sometimes critic, she did a great deal on her own for the country. The First Lady believed in detailed organization; she mapped out each day in advance; she took her job seriously.

Lady Bird Johnson wrote that her projects were enthus­ iastic hard work, not a gimmick, as someone once called them, who was -asking a Johnson aide about a possible project 2 4 for Mrs. Nixon. We can see that Mrs. Johnson felt it was the job, not herself that was important, because during her four years in the White House, she lost less than four days from illness. "Lady Bird" watchers even found it difficult to keep up with this woman who had the stamina of steel. Mrs.

Johnson and her followers climbed mountains, rode the rapids, snorkeled in the Caribbean, and bobbed on rubber rafts down 25 the Rio Grande. Finally, this First Lady wanted to meet her critics so she might use her position more successfully to help make this a better country. The concern for the welfare of the country is one reason why Mrs. Johnson's communication differed from Mrs. Kennedy's.

While Jacquleine Kennedy communicated a personal image

— the beautifully dressed, composed, and well-bred First

Lady— she failed to concern herself with national and 32

international affairs. Mrs. Kennedy was not a vocal

rhetorician. Lady Bird Johnson, however, with skill as

a spokesperson, lived in a real world, saw the serious problems, and addressed audiences with an intention to

bring about a better world.

In the rhetorical terminology of Bitzer, Mrs. Johnson

saw exigences, imperfections marked by urgencies to improve

the situations. The problems are rhetorical when they are

capable of positive modification and the modification

required or is assisted by discourse. Although discus­

sions of Bitzer's rhetorical situation usually focused on

a specific incident, Bitzer wrote that rhetorical situations 26 may be of a complex and loosely structured nature. Let us now look at the compexities of the rhetorical situations

Mrs. Johnson dealt with as First Lady.

The Role of First Lady as a Rhetorical Situation for Mrs. Johnson

Early in her tenure as First Lady, Mrs. Johnson stated

repeatedly that she wanted to travel somewhere to help some­

one. She suggested that the public attention she attracted would help a college, agency, or area. Mrs. Johnson did

not want recognition for herself, but wanted to use her position to help people. She once stated that one of her

greatest fears, after 26 years in political life, was after 33

asking the public to do so much, she may have failed to 27 do enough for the public.

This great urgency Mrs. Johnson felt to use the posi­

tion of First Lady to help people was influenced by her

love for people. In her diary Mrs. Johnson devoted many pages to the topic of receiving lines. She said that she

may be the only human being who enjoyed receiving lines,

but they were* her only contact with many people. She said

they were her specific time to express friendship, pleasure, 28 and interest. One other example of how much Mrs. Johnson

loved the public was her reaction to campaigning. The

whistlestop tour which made 47 stops in four days was her

favorite campaign experience. She wrote that as they flew

through the depots, this was the closest she got to so much

of the American public and the closest much of the American

public got to its government. It was so like Mrs. Johnson 29 when she said, "I am glad we met and touched."

Another reason becoming First Lady meant Mrs. Johnson

considered herself to be in a rhetorical situation was her

belief in and skill in public speaking. A reader of her

White House Diary finds solid material for a public speaking

course. The remarks the First Lady made about her speaking

experiences fit into six categories or rules. First,

silence may be the greatest of sins. Mrs. Johnson stated

this belief in a speech honoring Eleanor Roosevelt who,

she said, never stood with the timid afraid to defend an 30 unpopular truth. Second, speak of that which you feel most deeply. Mrs. Johnson declared that her husband's greatest speeches were those where he spoke from the heart

about personal experiences. In one such favorite, he 31 spoke passionately of his college education. Third, be prepared! The First Lady wrote of an occasion early in her

White House years when she said she looked as frentic,

tired, and unprepared as she was. She promised herself never again to attempt speaking without being briefed and 32 practiced. Fourth, know how to read the audience. During the President's first State of the Union address, Mrs. John- t son looked for people whose reaction she could read. For instance, she noticed that although the Republican applause was sparse, generally the nonverbal signals were favorable.

Fifth, "talk" the speech; do not read it. Lady Bird Johnson overcame shyness and coped with constant stage fright, but she felt nothing improved her delivery as much as a conver­ sational approach. She constantly urged the President to 33 follow this advice. Finally, appreciate the importance of timing and drama. The First Lady reminded the President of these two things before he announced that he would not run for re-election.

I went over a few minutes before nine. There we were in the Oval Office of the President. What a stage setting! I went to him quietly, 'Remember— pacing and drama!' It was a great speech and I wanted him to get the most out of it .34 35

Specific Rhetorical Situations Important to Mrs. Johnson

Now that we have considered the overall rhetorical situation felt by Mrs. Johnson as First Lady, let us look

at her specific rhetorical situations and the audiences she faced. Lady Bird Johnson felt that the main exigence she could respond to was making the United States more beautiful. Although resources were misused, they had not been destroyed. She believed conservation to be more than trees, historic buildings, scenic highways, or preserved cities; conservation was a way of life.

Mrs. Johnson took her message to a variety of audiences.

She asked garden club members to carry on her work. The

First Lady invited the Executive Committee of Mayors to tea at the White House to discuss her concern for cities. She appealed to the nation's road builders to protect hometown beauty spots from the havoc of traffic inroads. To each of these groups, Mrs. Johnson spoke eloquently. She told them of Thomas Jefferson's warning that if we piled up in large cities, the country would get corrupt. She added on a more positive note that Carl Sandburg spoke of the strength of the cities "with their broad shoulders." Finally, she wove acompexity of ideas that began with highways and ended with 35 pride for heritage.

As equally powerful as her words were Mrs. Johnson's actions. She invited women civicly involved with the coun­ try's problems to her "do-ers" luncheons to show her 36 appreciation for the role they played in beautification.

She visited areas devoted to beautification efforts, such as'one project done by the Kickapoo Girl Scout Council.

And, Lady Bird planted trees. She planted trees with the governor of California; she planted trees with the wives of

Republican leaders; she planted trees with unknown American citizens.

Finally, having a husband who is President of the .

United States can serve as a positive constraint for rhetorical situations. Although the President told Mrs.

Johnson the cities must prove they wanted to help themselves, he unexpectedly came to her tea for the mayors. His pres-

» / ence helped persuade the mayors that their hard work was appreciated and worthwhile. Also, the President signed several bills supporting the First Lady's beautification activities. He named the Highway Beautification Act, the

"Lady Bird Act." He added that he wanted to help his wife 3 6 "leave a glimpse of the world God made."

However, being the President's wife also brought nega­ tive constraints to Mrs. Johnson's concern for beautifica­ tion. For the last two years of her stay in the White

House, public speakers used any public appearance by either of the Johnson's to attack the President's position on

Viet Nam. Even during a worship service in Williamsburg,

Virginia, Mrs. Johnson had to listen as the priest denig­ rated the Administration's handling of the war. At this 37 one time, Mrs. Johnson's role as wife overshadowed her role as First Lady. In her diary she wrote that she froze in her seat, turned to stone on the outside, boiled on the inside, and left the service at its end without greeting the priest.^

Students on college campuses looked for many ways to make statements about the war, but Mrs. Johnson's presence on a campus offered a special way to attack the President.

In an incident at Yale, not only did 800 picketers hold a vigil to chant "Peace now, hell no, we won't go," but the president of the college admitted anti-administration feel­ ings during his introduction of Mrs. Johnson. The First

Lady wrote that she never tried harder in - a speech. Conse­ quently, she spoke directly, seeking the eyes of each man 38 in the room as she spoke passionately of the environment.

Even, entertainers took part in the war protest. In what may have been Lady Bird Johnson's finest hour, she showed her knowledge of public speaking in refuting Earthia

Kitt's vicious attack at a White House luncheon. Mrs. John­ son knew the attack was coming because she had noticed that

Miss Kitt smoldered at lunch, pretended a concern for crime in the cities, and waited for a chance to talk at length.

When Miss Kitt began her enraged talk on the injustices of

Viet Nam, Mrs. Johnson wrote that she met Miss Kitt stare for stare. Also, Mrs. Johnson knew at what point the angry woman undid her message by talking too long. Then 38 with a quivering voice, but strong mind, the First Lady credited Miss Kitt with special knowledge because of her background and a special skill in speaking. However, the

First Lady said she believed that the problems of war did not give them a free ticket not to try to work for better things— against crime in the streets, better education, and 39 better health for all people.

Mrs. Johnson knew the complexities of her rhetorical situation concerning beautification; she called them a mis­ take in balance. She said that as she tried to speak of her conservation and beautification programs, she produced a vehicle for dissenters to mount a platform to get inches 40 in the paper and minutes on the television screen.

Finally, if we look at one last rhetorical situation, we see both a message dear to Mrs. Johnson's heart and another complexity of a rhetorical situation. Although

Mrs. Johnson's Head Start Program failed to get the pub­ licity and public involvement of her beautification pro­ gram’, it represented an exigence of equal concern. She longed to offer Appalachian children a better life.

When you look into the faces of the children, you see good raw material and you know there is hope for the future in this area that may be found in education, job training, and some way to make a living . . . besides the mor­ tally ill coal industry.41 39

Early in the program, Mrs. Johnson attracted the help of

specific political audiences. Governors like Breathitt of

Kentucky worked with her when she toured their states to

insure a better understanding of Appalachian problems.

Also, Sargent Shriver produced a detailed analysis of

Operation Head Start. The Program attempted to give 100,000

underprivileged children in the five and six year old age

group a "head start" before they entered the first grade

in the fall. The Program included a medical examination,

one solid free daily meal, and simple teachings in manners

and vocabulary. The whole process was aimed at the period 42 when a human being is molded for a lifetime.

However, the programs of Head Start failed to be as

successful as the First Lady wished because she failed to

attract large enough numbers of young people to teaching positions in Appalachia. She wrote that it was hard to

attract young people, vital teachers, who must board with

the neighbors, use outdoor toilets, and travel roads so muddy that little chance existed to get out on weekends.

Mrs. Johnson never knew how to make the Teachers Corps

more successful.

Although Mrs. Johnson's rhetorical situations were

constrained by such things as a far away war and young people at home who failed to have her courage and energy,

she never turned away from the rhetorical challenge of

making a bad situation better. Nothing explained better 40

Lady Bird Johnson's American Promise than Dickens' quote,

* "These were the best of times and the worst of times."

She believed that as long as we live in the real world, not

isolated from its problems, even suffering with the prob­

lems, but working with them, too, we will know the "best

of times."

Betty Ford— The Study of a Different Kind of a Woman, First Lady and an "Off-the-Cuff" Rhetorician

No matter how courageously Lady Bird Johnson attacked

the problems of the country, she was first of all the Presi­

dent's helpmate. Until Mrs. Ford entered the White House,

the image held by society was that the First Lady was a woman

who controlled herself at all times, showed tender concern

for all children, and gave all of herself to her husband's

wishes. However, Betty Ford did not have this kind of image

of herself and she freely admitted it in discussing the

changes she had gone through during her life.

I saw my psychiatrist once a week /pre-White House days/, at the most for a year and a half. I didn't lie on a couch or anything like that. I*d just sit and talk, and it seemed to help, too. . . . This was during the time Jerry was away so much, and I needed a sounding board to talk to. Somebody had to tell me what the doctor did 'that I couldn't just live for my husband and children, but ought to do some­ thing for myself, too.'43

Perhaps because Mrs. Ford had known frustration in living

only for husband and children, she spoke out more bluntly

for the issue that has had few White House champions in so 41 visible a way— the rights of women. She never dodged the tough battles and openly encouraged her husband toward a broader view on the ERA and abortion. Thus, she estab­ lished her own rapport with the feminists in this country, with her daughter's generation of free-thinking women, and 44 with many restless housewives.

However, to study the rhetoric of this First Lady we cannot isolate specific experiences and content of formalized speeches as we did for Mrs. Johnson. Betty Ford did not consider herself a public speaker, did not enjoy speaking, and did very little of it. Nevertheless, if we look at her "off-the-cuff" style of three or four sentences used to introduce a speaker, thank a person or group, or respond to a reporter, we can piece together a picture of how she used her position to make a statement for equal rights, but did so with as little public conflict as possible.

Conflicting Audiences Concerned with Women's Rights

As stated in the first chapter, no simple explanation exists as to how people feel about women's rights generally or the ERA specifically. However, we can isolate the variety of pro, con, and neutral people into three cate­ gories of audiences: political, religious, and particular.

Also, each of these three audiences was ready to encourage or contradict Betty Ford's stand on both women's rights and the ERA, and thus encourage an element of conflict. 42

Political audiences concerned with the ERA followed no party lines nor one spokesperson. In New York, Governor

Carey pledged the full support of his administration behind the efforts to secure the passage of the ERA. He felt that those people who feared something in their way of life would be lost by this amendment were the people who always fought 45 new human rights. However, Connecticut's Governor Grasso said she knew she had never done much to help the women's movement because she was always too wrapped up in her own 46 world. On the campaign trail for her husband, Mrs. Ford got mixed reactions. In a New Jersey crowd the people's responses ranged from "Betty for President" to "Abort 47 Betty." In Florida one observer summed it up as the liberal people of the community thought Betty Ford was great, but the conservative people did not think much of her 48 because of her views on abortion and pre-mantal sex.

Although no one religious stand existed on the ERA, religious organizations developed strong views. The Catholic

Church took no position on the amendment, but an increasing number of priests preached from the pulpits against the ERA 49 and exerted enormous pressure on the state representatives.

Also opposed were the Lutherans and the Church of Christ.

These church congregations and those with similar views said they feared that its adoption would make abortion and looser sex standards more prevalent and that it would undermine family life by ending the traditional legal requirement 43 that man is responsible for the support of his wife and 50 family. Charlene Walker, a 19-year-old Baptist Bible

College student, wearing a homemade "ERA, Vote no" tag, came to Jefferson City, Missouri, to lobby against the

ERA. She explained that she had not known much about what the ERA was until a woman came to her church to explain it.

I think if the bill is made to pass, the women will have equal rights to the men and they can be drafted and in the dormitories, it can be mixed. Oh yes, and homosexuality will be O.K. and they can adopt children. I don't really approve of that.^1

However, a number of major religious dominations, includ­ ing both branches of the Presbyterian Church, the United

Methodist Church, and the Unitarian Universalist Church 52 supported the amendment.

In the third category, particular audiences, created often to deal with the ERA, many conflicting opinions also existed about women's rights. There were groups of women who joined together to oppose the amendment on the basis that no women in history had ever enjoyed such privileges, luxuries, and freedom as American women; yet a tiny minority of dissatisfied highly vocal, militant women insisted that women were being exploited as a "domestic drudge" and a

' 5 3 "' ■ ■ - "pretty toy." Organizations of women supporting the amendment asked what could possibly be wrong with so simple a statement that read: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by 44

54 any state because of sex." Also, there were groups of individuals who responded to the ERA in less direct ways via Betty Ford. For instance, although the National

Academy of Design did not take a stand on the ERA, it named

Mrs. Ford a Fellow of the Academy, not just because of her enthusiastic support of the arts, but because of her support 55 for the equality of women.

These were not the only audiences Mrs. Ford encountered as she faced the public with her view of women's rights, but these audiences represented a thorough sample. The members of each of these audiences— political, religious, and parti­ cular— knew that their reactions to the ERA as well as to(

Mrs. Ford affected the public concept of women's rights.

The Non-Conflict Style of Mrs. Ford's Women's Rights Rhetoric » Smith and Windes argued in their article, "The Innova- tional Movement: A Rhetorical Theory," that the agitation- conflict movements of the 1960's cannot succeed in the

1970's. Not only are the problems different in the 1970's, but also the conflict of the I960' had exhausted the public.

It was possible that conflict never got movements as far as the leaders thought it did, but/nevertheless, it does not seem to be a realistic method for the 1970's. Instead,

Smith and Windes offered three strategies for the 70's that they called innovational: (1 ) denial of conflict, 45

(2) emphasis of weak institutions or values, and (3) crea- 56 tion of a dialectic between the scene and the purpose.

We may use these.three strategies to understand Mrs. Ford's non-conflict style of women's rights rhetoric, even though she was not part of a movement.

Betty Ford stated time and time again that the passage of the ERA. was her main goal as First Lady. However, the first way she denied the conflict aspect of the ERA was to work for its passage outside of the Women's Movement. The

Movement language of "learn karate, get a few muscles in your body, and knock a man down if he bugs you" appealed neither to Mrs. Ford as a woman or as a First Lady, In fact, the First Lady wanted no association with the Women's

Movement. She found the Movement "a bit hard to take" because she was not the type to burn her bra or do anything 57 extreme.

The First Lady supported the ERA because she wanted to see that all women had equality in America. She felt that women should have the same freedoms and justice as anyone else in society. Mrs. Ford argued that the very fact that the Equal Rights Amendment was having trouble getting rati­ fied showed that the present institutions in the American scene were weak. Consequently, she created a dialactic between the scene and purpose, which the First Lady explained during the opening ceremonies of the "Remember the Ladies" project. 46

The Revolutionary Era was a time when all women were working in the same occupations as men, and had equal pay and far more legal freedom than our own time. . . . This all changed when the Industrial Revolution came along. The affluence that occurred has turned us into dependent women. . . . Today women can gain the needed strength . . . to seek equal rights.58

As the First Lady tried to achieve her purpose of the

ERA ratification within the contemporary scene, she never failed to recognize that she must function also in more traditional scenes. Thus, the First Lady had the support of ERA audiences, as well as those other audiences who found her a strong political wife and a religious woman, even if she were more liberal than they.

• The political community watched as Betty Ford made it plain she supported the ERA. She gave money to the ERA

American organization. She phoned and wrote legislators to urge them to vote for the ERA. She did not back down when mail to the White House ran three to one opposing her stand.

However, much some party members may have disagreed with

Mrs. Ford's views, President Ford's aides knew the First

Lady was his greatest political asset. They used her in all of his promotional campaigns,and the "Vote for Betty's 57 Husband" buttons captured their philosophy. There was a humanness, a warmth, a charisma about this woman to which people from all political parties responded. It was the kind of good-naturedness that won her fans as she admitted that NBC's "Saturday Night Live" skits with the President 47

60 were a bit distasteful, but the material was very funny.

It was the good time she had while she tried out her por­ table Citizen's Band Radio during a T.exas motorcade.

You got First Mama! I see a lot of smokies at my front door— all I can think of is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, where there are a lot of police at my front door. A 10-4 good buddy. Catch you on the flip.61

It was the ease with which she danced around the Republican

Convention Hall with Tony Orlando to the tune "Tie a Yellow

Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree," just as Mrs. Reagan started 62 to get too many cheers. With the same ease and political acuteness, Mrs. Ford delivered brief political remarks. In a*quiet voice she presented sincere and successful political messages urging backing for the President— "a strong, 63 decent, hard-working leader." Finally, the Republican

Party summed up its feeling in the statement made when she was selected GOP Woman of the Year— "We praise her for effec­ tiveness in meeting the challenges of public life, for her

. . . qualities as a public and private citizen, and for the spirit of dedication she has shown to the Republican 64 Party. . . ."

Although all members of Betty Ford's religious audiences did not approve of her stand on Women's Rights, many people from varied religious groups did respect her. One reason was because of the way she handled the situation when a prominent Jewish leader collapsed on the dias of the New

York Hilton Hotel. The leader, Dr. Maurice Sage, had 48 introduced Mrs. Ford in the ballroom only a few minutes earlier. Mrs. Ford hesitated during the confusion, but stepped to the microphone to lead a spontaneous prayer lasting two minutes in a trembling, but determined voice.

Can we all bow our heads for a moment and say a prayer for Rabbi Sage? He's going to the hospital and he needs our prayers. . . . Dear Father in Heaven, we ask thy blessing on this magnificent man. We know you can take care of him. We know you can bring us back our leader. You are our strength. You are what life is all about, love, and love of fellow man is what we all need and depend on .65

This prayer was the rhetoric of, not a women's rights acti­ vist or a political wife, but of a religious woman. This was but another reason why Betty Ford seemed to employ the inno- vational kind of strategies.

Finally, even to audiences of women specifically con­ cerned with women's rights, the First Lady encouraged a tradi­ tional approach of dialectic without conflict. Mrs. Ford circulated personal memoranda to urge her White House staff to attend sessions on the status of the ERA specifically and 66 women generally. She hosted receptions for the Federal 6 7 Advisory Committee on the status of women. The First Lady used these kinds of experiences to promote an understanding of the issues concerning women that would lessen the conflict caused by misunderstanding.

The rhetoric of Betty Ford, which only said passage of

ERA means justice for all, soothed the harsher words of the feminist supporters. The First Lady's non-conflict style 49 redefined "Mother" at the same time she traditionally defined "God" and "Country." Yet, because of this out­ spoken First Lady, all of the 1976 First Lady hopefuls said Betty Ford had changed both the role for any future

First Lady as well as the political style of seeking the position. Gone forever were the days where all a political wife or First Lady did was shake hands with the ladies and 68 drink tea. The American Promise Message of this unique

First Lady was one that gave new applause, interest, and power, not only to the role of woman, but to the role of

First Lady.

Summary

The First Lady's job comes with no job description, no salary, no budget, but the work place— the White House— 69 offers a national podium second only to the President's.

Yet, how far did these three visible First Ladies go with their public communication to shape society?

Jacqueline Kennedy and Betty Ford failed to extend themselves beyond their own personalities. Mrs. Kennedy did what, as the President once said, she liked best, what she excelled in— fashion and decoration. Although Mrs. Ford was more involved with the public than Mrs. Kennedy, she spoke out on problems that were personally hers. Actually, she said nothing substantial about the ERA. Also, she disliked to speak so she did very little of it. Even when 50 she spoke out about her cancer, she still was touching an area because it first touched her.

Although both Mrs. Kennedy with her culture and Mrs.

Ford with her aggressive First Lady role affected American life, it was Lady Bird Johnson who truly extended herself to the American public. She disliked planes, but flew any­ way. She overcame a fear of public speaking. She ignored or accepted constant public criticism that she was neither as beautiful nor as cultured as the previous First Lady. She coped with the frustrations of a mother having to be away from teenage daughters for long periods of time. Finally, she cared about problems and people of this country, both of which were not known to her personally. Although Mrs. John­ son's desire to help her husband may have been an extra- motivating factor, by her words, energy, and love she tried to make this a better country.

As rhetoricians we can be proud to claim Mrs. Johnson as a First Lady who lifted the spirits of this country, 70 breathed life into it, and helped it grow. 51

Notes

^Charles Hurd, The White House story (New York: Haw­ thorne Books, Inc., 1966), p. 216.

3 Hurd, p. 217.

3 Hurd, p. 216.

^Haynes Johnson, The Working White House (New York: Praiger Publishers, 1975), p. 179. 5 Gordon L. Hall, Jacqueline Kennedy: A Biography (New York: New American Library, 1966), p. 117.

g Helen Thomas, Dateline: The White House (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc., 19 75), p. 5. 7 Thomas, p. 10.

8 Randall P. Harrison and Wayne W. Crouch, "Nonverbal Communication: Theory and Research," Communication and Behavior. Gerald Hanneman and William McEwen, eds. (Mass: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1975), p. 87.

9 - Pearl S. Buck, The Kennedy Women (New York: Cowles Book Co., Inc., 1970), p. 81.

"^J. B. West, Upstairs at the White House (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, Inc., 1973), p. 191.

■^Hall, Jacqueline Kennedy, p. 163.

12 Harrison and Crouch, p. 96. 4 13 Mary Van Rensselair Thayer, Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1967), p. 21.

'L4 Buck, p. 54.

1 5 Thayer, p. 136. 52

16West, p. 259.

1 7 West, p. 139.

■^Thayer, p. 123. *

1 9 Thayer, p. 31.

90 Thomas, pp. 11-12.

21 Irving Shulman, The Exploitation of a First Lady (New York: Trudent Press, 19 70), pp. 104-105.

2 2 Thayer, p. 167.

23 Thomas, p. 89.

24 Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary (New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1970), p. 724.

25 Thomas, pp. 78-79.

26 Lloyd Bitzer, "The Rhetorical Situation," Contempor­ ary Theories of Rhetoric: Selected Readings, Richard J. Johannesen (ed.) (New York, 1971), pp. 381-393.

27 Carole Bannett, Partners to the President (New York: The Citadel Press, 1966), p. 81.

78 Lady Bird Johnson, p. 62.

29 Lady Bird Johnson, pp. 198-199.

30 Lady Bird Johnson, p. 108.

Lady Bird Johnson, p. 502.

32 Lady Bird Johnson, p. 43.

33 Bannett, p. 84.

34 Lady Bird Johnson, p. 645. 3^Gordon Hall, Lady Bird and Her Daughter (Phila­ delphia: Mauae Smith Co., 1967), p. 232.

3 6 Hall, Lady Bird, p. 232.

37 Lady Bird Johnson, p. 588.

38Lady Bird Johnson, pp. 579-581.

38Lady Bird Johnson, pp. 620-623.

40Lady Bird Johnson, p. 578.

41Lady Bird Johnson, p. 142.

A O Lady Bird Johnson, p. 219.

A O Jane Howard, "Forward Day by Day," The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 8 , 1974, p. 36.

44Liz Carpenter, "Rosalynn Carter: Her Toughest Challenge," Redbook, April 1977, p. 70.

45 Leslie Martland, "Byrne & Carney As Passage of Equal Rights Amendment," The New York Times, Aug. 27, 1975, p. 37

46 Martland, p. 37.

47 Roy Reed, "Betty Ford Greeted on Trip to Florida," The New York Times, Feb. 27, 1976, p. 10.

4 8 Reed, p. 10.

49 "Equal Rights Plan Face Illinois Test," The New York Times. March 2, 1975, p. 1.

50 "Equal Rights Plan Face Illinois Test," p. 1.

51 Douglas Kneeland, "The Equal Rights Amendment: Missouri is the Target," The New York Times, Feb. 7, 1975, 54

CO "Equal Rights Plan Faces Illinois Test / 1 p. 1.

53 . . "Equal Rights Plan Faces Illinois Test/' p. 1.

54 Kneeland, p. 7.

EC Leslie Martland, "Betty Ford Named Fellow of Academy," The New York Times. Oct. 10, 1975, p. 10.

56 Ralph R. Smith and Russel R. Windes, "The Innova­ tion Movement: A Rhetorical Theory," Quarterly Journal of Speech (April 1975), p. 143.

57 "Betty Ford Would Accept 'an Affair' by Daughter," The New York Times, Aug. 11, 1975, p. 16.

58 Judy Klemesrud, "Mrs. Ford Helps 'Remember the Ladies' of Revolutionary Era," The New York Times. June 30, 1976, p. 43.

59 Joseph Lelyveld, "President's Latest TV Commercials Portray Him as Father Figure who Inspires Quiet Confidence," The New York Times, Sept. 29, 1976, p. 40.

5 0 "Notes on People," The New York Times, April 22, 1976, p. 29.

"Betty Ford's Briefings," The New York Times. Feb. 8 , 1975, p. 10.

62 R. W. Apple, Jr., "Betty Ford Bests Nancy," The New York Times, June 26, 1976, p. 1.

63 Thomas Ronan, "Betty Ford is GOP Woman of the Year," The New York Times, March 21, 1976, p. 45.

64 Ronan, p. 45. ■ ■

65 Kneeland, p. 7.

66 "Equal Rights Plan Faces Illinois Test," p. 1. 55

87Edith Asbury, "Betty Ford Offers Prayer/' The New York Times, pp. 1-2.

88Judy Klemesrud, "Views in *76 Campaign Find the Going Difficult/' The New York Times. April 12, 1976, p. 1.

69Liz Carpenter, "Rosalynn Carter, Her Toughest Challenge," Redbook. April 1977, p. 6 8 .

70 Carpenter, p. 80. CHAPTER III

THE RHETORICAL VISIONS CREATED BY FIRST LADIES AS A TOOL TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WOMEN FEEL IS THEIR ROLE IN SOCIETY

If the very intense anger of some modern women is distressing to anyone, it may be understandable when one considers the long history of their oppression. For women more than any other group, have been subjected by • . . universal edicts declaring their eternal inferiority.1 Louise Bach, Ass't Principal Pennsylvania, Jr. High School

One of the reasons you libbers catch so much heat is because you try to horn in places you aren't wel­ come. If you'd stick to the valid issues, such as equal psiy for equal work, and forget about drinking beer at Mory's you'd accomplish more .2 Ann Landers Newspaper Columnist

These two quotes show not only different attitudes about the Women's Movement, but represent differences on a deeper level as to how a woman should act. Although Betty Friedan believed that women of the 1970's were finding a new vision about themselves, the ABC television special, ERA: War 3 Between the Women, suggested that many women reject any new visions about their roles in society.

I argue that the supporters of the Women's Liberation

Movement or any other group wishing to influence women's

56 57 self-images fail to understand the well established rhetor­ ical vision within the American society of what it means to be a woman. One way to better understand this strong and traditional vision is to turn once again to the First Ladies.

In the previous chapter we looked at the special ways three

First Ladies communicated and the promise they gave to the total public concerning the hope of America. Now let us look at the rhetorical visions generated about the role that several First Ladies serve for one special group— the women of the United States. The First Ladies could make such a statement because they are our nation's most famous 4 and admired wives, mothers, and women. This chapter considers: (1) The importance of the concept of rhetorical vision within the issue of women's role in society;

(2) The ways the First Ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to

Rosalynn Carter contributed to and strengthened a tradi­ tional rhetorical vision of women; and (3) The permanence of the First Ladies' contribution to any rhetorical vision.

The Importance of the Concept of Rhetorical Vision Within the Issue of Women's Role in Society

In this instance using Bormann's theory on rhetorical vision revolves around three areas: a definition, the rela­ tionship of people within the vision, and a significance 5 for personal growth to those who use this method. He defined a rhetorical vision as that which is constructed from fantasy themes that chain-out in face-to-face 58

interacting groups, in speaker-audience transactions, in

viewers of television broadcasts, in listeners to radio programs, and in all intimate communication in a given

society. Bormann argues it was the critic's task to

illuminate such things as the way people relate to each

other within the vision, arrange themselves into social

hierarchies, and used rhetoric to arouse dramatic action

to achieve their goals. In his seminal essay he concludes

,• « , • •• by stating that once we attempt to understand the rhetorical vision of a community or movement, we experience a way of

life not otherwise accessible to us. We enlarge ourselves

and become more human.

We may note that Betty Friedan also discussed the con­

cept of vision in relationship to women. In her recent

Epilogue to the Feminine Mystique, she suggested that a

strange paradox existed between the visions of the Movement g and the average woman. As the Movement fought to open all professions to women in America, "career woman" became a

dirty word in society. As the Movement fought to make higher education available to all capable women, more and more young women dropped out of school. As more and more roles in modern society became theirs for thetaking, women

confined themselves to only one role— housewife. Why did women refuse to accept the Friedan vision of woman as a person no longer barred from the freedom of human exis­

tence to be a voice of destiny? In the terms of Bormann, 59

the new vision failed to chain-out to wide numbers of

women, because the members of the movement failed to

agree upon one vision. While some women in the Movement were saying that a beautiful home and children were not

enough, other women used the Movement "to proselytize

lesbianism, articulate a rhetoric of sexual warfare, and 7 generate manhating sensationalism."

However, we may use the rhetorical vision concept to

discuss visions other than ones held by a new community,

such as the Women's Movement. Do not the women who follow

fantasies and visions passed down from previous years parti­

cipate in rhetorical visions? Interestingly, Neil Postman,

in a 1974 keynote address to SCA, stated that technology parrotted the language of established institutions to make g social changes nearly impossible. Thus, we might esqpect

the media to represent the most traditional of visions.

If we look at women's magazines, what can we learn about

the women of this country and their beliefs about their part in it?

To begin to understand the traditional rhetorical vision of women's role, I turned to the history of Good

Housekeeping's "Most Admired Women." I chose to look at

this particular yearly poll, rather than one like the

Gallup poll because only women answer the Good Housekeeping questions. What qualities do these ideal women have. From

its beginning in 1970 to the present 1978 poll, the key 60 issue was courage. Women were admired who had the quiet kind of courage that was an inner strength to keep going.

Courage meant that even if you were a widow, you did not g "go on about your troubles." An important quality was

"ladylike" behavior which meant that at all times a woman was composed, poised, serene, controlled, gracious, and understanding. ’1'0 We do not see words like dedication, intelligence, and determination. The ideal women "are not protesting but working quietly within the system.

Along with the admiration of poise and charm came the sacred belief in the role of wife. Women were admired who 12 stood silently by their husbands. They were excellent m the shadow of a distinguished husband because they had that special way of being there, not for honor, but as a comfort 13 to a weary husband. Finally, these were women who adapted to any new life style no matter how displeasing to her if it 14 was what her husband wanted.

It was nearly impossible to separate the admiration of wife from that of mother. This ideal woman was sympathetic 15 to the problems of all children, not just her own. Such areas as mental retardation interested her. She had a mother's quality of tirelessness, and no matter how famous, 16 she was always just a mother. The most admirable women had a realistic awareness of today's world— a world where women were still wives and mothers, not domineering robots 17 out to beat men and the system. 61

The 1976 poll looked as though a new dimension would be added to the word courage— honesty. Women applauded

Betty Ford’s outspoken views on pre-marital sex. Also women were at least becoming aware and feeling more favor­ able toward stronger women. Much more positive things 18 were said about Shirley Chisholm and Gloria Steimen.

However, the 1977 and 1978 polls reverted back to the pre­ viously mentioned qualities. The most admired women were those who had suffered with quiet dignity tragedies from cancer to humiliated husbands. Once again the ideal woman had charm, distinction, taste, and stood by her husband to 19 quietly support him instead of "making waves herself."

Thus, a very traditional kind of vision existed in

America about the qualities of an ideal woman. Her role in the society was to be in quiet control of herself at all times, to show tender concern about all children, and to give all of herself to the wishes of her husband. Betty

Friedan argued that this traditional vision became a rhetorical one because of the devotion to such a vision 20 by the print media. As I read the Good Housekeeping comments on the "most admired women," I noticed the total support given by the magazine tothis traditional vision.

In Bormann terminology, who was at the top of the hierarchical structure? We may assume it was the women voted the most admired. In every year's poll, many of top ten places were filled consistently by the names of the

First Ladies. 62

1970 3rd Mamie Eisenhower 6 th Pat Nixon 1971 2 nd Mamie Eisenhower 6 th Pat Nixon 1972 2 nd Mamie Eisenhower 5 th Pat Nixon 1973 1 st Pat Nixon 6 th Mamie Eisenhower 1974 1 st Pat Nixon 2 nd Mamie Eisenhower 5 th Lady Bird Johnson 1975 1 st Pat Nixon 7th Betty Ford 1 0 th Mamie Eisenhower 1976 1 st Betty Ford 2 nd Pat Nixon 8 th Mamie Eisenhower 1977 1 st Pat Nixon 2 nd Betty Ford 1978 2 nd Pat Nixon 4th Rosalynn Carter 8 th Betty Ford2!

We must remember that this concept of Presidential wives as heroines has been an historical fact about American women, particularly since the early 1900's.

Regardless of how much distaste the First Lady may possess for public life, her role has power . . . to influence large numbers of women. This power bears . . . upon nearly every important tradition in our national life. Her grade and charm as a White House hostess, as well as her quiet pride in family life are . . . brought to Americans in hundreds of pictures and articles. 2 2

Let us now consider the way the print media via women's maga zines encouraged American women to hold a traditional vision of themselves in society.

First Ladies as a Continued Re-enforcement of a Traditional Rhetorical Vision About Women

I wished to look chronologically at each First Lady and her relationship to the vision of a woman's place in society.

I contend that women's magazines are an intimate form of communication, first of all, because njany women view and judge the world from magazines. Irving Shulman suggested this kind of impact of magazines on women existed as the 63 result of the research he did concerning American sub- 23 cultures. Also, women's magazines serve as a convenient way for First Ladies to "touch" a large part of the public.

To understand the traditional vision of women in our society, I looked at three areas of women's magazines: articles written about the First Ladies; theories held about the women by sociologists like Margaret Mead; and statements given by the First Ladies themselves.

In Mamie Eisenhower the public saw a friendly, outgoing lady, rather like "Mrs. Average America— garden club member and suburban housewife." Mrs. Eisenhower was feminine to the point of frivolity, and while First Lady, the White House was known as the "Pink Palace." Flowers were pink, rooms were pink, and the First Lady's dresses were pink. Staff meetings with Mamie Eisenhower often took place while she was still in bed, wearing a dainty, pink ruffled bed jacket and with a pink bow in her hair.

But this breezy, affectionate, and sentimental First

Lady always received the highest praise for being Ike's unassuming wife. Her job on the platform was to stand by quietly as her husband said, "Here's my Mamie" and to respond 24 to cheers with "Thank you very much. You are very kind."

Mrs. Eisenhower received praise because she needed no period of adjustment to learn White House routines. Her job in the White House was to see that everything ran smoothly in its 54 rooms and 16 baths. It was written 64 that the role of First Lady took many talents, all of which Mamie had been trained in.

It takes a self-confident and cosmopolitan woman to preside over the White House. She is the cus­ todian of a national shrine, the hostess who rep­ resents the nation. * Everything about her . . . is subject to public scrutiny . . . from her hats to her handshake.25

We understand Mrs. Eisenhower's idea about running the

White House, if we consider her days in Europe. While in

Europe, the Eisenhowers had been feted by royalty, and

Mrs. Eisenhower was determined to bring to her Executive

Mansion all the grandeur and autocracy of those palaces, as well as the status she felt due the First Lady of the land. Yet, this "queenly" First Lady took such fastidious care of the White House, her staff almost believed it was hers. Mrs. Eisenhower was truly alarmed if things went wrong— even footprintes on the new plush carpet bothered her! Finally, Mamie Eisenhower thought up infinite ways to cut corners in the White House budget. Each morning she studied the newspapers looking for bargains in foods and household items and called by telephone herself to the 2 6 heads of the various stores.

Besides the significance of Mrs. Eisenhower as a

"White House Housewife," the magazine articles were quick to point out that this gracious lady was never too busy to be a devoted grandmother and a helpful wife. Much was made of the fact that Mamie Eisenhower was still in love 65 with her husband after 36 years. She always looked at him with a truly rapt and beautiful smile. When both her son and her husband were at war, she could not live without 27 them and lost 30 pounds. Nevertheless, she was a basi­ cally cheerful woman who created an air of attractiveness and good humor around her. But Mrs. Eisenhower admitted that in the White House she was denied the small pleasures impor- 28 tant to women, like a quick shopping trip.

We get more insight into the rhetorical vision if we look at what Mami herself wrote. She said that her maturity came when she could say her first and only goal in life was to make "Ike" a good wife. As for a philosophy about women, she said small things hurt more than big ones; a hus­ band must be firm with his wife, but never casual. And women must remember a husband could never be bullied for he. was the head of the household. If Mrs. Eisenhower ever had trouble living up to this philosophy, she got away by her- 29 self and redecorated a room.

Thus, we see the ideal woman as silent on political issues, capable of running an elaborate household, poised and cheerful by nature, and devoted to her husband's and family's wishes. Mamie Eisenhower wasa woman born in the

19th century, but did the young and beautiful Jacqueline

Kennedy, born in the 20th century, represent a different rhetorical vision? 66

Margaret Mead wrote an article for Redbook entitled,

"A New Kind of First Lady." She said American women had wanted the First Ladies ' lives to be as colorless as their own. This was particularly true in the days before Eleanor

Roosevelt.

If the President's wife happened to be familiar with some phase of a guest's work, she was apt to mention it briefly, but kept the conversation within the safe limits of weather . . . and the beauties of Washington.30

A closer look at Mead showed that her view of the ideal

First Lady did not differe significantly from the rhetor­ ical visions we are discussing. Mead spent only a little time praising Jacqueline Kennedy's knowledge of the arts.

Most of the article dealt with Mrs. Kennedy's freedom to present a graceful and intimate sphere of home and husband and children. She continued by adding that such a grace­ ful sphere was the reason women enjoyed the First Lady's youth, beauty, and interest in the arts, which gave women 31 loveliness and made it easier for men to love them.

The articles written about Jacqueline Kennedy's concern themselves with much the same things written about

Mamie Eisenhower. The only difference was with the added interest in glamour and fashion. Instead of writing just about Mrs. Kennedy and her daughter doing something, we got 32 an added description of Capri pants. Home and children and husband made up her life. One article said that

Jacqueline Kennedy's former work as a photographer did not 67 make use of her talents or intellect, but it kept her 33 busy until John Kennedy could marry her. Also, as was mentioned in the previous chapter, Jacqueline Kennedy loved having a home and being an impeccable hostess. She delighted in serving fine food and spent much time learn­ ing the vintage years of great wines. Perhaps she was most highly regarded for her White House dinners.

Whatever the size or occasion Mrs. Kennedy plans the menu personally. Each course must be per­ fect. . . . Like any other careful hostess, she prefers to check the tables personally before guests arrive. . . .• Mrs. Kennedy likes the honesty and grace of garden flowers. . . . The flatware is Vermeil. . . . On cool evenings a 3 4 fire is a cheerful symbol of hospitality. . . .

Jacqueline Kennedy, when interviewed, talked mostly about her husband and children. Taking care of a home was never enough for her; she longed for more children. It was common for titles of magazines to read, "What Mothers Can 35 Learn from Jacqueline Kennedy About Bringing Up Children."

The philosophy of the First Lady was that in any family, under whatever circumstances they lived, as long as the father was the central figure of authority and the mother provided love and guidance, children had a better than average chance of turning out successfully. Mrs. Kennedy often said she felt the closest affinity to Mrs. Truman because the former First Lady brought a daughter to the

White House at a most difficult age, but managed to keep 68 her from being spoiled so that "she had made a happy 36 marriage with lovely children of her own."

Another thing in Mrs. Kennedy's life to care for was the President. She had always said that she was a wife and mother first, then a First Lady. She saw to it that instead of hot dogs and candy bars, her husband ate hot lunches sent to him on plates used to keep children's 37 food warm. She saw to it that he no longer went to work with one brown shoe and one black one. She saw to it that he met planes on time, because she did all of his packing. But, her biggest task, the thing Mrs. Kennedy devoted her life to, was to be a distraction to her poli­ tical husband and thus provide him relaxation. As Robert

Kennedy said about his sister-in-law, "Jackie is very different from Jack. That's important in a woman. Jack 38 knows that she'll never greet him "What's new in Laos?"

The life of Jacqueline Kennedy as First Lady verified once again an image in keeping with the traditional societal vision concerning women. With her beauty and classical background and education, Mrs. Kennedy gave more style to the role, but the emphasis was still on her contributions to the White House as a hostess and as a diversion to the

President. The next First Lady, Lady Bird Johnson, came to the White House as a product of southwestern culture, a veteran political wife, and a shrewd business woman.

How does this woman fit into the rhetorical vision? 69

Margaret Mead wrote that Lady Bird Johnson served as an ideal model for all American women to follow. She felt this to be true because Mrs. Johnson viewed the total woman— married/unmarried, part time/volunteer, or career.

She projected an air that said, "It is a good time to be a woman." Mead wrote that Mrs. Johnson did not believe in the "feminine mystique," because she herself was an example of a woman who combined home and children and 39 career. Essentially, Mead believed that Mrs. Johnson successfully wove together several aspects of a complicated life and reduced uncertainty about any "women's problems."

Now let us look at Mrs. Johnson's own words about how young women should deal with their roles in society.

Amid all the worries and uncertainties and the provocative doctrines about the role of the educated woman today, a remarkable young woman has been emerging in the United States. . . . She might be called . . . the complete woman. She wants to be, while being equally involved, preeminently a woman, a wife, a mother, a thinking citizen. . . . Pour back your intellect into your children's schools. . . . Improve the aesthetics of our cities. . . . Most of all, raise happy, well-balanced, level-headed families.4°

Just as Mrs. Johnson focused on the supreme woman's role as a wife and mother, the magazine articles also focused on the First Lady as a wife and mother. The writers believed, as had Mead, that a woman like Mrs. Johnson gave dignity to the role of wife. Even though she was mother, wife, and business woman, the Texan First Lady was labeled first of 70 all, a "political wife."^ Lady Bird Johnson was an ideal wife because she was kind, indefatigable, and gracious.

One writer said of her that she was a wellbred southern 42 lady who knew how to disguise her intellectual tools.

Mrs. Johnson's concern for people, as mentioned previously, fit the established rhetorical vision of women's behavior.

Her outside interests were organizations such as urban community centers. Also, she.knew how to make guests feel especially welcome in the White House.

Life in the White House has the personal, informal touch she has given every home she has created. She takes pains, but this isn't obvious. There is dignity due the occasion— yet the western breezes blow and the flavoral 'you all' makes every guest believe it was 'mighty good to see yc?u. '43

Finally, magazine writers loved to describe the special way

Mrs. Johnson took care of her husband. She might demand he take a nap even to the extent of unbuttoning his shirt to persuade reporters to leave. But most of the time she was more subtle. Any of Lady Bird Johnson's old friends were quick to say that it was most extraordinary for her to deal so directly with her husband. Tact, foresight, insight, wifely knowledge, quiet dedication, good judgment, and a sense of humor were the qualities she normally employed to ■ • 4 4 ■■■■■ help care for the President's well-being.

When asked to describe her life as a business woman,

Mrs. Johnson replied that she had only one business woman's business. We see that although Mrs. Johnson tried to live 71

the life she suggested as the "complete woman," she was most of all a homemaker. She said that her first and most important business was to provide a comfortable, peaceful, efficient, and, above all, happy home. Further, her busi­ ness was to raise her children with sturdy bodies, disci- 45 plined minds, and spiritual strength. As Mrs. Johnson

talked about marriage, happiness, and good works, we see her contributions to the rhetorical vision that permeated throughout society. The importance of marriage-meaning people being able to positively assess a man in relation­ ship to what kind of wife and family he had; happiness— meaning creating an atmosphere of joy within our homes; good works— meaning that to give peace you must have it

• ,» • 46 within.

If we consider the words of Mead, popular writers,

and Mrs. Johnson herself, we see the First Lady as represent­

ing a vision of a peaceful, warm woman who wanted to be a wife and mother. Politics, Presidents, and First Ladies

all change, but the rhetorical vision produced by each

First Lady remained the same. Pat Nixon became a new First

Lady in 1968, and her image was much the same as the pre- vious women.

The New York Times magazine summed up the kind of

First Lady Mrs. Nixon was: she never faltered in her role

of political helpmate. Pat Nixon controlled herself

completely in the political sphere; she became tailored 72

and doll-like in her appearance; she never stepped out of 47 the role of statesman's wife. For instance, Mrs. Nixon said she did not drink or smoke in public because she believed that a First Lady, as any woman, should have no bad habits. The magazine articles noted that at all times

Mrs. Nixon maintained an image of contentment and never 48 admitted to arguing with her husband or to being tired.

When the First Lady toured Viet Nam and later China, the

artides praised her because she kept her remarks light, shied away from political observations, and talked 49 "womanly things."

Not only was Pat Nixon conscious of being a political helpmate, she considered it important to act how a woman ought to act— how Middle America wanted a woman to act.

Pat Nixon went nowhere without her curler (a good wife set her own hair), sewing kit (a good wife did her own mending), and traveling iron (a good wife pressed her own 50 clothes). Pat Nixon was a woman whose own needs never mattered; she was not a wife who needed a lot of atten- 51 tion; she was selfless, patient, and uncomplaining.

Observers stated that Mrs. Nixon made it a rule to never do anything controversial. This kind of discipline that she had for herself carried over to her home, because she felt she should stay busy, but only with personal not public activities. 73

When I don't have work to do, I just think up a new project. Last night was one of the few evenings I've had to myself. So I took all Dick's suits and pressed every one. . . . I've just thought up a new project to keep me busy. I'm going to vacuum the rug and move the furni­ ture. 52

In talking about herself, the First Lady said she had had some doubts about her husband running for President in

1968. Her attitude had always been that she did not care about politics, because she felt its demands made a normal life impossible. However, she also felt a woman had to support her husband's career choice no matter how painful for her. For Mrs. Nixon, the early presidential years were not really as fulfilling or as happy as they were for her • 53 husband. Mrs. Nixon always seemed to be a prisoner of the White House. One writer noted that no better picture of the strong, sacrificing wife existed than the one of

Mrs. Nixon standing on a platform in the East Room, look­ ing like a martyred Madonna, listening to her husband's 54 resignation as President of the United States.

On a happier note, although Mrs. Nixon apparently never "adjusted" to the life in Washington, she loved the days she spent with her two daughters. Her proudest moments were when people told her how nice, warm, and friendly her children were. Mrs. Nixon also took pride in the fact that she once drove a car pool, went to Girl Scout meetings, and participated in Parent-Teacher Associations like any 74

55 worthwhile mother. Finally, when questioned about female discrimination, the First Lady stated that all women had equal rights if they wanted them; she knew there was no discrimination because her husband said so!

The New York Times Magazine concluded that Mrs. Nixon was "certified appropriately feminine." She was a wife and mother who dressed tastefully, fixed up the house attrac­ tively, entertained graciously, raised good girls, and 56 supported her husband. These qualities were in keeping with the established rhetorical vision of women's roles.

After the Watergate affair, Betty Ford became the next

First Lady; she differed from previous First Ladies. Did she create a rhetorical vision different from the previously mentioned vision?

If we look at the early magazine articles about Mrs.

Ford, we see that they covered the standard issues of wife, mother, and gracious hostess. The Fords were described as resembling wholesome families like the television series

Father Knows Best. Gerald Ford resorted to such situation- comedy devices as telling his wife that an 8 : 0 0 o'clock dinner was for 7:00 o'clock to cope with his wife's chronic 57 lateness. Also, much has been written about Mrs. Ford holding together the home with so diverse children and 58 preoccupied a husband. But with the later articles about

Betty Ford, for the first time we got a picture of a First

Lady whose life was discussed as less than ideal. Although 75 she had been a successful professional dancer, several writers suggested there was a residual bitterness from the later years when she was an unremarkable, slightly over­ weight housewife and volunteered little more than that she and her Representative husband were politically conser- 59 vative. However, as First Lady, Betty Ford freely admitted to smoking, being divorced, seeing a psychiatrist, taking tranquillizers, drinking with her husband, and sleeping 60 with him. President Ford frequently and openly admitted he sought and followed her advice in many political 61 matters. The Chairman of the National Endowment of the

Arts praised Mrs. Ford for her solidly American way of not being too pretentious to admit she did not understand some- 62 thing. It seemed that women were able to relate to

Mrs. Ford as though she was a favorite next door neighbor.

Even Marshall McLuhan acknowledged the kind of effect

Betty Ford had. He wrote that she made people feel at home in the world again; something about her suggested roots and security.^

Mrs. Ford's own words created an even stronger feel­ ing that she was a different kind of First Lady. She believed that a woman should not just live for her husband and children. As stated earlier, Mrs. Ford discussed her need to be told by a psychiatrist that she must have a life besides her husband and children. Also, Betty Ford freely admitted that the job of First Lady was difficult, 76

exhausting, and not always fun. She felt the first few weeks of the Ford Administration was a difficult transi­

tional period because of the absence of the two-months 64 period between Election Day and Inauguration Day. After retirement, Mrs. Ford planned to lobby for a salary for

First Ladies, because the position was much more a 24-hour 65 job than anyone knew. However, she was thankful for the power being First Lady gave her, particularly with the ERA.

Mrs. Ford wrote and phoned legislators in Illinois, North

Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, and Missouri to ask that the amend­ ment be allowed to get to the floor and to let people vote 66 their conscience. She acknowledged that it was a "soft- sell" approach, but she was credited with turning around many votes. Also the First Lady claimed credit for the appointment of women to Cabinet posts and wanted a woman 67 on the Supreme Court as soon as possible. Finally,

Betty Ford seemed to be a truly compassionate woman who sincerely wanted to give help. This was why there was one thing she read daily, a plaque on her bathroom wall, the

Prayer of Saint Francis.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; • . . . Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console.88

Only time will tell if the fantasy created by Mrs.

Ford will change the established rhetorical vision of women's role. The image of the women's role created by Betty Ford followed closely Betty Friedan's vision. Such

a vision said a woman needed to give and receive love, but

she must be more than a wife and mother. These two roles

not only did not necessarily bring happiness, but their

supremacy confined women's natural engergies to do other

things. Also, Mrs. Pord freely admitted that women did

not need to pretend to be always happy, cheerful, and

energetic. Does our newest First Lady, Rosalynn Carter,

strengthen the Betty Ford fantasy and help create a new

kind of thetorical vision?

At this point not enough information exists to discuss

Rosalynn Carter in terms of a rhetorical vision. However,

indications are that she will be one of our most active

First Ladies. She was a woman who longed for her daughter

and their home in Georgia when she was away, but this

compassionate, spirited and well-informed woman intended 69 to work hard to deal with the country's domestic concerns.

Rosalynn Carter was an equal partner in the Carter political

campaign and aware of a First Lady's potential for leader­

ship. Although her public concerns for mentally ill and

the aged were more wll-known, the First Lady said she would push her husband on women's rights if she had to.Not only did her husband listen to her advice, but often the First

Lady had the deciding word. Those who knew Mrs. Carter

said she always would be a power in the White House, not

an ornament. 70 78

Thus, the "certified appropriately femininine" state­ ment of wife and mother, who dressed tastefully, decorated the house attractively, entertained graciously, raised good children, and supported her husband, was the rhetori­ cal vision portrayed by the First Ladies from Mamie Eisen­ hower to Pat Nixon. Secretely, they may have wished for more roles or already had more, as must have been the case with Lady Bird Johnson and her television station. But the record of their words and behavior did not display these other roles. If Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter added more roles to the traditional vision, what this meant for women and the images they held of themselves cannot be determined simply by the present magazine articles.

The Permanence of the First Ladies 1 Contributions to Rhetorical Visions

The First Ladies have contributed to a rhetorical vision about a woman's place in society for a variety of reasons.

First, the media, particularly women's magazines, are interested in anything about the First Lady because of her position in the country. This fact has given the First

Ladies an easy opportunity to express themselves through these articles and they have chosen to talk about their lives as mothers and wives. These roles were popular mater­ ial with the First Ladies because of their traditionally uncontroversial natures and popular with the magazine 79 companies for this same reason. It is true that women envied the lady in the White House, as Shulman suggested.

The tired housewife who fell into bed after she had done the evening's dishes, put out the pets and garbage, got the children to their rooms, and left her husband— thank God — snoring before the television set--envied the lovely woman in the White House. ^

But this tired housewife could pretend to be a bit like the

First Lady if she copied what the prestigious woman said about motherhood and being a good wife. After all, the

First Ladies had a complex life being the wife of the Presi­ dent of the United States, but they still were wife and mother. Thus, a traditional view of womanhood was upheld by First Ladies and the magazines that carried their stories.

As women read about the First Ladies they admired, digested these stories as an interpretation of the world, and dis­ cussed the stories with other women, such a view about the role of women was more deeply permeated throughout society.

The question rises now, but what effect did Betty Ford have? I argue that Mrs. Ford's few years in the White House were not enough to bring about a whole new vision for

American women. She offered a new kind of fantasy for women to consider, but this one First Lady alone could do nothing more. Mrs. Ford's greatest strength was in expand­ ing the role of First Lady. The newest First Lady, Rosalynn

Carter, represents an active position like Mrs. Ford, but can we say she represents a new vision about the role of 80 women? I think not, and later in the dissertation, I will look specifically at Mrs. Carter and the future impact of

First Ladies.

How lasting are the visions contributed by these

First Ladies? I argue that the First Ladies have been used in the past as role models by many women in this country.

However, this may be changing. We must consider that because of Watergate the people who live in the White House have less appeal. Also, in the past women had no other lady to admire or look up to. This fact may no longer be true.

Finally, there are questions that go unanswered about the

Good Housekeeping polls. Do women tend to admire only the

First Ladies of their political preference? Do age, economic or educational levels affect women's preferences for the First Ladies? Do housewives react differently from career women? Although the Good Housekeeping poll ques­ tioned all kinds of women, we cannot make more than the general statement that First Ladies enhanced a traditional vision of womanhood.

In conclusion, the First Ladies' rhetorical vision offered a more realistic picture of women's views than that projected by the Women's Movement. However, let us now see what a group of 50 women of a variety of ages, education, and experiences said about themselves as women and about who has influenced the image they have about themselves as women. 81

Notes

^"Louise Bach, "Of Women, School Administration, and Discipline," Phi Delta Kappa# March 1976, p. 463.

2 Marie T. Rosenwasser, "Rhetoric and the Progress of the Women's Movement*," Today's Speech (Summer 1972), p. 54. 3 ERA-War Between the Women, ABC News Special, January 22, 1977.

^Katie Louchiem, "The Spotlight Shifts in Washington," Ladies Home Journal, Jan. 1964, p. 55. 5 Ernest G. Bormann, "Fantasy and Rhetorical Vision: The Rhetorical Criticism of Social Reality," The Quarterly Journal of Speech (1972), p. 398.

g Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique (New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1974), pp. 365-380.

7 Gn e d a n , p. 375.

Q Neil Postman, Keynote Address, SCA Convention, Summer 1974. • g "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1977, p. 10.

■^"The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1974, p. 30.

11 "The Ten Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1971, p. 30.

12 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1978, p. 30.

13 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1970, p. 12.

14 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1975, p. 20. 82

i c "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1970, p. 10.

1 6 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1971, p. 12.

17 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1972, p. 16.

1 8 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping," Jan 1976, p. 14.

19 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Good Housekeeping, Jan. 1978, p. 20.

20 Friedan, p. 49.

21 "The 10 Most Admired Women," Poll in Good Housekeeping, January issues from 1970 through 1978.

22 Louchiem, p. 55.

23 Irving Shulman, Jackie; The Exploitation of a First Lady (New York: Trudent Press, 19 70), p. 8 .

24Robert Wallace, "They Like Mamie, Too," Life. Oct. 13, 1952, p. 149.

25 New York Times Magazine, May 10, 1953, p. 17.

26 J. B. West, Upstairs at the White House (New York: Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan, Inc., 1973), p. 45.

2 ^Wallace, p. 149.

28 Ed Clark, "A Rare Picture Visit: The First Lady at Home— Mrs. Eisenhower Fulfills Many Roles," Life. Oct. 20, 1958, p. 60.

29 Alden Hatch, "Red Carpet for Mamie," Ladies Home Journal, May 1954, p. 137. 83

^Margaret Mead, "A New Kind of First Lady," Redbook, Feb. 1962, p. 6 8 .

3 1 Mead, p. 72.

32 Betty Hannah Hoffman, "What is it Like to Marry a Kennedy?," Ladies Home Journal. Oct. 1962, p. 60.

33 Igor Cassini, "How the Kennedy Marriage Has Fared," Good Housekeeping, Sept. 19, 1962, p. 183.

34Elaine Ward-Hanna, "Perfect Little Dinners From the White House," Ladies Home Journal. Nov. 1962, p. 82.

3 3 Shulman, p. 44.

36 Mar Van Rensselain Thayer, Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years (Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1967), p. 231.

3 ^Cassini, p. 184.

38 Pear S. Buck, The Kennedy Women (New York: Cowles Book Co., Inc., 1970), p. 83.

39 Margaret Mead, "Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson: A New Kind of First Lady," Redbook, July 1965, p. 12. 4^Lady Bird Johnson, A White House Diary (New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1955), p. 160.

4 ^Mead, p. 14.

42 Katie Louchiem, "Her Interest is People," Ladies Home Journal, March 1969, p. 126.

43 Louchiem, p. 126.

44 Ruth Montgomery, "What Kind of a Woman xs Our Fxrst Lady?," Good Housekeeping, June 1964, p. 40.

45 Louchxem, p. 126. 84

^^William Adier, "The Common Sense Wisdom of Three First Ladies/' Good Housekeeping, March 1966, p. 94.

^Judith Viorst, "Pat Nixon is the Ultimate Good Sport," The New York Times Magazine, Sept. 13, 1970, p. 25.

AQ Helen Thomas, Dateline: The White House (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1975), p. 170.

AQ Thomas, p. 141.

Viorst, p. 25.

51 Flora Schreiber-, "Pat Nixon Reveals for the First Time 'I Didn't Want Lick to Run Again,'" Good Housekeeping, July 1962, p. 138.

^2Margary Byers, "The Girl He Chased," Life, Oct. 11, 1968, p. 42.

C O Edwin Hoyt, The Nixons: An American Family (New York: Random House” 1972), p. 297.

54 Thomas, p. 225.

55 Trude B. Feldman, "Mrs. Nixon Tells How She Brought up Tricia and Julie," McCalls, March 1969, p. 74.

5 ^Viorst, p. 139.

57 Trude B. Feldman, "The Closed Family m Washington," McCalls, May 1974, p. 94. * 58 Jean L. Block, "The Betty Ford Nobody Knows," Good Housekeeping, May 1974, p. 138.

59 Myra MacPherson, "The Blooming of Betty Ford," McCalls, Sept. 1975, p. 122.

^°MacPherson, p. 120.

61 Betty Ford," The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 8 , 1975, p. 64. 85

go "Betty Ford," The New York Times Magazine. Dec. 8 , 1975, p. 64.

63"Betty Ford," The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 8 1975, p. 6 8 .

^Jerald F. ter Horst, 'Gerald Ford and the Nature of the Presidency,(New York: Okpapu Publishing Co., Inc 1974), p. 199.

65"Betty Ford," The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 8 1975, p. 80.

66 DD"Betty Ford," The New York Times Magazine, Dec. 8 1975, p. 80.

67 MacPherson, p. 124.

68 MacPherson, p. 126.

^Charlotte Curtiss, "What Kind of First Lady Will She Be?," McCalls. Jan. 1977, p. 24.

70 Clare Crawford and Joyce Leviton, "The Leap From Plains to Pennsylvania Avenue; How Rosalynn Will Do it," People, Nov. 15, 1976, pp. 23, 26.

71 Shulman, p. 31. CHAPTER IV

THE REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE AND UNDERSTANDING • WOMEN'S ROLE IN SOCIETY

Mention was made in the previous chapter that, although the rhetorical vision created by the First Ladies reached many women, there were questions left unanswered about the specifics of the vision. The purpose of this chapter is to discover the less obvious dimensions of the vision. Anthony

Ryle wrote that too often the people who study the meaning of words, gestures, and symbolic actions fail to look for the less obvious answers. He argued that the repertory grid technique offered one way to move beyond a haphazard analysis of human understanding.^ Appropriately we can turn to

George Kelly's personal construct theory as a method to move beyond a "happhazard" understanding of women's role in society. This chapter looks at: (1) Kelly's Personal

Construct Theory, (2) The uses of the Repertory Grid,

(3) The administration of the Repertory Grid, (4) The

analysis of the Repertory Grid, and (5) The Focused Inter­ view as a complimentary technique to the grid.

86 87

Kellys Personal Construct Theory

Although personally and professionally we devote much time to making sense of ourselves and others, perhaps we fail to do so very consistently. George Kelly argued that the reason is because we restrict our attention to specific aspects. For instance, we separate thinking from feeling, behavior from experience, the individual from the group, and form from content. Yet, to thoroughly understand per­ sonal relationships, we are forced to consider all of 2 these aspects together.

Kelly viewed the nature of man as consisting of two basic attributes— the need to relate to others and the need to make sense of experiences. Kelly argued that the relat­ ing to and understanding of another person has achieved to the extent that we know how that person goes about the task 3 of "making sense of his world." Also, important to Kelly's theory was the fact that he insisted the need to understand and predict behavior was not unique to himself or to

% scientists, but was fundamental to the way people exist in 4 the world. In the end, what we hope to understand about an individual is his personal construct system. To understand the terminology of personal construct system, think of the system as a set of models of the world. A model (called a construct) is made up of experiences (called elements) which can be compared or contrasted. These experiences may be verbal or preverbal and conscious or unconscious. Thus, 88 as experiences make constructs, interrelated constructs make up a system which is to some degree shared with others and to some degree unique to the individual. How- 5 ever, the system is not immutably fixed. In summary,

Kelly argued that human being understand the world around them and choose to act in it by organizing their past experiences into a system of predictable and desirable outcomes. The following are Kelly's original theoretical statements and a translation of each.

1. Fundamental Postulate

"A person's processes are psychologically

channelized by the ways in which he antici­

pates events," or he thinks and acts accord­

ing to what he expects to happen.

2. Construction Corollary

"A person anticipates events by construing

their replications," or he notices what events

tend to repeat themselves.

3. Individual Corollary

"Persons differ from each other in their con-

i structions of events," or they see things

differently.

•4. • Organization Corollary

"Each person characteristically evolves, for

his convenience in anticipating events, a 89 construction system embracing ordinal relationships between constructs," or he ranks them.

5. Dichotomy Corollary * * "A person's construction system is composed of a finite number of dichotomous constructs," or he holds opposites to any meaning.

.6 . Choice Corollary

"A person chooses for himself that alterna­ tive in a dichotomized construct through which he anticipates the greater possibility for extension and definition of his system," or he tries to relate to the world as fully as possible and to know himself.

7. Range Coro11ary

"A construct is convenient for the anticipa­ tion of a finite range of events on," or a particular way of dealing with the world must be relevant in application.

8 . Experience Corollary

"A person's construction system varies as he successively construes the replications of events," or he changes his ways of coping with the world depending upon what works. 90

9. Modulation Corollary

"The variation in a person's construction system is limited by the permeability of the constructs within whose range of conven­ ience the variants lie," or anyone who is open and flexible can deal with a variety of circumstances.

10. Fragmentation Corollary

"A person may successively employ a variety of construction subsystems which are inferen- tially incompatible with one another," or he may deal with different parts of the world in different ways, which to an outsider may appear unrelated.

11. Commonality Corollary

"To the extent that one person employs a con­ struction of experience which is similar to that employed by another, his psychological processes are similar to those of another per­ son," or the more similarity they interpret things the more they tend to think along the same lines.

12. Sociality Corollary

"To the extent that one person construes the construction process of another, he may play a role in a social process involving the other 91 .

person," or the more he can see things from

the other's viewpoint the better he can 6 communicate with him.

What does Kelly's theory suggest for the rhetorician?

First, as one views Kelly's use of the term construct, he or she may be reminded of Burke's concept of terministic 7 screens which color individuals' view of the world.

Second, the previous chapter's discussion of women's place in society is similar to Kelly's definition of role. Kelly explained role as an on-going pattern of behavior that fol­ lows from a person's understanding of how the others who g are associated with him in his task think. Although the vision created by the First Ladies via the print media offered one concept of where women get their ideas about how to act, Kelly's theory allows us to look at women's role in terms of the relationship between their past exper­ iences and expected outcomes. This theory offers a more in-depth understanding of women's images within society.

The Uses of the Repertory Grid

Ryle wrote that the point of psychological testing in general and of repertory grids (which evolved from

Kelly's theory) in particular is to enable the subject to communicate matters relevant to those aspects of his psychology which are under investigation and to abstract from all of his communication measures the most significant 92

9 aspects. In the case of this study, the grid is used to

measure how women talk about what it means to be a woman

in today's world. However, the repertory grid techniques

have been used traditionally in clinical situations to

look at such people as arsonists and suicidal persons. In

these situations the therapist tries to discover the kinds

of personal construct system that would make a respectable man commit arson or a responsible teenager attempt suicide.

Although in his book Ryle addressed those professionally

concerned with assisting and measuring patients with per­

sonal difficulties, he suggested that the grid' be used by people other than social workers, psychologists, and psy­

chiatrists. Ryle wanted teachers and business managers to

find how helpful repertory grids could be in their struggle

to make sense of personal relationships.^-0

As Ryle discussed the future of therepertory grid, he

noted two particularly satisfactory new uses. The first is with administration to children; children appear to be

able to employ grid techniques easily. The second is with

administration to groups of people. Ryle and Breen used

the grid to see how construct systems of doctors differed

from construct systems of social workers.^ Also, by the

use of grids, Ryle and Breen compared a group of seven

maladjusted married couples with a group of seven happily 12 married couples. Ryle notes that it is unlikely that

the uses of the repertory grid technique would become 93 static, because people drawn to the personal construct 13 approach are generating more uses for the data. For these reasons and because of the Watson research on the grid and groups,^ I argue that it is acceptable to use the grid technique with the groups of women selected for this particular study. Although Ryle did not relate the use of the grid with rhetoric, we can assume he would appre­ ciate the relationship because of his excitement over anthropoligists using the grid to study roles within c a s t e s . ^

The Administration of the Repertory Grid

We must consider initially the five basic issues prior to administering the grid. (At the end of this chapter is an example of the repertory grid form used for this study.) •

First, the technique consists essentially of systematically comparing elements against constructs. Second, the elements must be comparable— you cannot compare people and vegetables!

Also, the construct used to describe the elements must be 16 equally applicable to all the elements. Third, three elements rather than two must be used to build the constructs.

Kelly believed that three is.the minimum number necessary for recognition of similarities and differences and to 17 elicit the terms defining both poles of the construct.

Fourth, the investigator must decide what part he will play in helping the individual select elements and later 94 choose constructs. Fifth, the investigator must decide who is to be tested.

For this study, I chose to test five groups of women with each group consisting of ten women. I chose the par­ ticular women for a variety of reasons— they fit a cate­ gory; they worked with me; they knew me personally; they knew my family; they knew friends of mine; they lived in different states; and they represented a variety of exper­ iences. Below is a brief sketch of the categories and of the women in this study.

1. College students— these women ranged

in age 18 to 2 1 ; they attended private col­

leges or state universities; they lived in

Kentucky or Indiana; and all were single.

2. Young women— this group ranged in age from

25 to 38; the education level ranged from

high school degrees to Masters degrees; the

women lived in Kentucky, Indian, and Ohio;

the group ranged.from homemakers to career

women; the women were single, married, or

divorced; and there were those who had child­

ren and those who were childless.

3. Middle-aged women— these women ranged in age

from 42 to 58; the education ranged from high

school degrees to a doctorate degree; the

women lived in Kentucky and Indiana; the group 95

ranged from homemakers to career women;

the women were single, married, or divorced;

and there were those who had children and

those who did not.

4. Older women— these women ranged in age from

60 to 69; the education ranged from high

school degrees to doctorate degrees; the women

lived in Kentucky and Indiana; they ranged

from homemakers to career women; the women

were single, married, or divorced; and there ’

were those who had children and those who did

not.

5. Women without high school degrees— the women

ranged in age from 30 to 90; the education

ranged from the eighth grade to beautician's

school; they lived in Kentucky or Indiana; they

all considered themselves housewives; they were

married or divorced; and they all had children.

In looking for women to participate in this study, only

two women refused to see me. Of the other 50 who agreed,

one lady could not do a grid because she could not see well

enough and one would not do the grid after she discovered what it entailed. More will be discussed about these two women in the following chapter. I arranged the appointments with the 50 women at their convenience. I went to their

homes; I allowed at least two hours per session; I played 96 played down the "testing" approach and emphasized that I wanted to talk with them about being a woman. I gave the following instructions for the grid to each woman.

Step 1. Choose 12 women, about some of whom you

feel positively and some of whom you feel

negatively. In the 12, include at least

four First Ladies from Mamie Eisenhower,

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Lady Bird

Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, and

Rosalynn Carter. You may use even five

or six First Ladies to complete the list

of 1 2 ; the other women may be women you

know much more personally than the First

Ladies. If you need clarification, please

ask. Put the name of the women on each of

the small pieces of paper which have been

numbered 1 to 1 2 .

Step 2. Compare and contrast persons 1, 2, and 3.

How are two of these women similar, but

different from the third in some way that

describes them as women? In other words,

what distinguishes two of them from a third

one? Call a distinguishing characterstic

a construct and the opposite the contrast.

Record your opinion the following way:

Construct Contrast (fair) (unfair) « 97

Continue until you have compared all

of the listed numbers. I told the women

that they could not use the same con­

struct twice. I encouraged the women to

express themselves in one word, but I let

them talk about the elements until they

recognized the wording of a construct. I

chose the 1 1 th and 1 2 th constructs for all

the grids: "Like I am," and "Like I Wish

I Were."

Step 3. Arrange the 12 slips of papers with the

women's names so you can see them at once.

Review the first construct you chose and

ask yourself which woman is the strongest

example of that characteristic. Place the

slip of paper at the top and continue rank­

ing the slips until the last one is at the

bottom and the least like that characteris­

tic. Read your list of numbers to me. (I

recorded the list by putting the number of

the woman most like the characteristic at

the top of the row and continuing until the

bottom spot represented the woman least

like the characteristic.) Now go to the

second construct and rank the women in the 98

same way. Continue until you have ranked

the women for all 12 constructs.

The Analysis of the Repertory Grid

The data were run through a correlation computer pro­ gram called, at the Ohio State University, the Repertory

Grid Analysis. If the data are to be analyzed without a computer, it is a matter of transposing .the data and finding the relationship between constructs by subtracting numbers in each cell, squaring the difference, and totaling the squares. The totals are transferred to grid scores by a 18 Correlation and Grid Score for 12 Item Table. Although the object of the mathematical analysis of a grid is to reveal the structure of a grid, not to impose the investi- 19 gator's structure on it, there must be some organized way to analyze the data. I studied the grid score matrix in four ways. (1) After noting what specific constructs the women elicited, what were the strengths of the correlation between constructs? As a guideline, I used the following scale:

Grid scores 20-39 ....Moderate strength

Grid scores 40-59....Marked strength

Grid scores 60-79....Strong strength

Grid scores 80+...... High strength

If the scores were unusually low or high, the scale was adjusted to keep from imposing too much of my own structure. 99

The essential idea is to see differing relationships.

(2) What did the constructs "Like I am" and "Like I Wish

I Were" reveal about the ways women defined their roles in society? (3) What kinds of variance scores were seen in the grids? Constructs with high variance scores are more resistant to change than constructs with lower var­ iances. (4) What can be learned about women in today's society by looking at the grids as a group?

The Focused Interview as a Complimentary Technique to the Grid

It is a mistake to claim that the repertory grid tech­ nique can stand alone without specific interaction between the investigator and the women. Thus, after each woman concluded the repertory grid, I involved her in a focused interview. Let us consider how to define a focused inter­ view, create an effective one, and develop proper questions.

The focused interview differs in several aspects from other 20 seemingly similar types of interviews. First, the per­ sons interviewed are known to have been involved in a particular situation. In the case of this study, they were women who participated in a psychological experiment con­ cerning what it means to be a woman. Second,the signifi­ cant patterns of the common situation of the interviews have been analyzed by the interviewer. This means the interviewer has made predetermined decisions concerning what were the significant aspects of the stiuation for 100 those involved in it. As the result of the previous situational analysis, the interviewer takes the third step by developing an interview guide. The guide sets forth the major areas of inquiry which provide criteria for the data to be obtained in the interview. Fourth, the interview is focused on the subjective experiences of persons exposed to the common situation in an effort to ascertain their definitions of the situations.

As interviewer in this part of the study, I tried to increase the effectiveness of the focused interview by concentrating on range, specificity, depth, and personal 21 context.

1. Range: to enable interviewers to maximize

the reported range of evocative elements and

patterns in the stimulus as well as the range

of responses.

2. Specificity: to elicit highly specific reports

of the aspects of the stimulus situation to

which interviewees have responded.

3. Depth: to help interviewees to describe the

affective, cognitive, and evaluative meanings

of the situation.

4. Personal Context: to bring out the attributes

and prior experiences of interviewees which

endow the situation with these distinctive

meanings. 101

In the questions I developed for the interview, I 22 kept in mind three issues. First, the questions must enhance a nondirective approach. This means the questions give the interviewees an opportunity to express herself about matters of central significance to her rather than those presumed to be important by the interviewer. Second, unstructured questions must be used to lead the interviewee to indicate the foci of attention. Thus, she has an entirely free choice. For instance, the questions, "What impressed you most in this book?" is a freer question than

"Judging from the book, do you think that the German fight­ ing equipment was better than the equipment used by the

Americans?" The latter kind of question leads to an oral questionnaire rather than a focused interview. Third, questions must enhance a retrospective approach to report­ ing the detail. This means rather than expecting the ques.tions to elicit everything that has happened to a woman in her lifetime, the questions recall immediate reactions to the past and report present reactions to the past.

While keeping in mind the issues of nondirection, unstructure, and retrospection, I developed the following questions for the focused interview.

1. Why did you pick the First Ladies you did

for the grid?

2. Have any First Ladies influenced you? How? 102

3. Has any person influenced who you are as

a woman?

4. How do you feel about the term "women's

liberation"?

5. What will you be doing in five years? In

ten years?

6. How did you feel while doing the repertory

grid?

7. Has your idea about being a woman ever

changed?

8. Are you like your mother? In personality?

In goals?

9. Do you think about what it means to be a woman?

10. How do you feel about the ERA? "Total Woman"?

Betty Friedan? Martha Movement?

To record the data, I had planned to use a tape recorder.

However, the women preferred to "just talk" to me. Thus,

I took detailed notes and immediately developed the notes

after each session. My procedure was highly similar to

taking field notes in participant observation, and I caught

the detail.anc| essence of the interviews. Notes revealed the great length of time most women spoke to me. The array of responses I received helped me to better define the women's ideas about themselves, but their responses are not raw data ready for interpretation. These data are interpretations from the women. I will use their interpretations to verify or 103

contradict the grid results, but is is the women saying why they act as they do, not the investigator.

In conclusion, I compared the image of women as dis­

cussed in the previous chapter on rhetorical vision with the

data from the repertory grids and the focused interviews.

The next chapter presents the results. 104

Repertory Grid Sheet

N a m e :

were I I 1 , 2 , 3 1 0 , 4 , 7 5 , 8 , 9 wish wish 6 , 1 1 , 1 2 H I 3 , 8 , 1 2 <1> 1. 7 . 5 2 . 4 . 6 •H f hJ £ £ Like Women 1. 2. 3- 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11 •

1.

2<

3. • 4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

/ 105

Notes

^Anthony Ryle, Fram s and Cages: The Repertory Grid Approach to Human Understanding (New York: International University Press, Inc., 1975),p. 2. O George A. Kelley, A Theory of Personality: The Psychology of Personal Construct (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1963), pp. xi-xii. 3 Kelley, p. 8.

^Kelly, p. 5. 5 Ryle, p. 7.

g Robert Monaghan, "The Repertory Grid: Application to Ascertaining Viewer Needs," Educational Broadcasting Review (Feb. 1972), pp. 40-41. 7 D. Bannister, Perspectives in Personal Construct Theory (London: Academic Press, 1970), pp. 134-135.

8Kelly, p. 97.

8Ryle, p. 30.

10Ryle, p. 5.

^Anthony Ryle and Dana Breen, "Change in the Course of Social-Work Training: A Repertory Grid Study," British Jounral of Medical Psychology, 47 (1974), 139.

12 Anthony Ryle and Dana Breen, "A Comparison of Adjusted and Maladjusted Couples Using the Double Dyad Grid," British Journal of Medical Psychology, 45 (1974), 375. ■ ■.

13Ryle, p. 139.

14 J. P. Watson, "A Repertory Grid Method of Studying Groups," British Journal Psychiatry, 17, 309-318. 106

15Ryle, p. 138.

16„ , Ryle, p. 25.

17Ryle, p. 27.

^ M o n a t h a n explains the process completely in "The Repertory Grid Application to Ascertaining Viewer Needs," E B R , Feb. 1972, p. 40.

19 Patrick Slater, "The Measurement of Consistency m Repertory Grids," British Journal Psychiatry, 121 (1972), 45.

20 Robert Monaghan, "A Fast Look at the Focused Inter­ view, Menton-Fiske-Kendall," lecture given at The Ohio State University, Feb. 23, 1977.

21 Monaghan lecture, Feb. 23, 1977.

22 Monaghan lecture, Feb. 23, 1977. CHAPTER V

THE RESULTS OF THE REPERTORY GRID TECHNIQUE AS A TOOL TO UNDERSTAND WOMEN'S ROLE IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

The purpose of this chapter is to consider the results

of the repertory grids combined with the focused interviews

as a method to better understand women and their behavior.

The chapter covers four areas: (1) the results of the

repertory grids; (2) the results of the focused interviews;

(3) the relationship between both grids and interviews and

the rhetorical visions created by First Ladies; and (4) the

. conclusions of the worth of the overall approach.

The Repertory Grid

As investigator, I planned to interview 50 women.

With, this number, each of the five groups (college, young

women, middle-aged, older women, and women without high

school diplomas) would consist of 10 women. Although I was

not concerned with a large sample size, using 10 grids per

group made it easier to see recurring patterns. Only two

of the 50 grids had to be disregarded. In the first

instance, a woman in theolder group could not see well

enough to read the names on the pieces of paper. We tried

.107 . 108 several approaches including my repeating the names of the women she chose, but she failed to consistently remem­ ber what she had said. There simply was no way to keep track of. the ranking in her mind. The second case was in the group without high school diplomas. This woman refused to rank the people. She became so hostile that I chose to leave her home before she asked me to leave (though she had agreed willingly to be interviewed). The other women felt a variety of ways about the grid experience, but each of them part-.cipated easily and gladly. Let us look at how the women defined their concepts of themselves by consider­ ing the constructs they chose, the relationship between the constructs, and the variances of the constructs.

After looking at all the repertory grids, several patterns became evident. The constructs fell into five categories: how a woman acts; how she thinks; how she feels; and how she looks. For the purpose of explanation, the following terminology will be used: behavioral traits

(acts); intellectual traits (thinks); philosophical traits

(believes); emotional traits and physical traits (looks).

In all the groups and with all the women, behavioral con­ structs were chosen much more frequently than the other kinds of traits. Also the behavioral traits set a pattern because each of the constructs dealt with either strength, self-worth, communication, helpfulness, honesty, light­ heartedness, or manners. As we begin to look at the 109 constructs chosen by these five groups of women, we must discuss the constructs in relationship to the implied ques­ tions, expectations, and permanence of their roles.

Summary of Constructs chosen

Tables 1 through 10 follow immediately after this dis­ cussion. Table 1 showed that the college students were most concerned with strength. The women wondered if they should be independent. They asked, "If I am independent, will I be called unfeminine?" "Pushy" and "overpowering" were definitely negative concepts. Confusion existed from how athletic should a woman be to how would a future husband respond to an independent woman. As we might expect from college students, the next largest area of behavioral traits was "light-heartedness." Besides wanting to have fun, to enjoy life, and to be spirited, the women longed for a less pressured world. We can attribute part of this pressure to the problems of the college environment, but some of the pressures must be the result of all the conflicting questions about role.

It is with the communication constructs that there was the least uncertainty for the college students. These women chose constructs, such as, communicating well, talkative, outgoing, friendly, and open. However, the one construct they had doubt about was outspoken. As with the constructs ' \ • about strength, the students were not sure how acceptable 110 outspoken behavior would be. Although these women chose

a good many constructs concerning self-worth, once again we can see the confusion. For the college woman, it was necessary to think well of herself and present herself well to the public, but she could become too image con­ scious. College women are looking for just the right concern about image. The last three areas of behavioral traits do not seem to matter as much to this group. The students wanted to be helpful by encourageing people, but not to the point of self-sacrifice. Honesty was a question of no pretense, as the women did not want to be showy or fake. Lastly, in this age group manners was not a set of rules, but simply the acceptance of the importance of tact.

As noted earlier, Table 2 showed that the college students chose very few constructs that did not explain how they were to act. This was the one group where we might expect to find more intellectual constructs since they were in college. Although the students believed in education and in awareness of public affairs, they questioned the worth of-ambition or success. Philosophically they believed it was' best for a woman to keep an open mind, but at all times be realistic as to what she might accomplish. Their emotional constructs were very traditional; the students chose words, such as, mothering, loving, and caring.

Finally, there was very little emphasis on concern for physical constructs, though we must note the occasional I l l choices of constructs, such a$ beautiful, stylish, and appearance conscious.

Table 3 showed that the young women in their mid twenties to late thirties emphasized different questions about their role as women. Although strength was still the area of most behaviorial constructs, these women were not asking, "Should I be strong?" but "Could I be strong?"

Typical questions were: "Can I do things alone?" Can I get along without a husband?" "Can I have my own interests?"

"Can I keep busy?" and "Can I be independent?"

When the young women talked about self-worth, the second largest number of behavioral constructs, they had more clearcut definitions than the college students did.

Issues were considered such as the need to be seen, money, ambition for husband, class, and social status. At all times the women seemed to be defining their worth outside of themselves and in terms of what other people expected of them, not what they themselves believed. Also, these women had many more constructs concerning helpfulness than did the college girls. The young women used words like thoughtful, reliable, unselfish, and humanitarianism. It might seem unusual that the construct "cook" was chosen.

However, if we note that the wife as a cook was considered a great help to the family, the construct is more under­ standable. Both the communication and the honesty constructs of

the young women were much the same as the college students.

The-young women did not focus as much on communication as

did the college students, but the emphasis was still one

of being outgoing and talkative. Honesty was viewed once

again as being sincere, not phony. However, with the

behavioral trait manners, we see more rules than with the

college students. The issue of a woman being mannerly

meant she was composed, dignified, and not rude. It is

interesting that whereas the college women wanted to be

light-hearted and had many constructs about it, the young

women had only one mention of a light-hearted construct—

fun. As we look at the following discussion of traits, we

can see why these women have little concern for "fun."

Table 4 showed the constructs representative of

traits other than behavioral traits. Once again the young

women were asking "Could I" questions, particularly with

the intellectual traits and the philosophical traits.

Intellectual questions were "Could I be professional?

Could I have a career early? Could I be a whole person?"

Also, the constructs of professional and career must be

considered amidst constructs asking the questions "Could f I be intelligent? Ambitious? Powerful?" It is important

to note that the young women had just as many emotional

constructs as intellectual ones. The emotional constructs

were admiring religion, motherhood, understanding, and 113

warmth. The young women seemed to doubt that the emo­

tional constructs fit the intellectual ones. Once again,

the“philosophical traits were asking "Could I" questions

about sexual freedom, liberalism, and idealism. Finally,

it is to be expected that none of these young women chose

any physical constructs because in the midst of their

soul searching about roles, these women had little time to

worry about how they look.

Table 5 showed that the middle-aged women chose the

same number of constructs for each behaviorial area as the

young women, but the specific constructs offered a new

meaning. Whereas strength previously meant "Should I be

strong? or "Could I be strong?" the middle-aged women said

"I am strong!" The strength is usually in terms of wife—

strong-willed, strong wife, organized, hard working— , but

there was no doubting what they had accomplished. However,

the constructs concerning self-worth showed women questioning

their worth in terms of other people's expectations. A few women chose the construct "down to earth," but most women \ were concerned with social status, worldliness, and public worth.

These women seemed to use both the home and outside the home for their definition of helpfulness. There were the usual constructs of homey, cook, and likes to entertain which defined helpfulness within the home. Nevertheless, women were using the constructs to ask questions such as 114

"How can I help the common person or crusade for causes?"

It is interesting that even though the middle-aged women were concerned about communication , their constructs were

less extroverted than the previously discussed women. The women emphasized pleasing personalities, humor, and not. whining. Their definition of honesty was the usual one— genuine. Manners continued to be defined with more rules than it was with the previous groups. The women used constructs such as sweet, ladylike, poised, and not crabby.

The final difference in the way middle-aged women defined how to act as a woman was with their light-heartedness constructs. The women spoke not only of fun, but of being easy-going, unmeticulous, and enjoyer of life.

If we turn to Table 6 , we see that the middle-aged women added a new definition to intellectual traits. These women used the constructs creative and artistic which were different ways to view intellectualism. Also, the women chose the usual constructs educated and informed, constructs that were more like the college students' interpretation as career. If we not the philosophical constructs, we see the women talking.about their role as homemakers, youthful thinkers, and political citizens. The middle-aged women were as likely to be active in the home as outside of it, but they were beginning to think of themselves in relation­ ship to age. Emotionally, they did not differ from the previous descriptions of warm, motherly, and religious. 1

115

-finally/ with the physical constructs we see both an

layortance and a stronger emphasis on how a woman looks.

Those women used constructs, such as, stylish, appearance,

9 n d healthy. I feel the importance is because such things

vifere taught ardently to the women and as they become older,

physical appearance becomes ever more important.

As we turn to Table 7, we note that the constructs

chosen by the older women emphasized helpfulness. These

older women viewed helpfulness as dependability and concern

f o r the family, neighbors, and church. Strength was less

important to the older women and they saw it in terms of

patience, commonsense, and taking care of the husband.

Although these women in some ways defined their self-worth

in terms of social status, equally important were their

roots— farms, small towns, and former states where they had

lived. Communication traits could be summed up in one

construct— friendly. These older women chose only a few

constructs for the last three behavioral traints. Light­

heartedness had constructs, such as, fun, not exacting, not

perfectionist, and not sensible. However, the older women put more emphasis on light-heartedness as not sensible

rather than as fun. They viewed manners without the detailed rules of the middle-aged, but with the same

constructs as sweet and courteous. Last, these older women used the same kinds of constructs as all the other groups

to discuss honesty— no pretense. . 1 1 6

Table 8 listed the order of the other traits chosen

by older women— intellectual, emotional, and philosophical.

The&e women defined intellectual. traditionally, as ori- finality, smart, insightful, and educated. However, the key issue with older women about intellectualism was the question "Did you do the most with what you had?" For these women the emotional traits had the most constructs repre­ senting motherhood— motherly, likes children, and accept­

ing children. We must note that these older women used

the construct of acceptance more frequently than did the other groups of women. Philosophically, the older women

\aere very much like the middle-aged women. They focused on politics and youthful ideas, and they added the construct of Christianity. Finally, these women, like the younger women, chose no physical constructs.

Table 9 showed that the women without high school diplomas, as had the older women, put emphasis on helpful­

ness. Once again, the constructs were concerned with being

a good housekeper, cook, family member, church member, and neighbor. Of second importance was communication. but these women of varying ages and without high school diplomas viewed communication in a more reserved way. They used constructs, suchas, calm, soft-spoken, quiet, and listener.

Also, the women were different from those in the other groups in that they equated strength with hardship. They often chose the constructs endurance and the ability to 117

withstand trouble. As previously discussed, the women

viewed their self-worth in terms of social status and

inateridlism* For these women, honesty took on a new

dimension. Although the women used the usual construct

►sincere," they added to the construct "always the same."

The Women admired people who always treated people consis-

•tently well. Last, these women had little to say about

th e remaining two behavorial traits. Lightheartedness

Was viewed somewhat negatively with the constructs flighty

and not level-headed. Manners had only two constructs— nice and sweet— which was different from several of the o th er groups which used many more constructs to suggest a

l i s t of rules for manners.

Table 10 showed the remaining traits. The emphasis on emotional traits concerned the constructs courage and happy.

In discussing philosophical traits, these women used constructs such as homemaker, moral, and young ideas. For the most part, they defined intellectual as artistic and musical, rather than emphasizing education, public affairs, or careers. Finally, these women without high school dip­ lomas seemed as interested in physical traits as the other traits listed in the table, and they chose constructs such as appearance and fashion. These women, as with the older and middle-aged women, did less questioning of their roles than had the young women and college students. 118

TABLE 1

BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY COLLEGE STUDENTS

Behavioral Traits: Strength, Light-heartedness, Communica- tion, Self -worth, Helpfulness, Honesty, Manners

STRENGTH LIGHT-HEARTEDNESS constructs: Constructs: aggressive unstrict unfeminie unpressured •(2 ) athletic unnervous

l l \ husband second easy to get along pushy with independent enjoys life overpowering spirited demanding giddy (2 ) opinionated (2 ) fun positive C2) domineering own person

COMMUNICATION SELF-WORTH Constructs: Constructs: (2 ) talkative (2 ) high self image (4) outgoing materialistic (2 ) friendly presents self well (5) outspoken image conscious (3) open fears public quiet worldly communicates well

HELPFULNESSHONESTY Constructs: .Constructs: responsible not showy encouraging unfake (2 ) not self-centered easy to know by self-sacrificing looking at helpful (2 ) sincere

MANNERS Constructs: mannerly tactful ♦Numbers by the side of constructs represent how many women chose the construct. 119

TABLE 2

filOtf-BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY COLLEGE STUDENTS

------■" — Traits Constructs % world affairs alert *(2 ) educated ft. .INTELLECTUAL ambitious. successful wise know thyself

(2 ) conservative (2 ) thinks young B. PHILOSOPHICAL open-minded new ideas (2 ) liberal realistic

(2 ) motherly (2 ) loving (2 ) warm C. EMOTIONAL (3) caring courage inner strength emotional

(2 ) appearance conscious !>• PHYSICAL beautiful stylish

♦Numbers by the side of the constructs represent how many women c h o se th e c o n s t r u c t . 120

TABLE 3

BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY YOUNG WOMEN

-Behavioral Traits: Strength, Self-worth, Helpfulness, Com­ munication, Honesty, Manners, Light­ heatedness

STRENGTH SELF-WORTH Constructs: Constructs: #(2 J doing things alone need to be seen stable marriage blase get along without husband materialistic Cl) trend setter ambitious for husband Cl) own interest first easily led not subservient egotistical

L41 independent no class 12) liberated superiority on the go (2 ) public worth not rely on man social status accepting promiscuous husband second .(2 ) worldly common sense happy with self organized

HELPFULNESS COMMUNICATION Constructs: Constructs: supportive outspoken humanitarian extrovert cook (2 ) outgoing thoughtful smiling (3) kind talkative C2 ) concerned verbal reliable unselfish helpful

HONEST MANNERS Constructs: Constructs: sincere composed not phony dignified not manipulative not rude not good salesman l i g h t - heartedness Constructs: fun

♦Numbers by the side of constructs represent how many Women chose the construct. 121

TABLE 4

NON-BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY YOUNG WOMEN

Traits Constructs

abstract professional *(2 ) career early wise

h . INTELLECTUAL whole person (2 ) intellectual ambitious intelligent power

religious motherly personal strength underst anding 0. EMOTIONAL happy shy warm likes people gets close to easily

liberal heterosexual PHILOSOPHICAL sober thoughts sexual freedom idealistic

3>- PHYSICAL none

♦Numbers by the side of the constructs represent how rtany women c h o se th e c o n s t r u c t . 122 TABLE 5 BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN

pehatfioral Traits: Strength, Self-worth, Helpfulness, Com­ munication, Honesty, Manners, Light­ heartedness

STRENGTH SELF-WORTH Constructs: Constructs: domineering (3) social status strong-willed critical » (z) organized nonentity independent worldly not need to be led (3) down to earth doers limelight

(3 ) husband cared for promiscuous do as you want (2 ) public worth militaristic age conscious strong wife size conscious completes things too good for own good opinionated nature lover hardworking thinks fat HELPFULNESS COMMUNICATION Constructs: Constructs: dependable personality plus kind friendly homey (3) quiet interested in common outspoken persons come on strong concerned whiner crusaders humor not meddlesome likes to entertain cook devotion HONEST MANNERS "Constructs: Constructs: naive sweet unintriguing (2 ) ladylike not false face crabby sincere poise honest UGHT-HEARTEDNESS Constructs: tZ) fun not meticulous easy-going ^ enjoys life______♦Numbers by the side of constructs represent how many chose the construct. I

123

TABLE 6

NOW-BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN

Traits Constructs

intellectual *(2 ) educated power

A. INTELLECTUAL (3) creative (2 ) artistic world affairs informed • homemaker moral youthful ideas PHILOSOPHICAL idealistic conservative liberal political

warm C. EMOTIONAL TRAITS (2 ) motherly congenial religious

stylish PHYSICAL appearance healthy

♦Numbers by the side of constructs represent how many women chose the construct. 124

TABLE 7

BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY OLDER WOMEN

-gAhBvjoral Traits: Helpfulness, Strength, Self-worth, Com- munication, Light-heartedness, Manners, and Honesty

H ELPLESSNESS STRENGTH 1 von&liucts: Constructs: dependable (2) opinionated homebody one way to do things capable strong

1 3 ) concern (3) husband concern

n o t selfish aggressive in church patient doer stubborn neighborly self-seeking home horse-sense helpful domineering want to change things independent generous thoughtful

SELF-WORTH COMMUNICATION Constructs: Constructs: materialistic friendly wordly talkative social status speaks mind private reserved travel friendly nature lover small-town jet set

LIGHT-HEARTEDNESS MANNERS Constructs: Constructs: not exacting foreign not sensible sweet fun courteous not perfectionist

HONESTY Constructs: not artificial no pretense

*Numbers by the side of constructs represent how many women chose the construct. 125

TABLE 8

MON-BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY OLDER WOMEN

Traits Constructs

did much with what given *(2) intelligent educated (2) artistic INTELLECTUAL insightful originality professional reasonable ■ smart bright

(2) likes children motherly (2) spirited 3 ‘ EMOTIONAL likes son accepting (of children) accepting (of life) religious courage

moral politics PHILOSOPHICAL liberal young ideas conservative Christian

PHYSICAL none

♦Numbers by the side of constructs represent how many Women chose the construct.

•> 126

TABLE 9

BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY WOMEN WITHOUT HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAS

Behavioral Traits: Helpful, Communication, Strength, Self- worth, Light'-heartedness, and Honesty

HELPFULNESS COMMUNICATION Constructs: Constructs: (2) good housekeeper (2) calm (2) church (2) soft-spoken cook (3) friendly Sunday school teacher meets people easily (4) helpful (2) talkative thoughtful quiet goes out of way for others outspoken home reserved giver listener neighborly kind good daughter

STRENGTH SELF-WORTH Constructs: Constructs: husband second down to earth athletic (2) materialistic (4) hard work (2) social status leadership travel • withstand trouble nature lover traditional queenly endurance involved opinionated

HONESTY LIGHT-HEARTEDNESS Constructs: Constructs: (4) honest not level-headed (2) always the same flighty sincere easy going

MANNERS Constructs: nice sweet

*Numbers by the side of construct represent how many women chose the construct. 127

TABLE 10

NON-BEHAVIORAL CONSTRUCTS CHOSEN BY WOMEN WITHOUT HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMAS

Traits • Constructs

courage mentally balanced A. EMOTIONAL happy • * ( 2 ) warm inner strength

conservative homemaker B. PHILOSOPHICAL young ideas political moral

(4) artistic C. INTELLECTUAL (2) career music

D. PHYSICAL (2) kappearance fashion

*Numbers by the side of the constructs represent how many women chose the construct. 128

Grid Scores of Related Constructs

In the preceding section, we looked at the constructs chosen by the various groups of women to see the kinds of questions and expectations women dealt with about their roles. We can claim that the women are clinging to a tradi­ tional view of themselves— feminine, unsure, helpful, pleasant. One question which arises is: Why do women seem afraid to break away from such traditional definitions?

If we look at Table 11, immediately following this discus­ sion, we see the specific uses of constructs that work against women building different images about themselves.

Keep in mind the following grid score interpretation:

120-39 (moderate);±40-59 (marked); ±60-79 (strong); 80+

(high).

For college students, a marked relationship existed between patience and a woman dealing with the world realis­ tically. In the same manner, women were discouraged from tense situations because a nervous woman did not fit the traditional expectations about a woman's role. In the college grids, we also see a marked relationship between out-spoken and overpowering. There was a moderate correla­ tion between opinionated and self-centered. Thus, as we might expect from these kinds of relationships, the college students' grids showed a marked relationship between ambi­ tions and unfunloving; also, the results concluded that a moderate relationship existed between ambitious and unloving. 129 «

Thus, we can find little support in the construct systems

of college students for an untraditional female role.

The construct systems of the young women dealt more

cirectly with support given to husbands, even by women who were not married. According to the grid scores, these women moderately believed that women sho put their husbands

first were religious, unegotistical, and introverted. Follow­

ing such thinking was the relationship between selfless women and those who were easiest to get close to. Simi­

larly, there were marked relationships between independence

and no class and rudeness and the woman who needed to been outside the home. In a lesser degree, the young women viewed liberated women as two-faced and unhumanitarian.

Interestingly, even though many of the young women were college graduates, they were skeptical of intelligence, because it was too often used to manipulate people.

Although the construct systems of the middle-aged women focused on a woman putting herself before her husband,, she seemed able to do so with less questioning of it. According to the grids, the homey woman put herself first, behaved unworldly, and sought no power. These grids showed a marked relationship between the coping wife and the truly healthy wife. If we note the marked relationship between devotion and domination, we get another aspect of the coping wife. Finally, this aspect of domination also can be seen 130

in the fact that several women disliked educated women

because they were too outspoken.

.If we look at the grid scores of the older women, we

see the strongest and most definite criticism of an untradi­

tional woman's role. A marked relationship existed between

a woman who puts her husband first and the fact that she did

not have time for outside political interests. Also, women with political concerns outside of-the.home were not cour­

teous; they were too independent, which correlated moderately

with a negative concept of smart. These women outside the

home were unreligious; also they correlated strongly with

exacting and harsh spoken. Finally, women outside the

home correlated with liberalism which meant they had lost

their sense of values. In the construct systems of these

older women, careerwomen correlated with independent which

correlated with unsmart. In these instances, smart meant practical with the children and non-sensible about the

husband. 9

i n the last group of women, those without high school

diplomas, we see construct systems with core issues of

religion and hard work. There was an unuaually high corre­

lation between the constructs church and husband. Not only

did women who were active in the church supposedly put the

needs of their husband first, but there was a strong rela­

tionship between women who were active in church and women

who were good housekeepers. Finally, the women without 131

high s ' ' ' tionship between

women home and women who

■ j were not hard workers

Although the five groups of women failed to support

a non-traditional role, it is important to note that each

women in the various groups did not choose exactly the

same construct. However, what the women said and the kinds

of constructs did fit the above stated patterns, and there

was very little contradiction between the women within each

group. In one final look at Table 11, which follows, we see

the number and strength of grid scores emphasizing the role

of wife, mother, and homemaker.

The Constructs "I Wish to Be"

After considering some of the reasons women were

afraid to choose an untraditional role for themselves, the

next question to ask is, "Did the women wish to be differ­

ent?" Table 12, following this discussion, lists the

constructs women used when talking about how they saw them­

selves and how they wishes they were. The constructs under

"As I Am" were in keeping with th previous discussions of

traditional roles. However, the constructs under "As I

Wish to Be"suggested there was room for doubt about all

women accepting the traditional roles.

We may assign the most obvious meanings to the college

students' grid scores. The women said they wished to be 132

TABLE 11 RELATED CONSTRUCTS ACCORDING TO GRID SCORES

Said % by Inter­ Construct Construct Score viewee College Students 1 mannerly not sloppy in 54 appearance 1 friendly outgoing 47 3 friendly encouraging -32 7 warm trustworthy 40 9 sincere husband first -55 3 motherly friendly -25 10 loving communicates 85 5 patient realistic 58 5 patient know self 38 8 nervous not traditional -46 10 ambitious not fun-loving 46 10 ambitious not loving 21 9 demanding overpowering 59 9 outspoken overpowering 40 8 showy not natural -25 2 opinionated self-centered 34 2 opinionated not image conscious -28 4 athletic not upperclass -49

Young Women 1 composed likes people 72 3 kind humanitarian 40 5 ' unselfish thoughtful 40 5 concerned thoughtful 33 10 selfless easy to get close to 38 8 warm family first 28 7 unliberated kind -40 10 smiling good salesman 75 8 dependent needs husband 65 4 supportive of husband religious -21 4 supportive of husband unegotistical 30 4 supportive of husband not extrovert -39 3 independent no class 49 3 liberated two-faced 25 3 liberated nonhumani tari an -37 6 intelligence not personal strength -56 6 manipulative intelligence 22 2 rude need to be seen 34 133

TABLE 11— Continued

Said by Inter­ Construct Construct Score viewee Middle-Aged Women 6sweet warm 68 6 sweet dependable 59 8 enjoys life nature lover 52 8 enjoys life not interested in -31 world affairs 4 sincere interested in others 92 4 concerned interested in common 52 persons 4 concerned down to earth 34 6 motherly artistic 49 LO motherly likes to entertain 35 5 husband first not come on strong -24 5 husband first not powerful -34 10 coping (wife healthy 55 2 homey husband first 36 2 homey not worldly -39 2 homey idealistic 27 7 devotion domination 54 1 liberal not p'rivate 76 9 educated outspoken 38

Older Women 9 considerate dependent -50 9 thoughtful dependable 49 9 courteous genuine 60 9 good neighbor thoughtful 43 1 likes children high ideals 69 1 likes children motherly 54 1 motherly high ideals 39 1 motherly spiritual 28 5 motherly sweet 32 5 motherly fun 53 2 insightful unselfish -25 4 husband first not political -46 4 home reserved 54 6 exacting not softspoken -76 7 opinionated not religious -58 8 liberal not small town -83 9 independent not smart -21 9 politician not courteous -44 134

TABLE 11— Continued

Said by Inter­ Score viewee Women Without High School Diplomas 1 kind talkative 55 1 helpful talkative 49 9 helpful thoughtful 62 9 down to earth thoughtful 65 9 calm helpful 55 1 kind good daughter 60 8 church husband first 85 8 church good housekeepers 62 7 motherly soft spoken 50 7 motherly doer 84 7 motherly conservative 81 5 sweet friendly 62 6 talkative friendly 45 2 friendly warm 60 2 friendly always the saem 75 6 unfriendly artistic -75 3 flighty not hardworkers 45 3 involved not hard worker 40 4 materialistic not giver -28

NOTE:' ±20-39 (moderate; ±40-59 (marked); ±60-79 (strong) 80+ (high]I. 135 unopinionated, motherly, and loving. Three of the 10 students had a moderate relationship between "As I Am" and "As I Wish I Were." This fact was worth noting, not only because it meant one-third of them were somewhat satisfied with themselves, but also because it is not unusual for the insecurities of college life to cause students to have lower grid scores. The one surprise was the women who, after describing all assertive behavior negatively and declaring she was uncourageous, had a very strong grid score stating she wished to be demanding. Is it not possible that hidden in more women than the scores showed was a desire to be less submissive?

The women in the young women's group had no constructs contradicting the "As I Am" with the "As I Wish I Were," but we can still note some interesting results. First of all, the women who had the strongest constructs represeniing traditional images of women, had nearly the highest score on being as they wished. Secondly, the women who had the highest scores correlating "As I Am" and "As I Wish," were the women who came the closest to using untraditional role constructs. These two wome had a score of 100 which meant there was no difference between how they were and how they wished to be. However, the reason these women got the 100 score was because after they ranked the elements for "As I

Am, " they refused to change the ranking for "As I Wish."

No matter how much I attempted to persuade these women to 136 re-sort the elements, they both said it was not necessary to do so because they were as they wished to be. In Kelly terminology, these v/omen did not invalidate the results, but, pherhaps, they showed a fear of considering how they wished to be. While the timid college woman secretely wanted to be demanding, we may wonder if some of the more outspoken young women secretely wished to be more timid.

In the group of middle-aged women, we see the most variety of responses about the way women wished to be.

Some women wished to be worldly. Other wished to be homey.

Several wished to be friendly. The scores suggested that these women were at a point where they seriously would have liked to be different, but at the same time did not expect to ever change. The scores correlating "As I Am" with

"As I Wish" were not as high as with the young women, but higher than the college students' scores. Finally, the women with the most traditional constructs, such as wish­ ing to be not strong-willed or not outspoken, refused to rank the elements for "As I Wish" after they ranked them for "As I Am." Thus, they ended up with the results of 100 grid scores as discussed previously. Once again we must ask the question, "Did the women want to take on new roles, but were simply afraid to find out this was what they wanted?"

The women in the older group were not too different from the middle-aged women. The women wished to be friendly, 137 sweet, courteous, religious, and unopinionated. Several of them wished to put their husbands first. The grid scores correlating "As I Am" and "As I Wish" were higher than for any other group. There were still two women who refused to tank the construct "As I Wish," so we may con­ tinue to assume that the women were afraid to know the results. However, a 64-year-old professor ranked the con­ struct "As I Wish" as directed by the instructions and she had the same combination for "As I Wish" and "As I Am."

To get such results legitimately is highly unusual, but

she was a woman who had never married, had received a Ph.D.

30 years ago, and had spent the last 30 years coping with what it means to be a woman. She said that in the last

couple of years, she had resolved the issue for herself,

and her score certainly indicated this fact was true.

In the last group of women, those without high school

diplomas, we see few scores concerning how they wished to be.

As in the previous three groups, one woman refused to rank

the elements for the construct "As I Wish., " but we need not

explain it any differently than the fear many women had

concerning that construct. With the exception of two older

women who had high grid scores correlating "As I Am" with

"As I Wish," most of the women had lower scores than women

the same ages but with more education. Finally, the few

constructs these women wished to have were the most basic

ones of all the groups. The women wished only to be honest and kind. 138

TABLE 12 GRID SCORES OF CONSTRUCTS "AS I AM" AND "I WISH TO BE"

Am Score Wish Score College Students (1) friendly 30 as I am 32 (2) concerned 37 not opinionated -32 (3) not hardworker -41 not a hard worker -44 as I am (4) concerned 39 not wise 20 (5) giddy 31 (6) genuine 61 • beautiful 44 motherly 44 (7) concerned 35 as I am 28 (8) conservative 34 not showy -26 (9) not courageous -24 demanding 90 (10) not ambitious -24 loving 46 loving 49 fun-loving 69

Young Women (1) not bubbly -35 (2) kind 31 (3) not independent -27 superficial intellect 47 not liberated -23 (4) not husband first 59 as I am 100 (5) concerned 40 as I am 20 (6) as I am 60 (7) not subservient 47 as I am 100 (8) warm 64 family first 41 warm 69 as I am 94 (5) unselfish -34 as I am 42 (10) not outgoing -25 139

TABLE 12— Continued

Am Score Wish Scori

Middle^-Aged Women (1) quiet 70 not down to earth -50 (2) homey 38 husband first 56 not worldly -20 (3) not militaristic -21 easy going 53 (4) not interested in -20 not as I am -32 commonplace (5) as I am 2 (6) sweet 23 as I am 31 (7) friendly 31 easy to get along with 31 appearance 24 as I am 20 (8) not interested in -31 not interested in -31 world affairs world affairs youthful 30 enjoy lif.e 42 enjoy life 25 fun 55 fun 43 as I am 64 (9) not strong-willed -43 not strong-willed -28 not outspoken -30 not outspoken -35 educated -53 (10) as I am 100

Older Women (1) as I am 100 (2) concerned 45 concern 43 as X am 62 (3) spiritual 45 husband first 44 (4) husband first 23 not political 23 as I am 100 (5) sweet 74 sweet 55 motherly 22 not social status 32 as I am 36 (6) friendly 69 friendly -44 no pretense -37 as X am 69 (7) religious 53 religious 64 not change things -42 not opinionated 64 as I am 79 (8) as I am 100 (9) not independent -37 not bright -21 courteous 38 courteous 62 not political -48 not political -35 neighborly 31 as I am 47 (10) none none 140

TABLE 12— Continued

Am Score Wish Score

Women Withoug High School Diplomas (1) good housekeeper 53 kind 44 kind 51 daughterly 34 daughterly 93 as I am 30 (2) helpful 99 not to withstand -44 trouble sincere 90 (3) moral 79 as I am 21 no inner strength -37 not outspoken -35 (4) not quiet 64 not as I am -34 (5) down to earth -28 (6) close to house 24 not meet people easily -30 (7) conservative 35 as I am 100 motherly 89 (8) honest 94 honest 93 church 73 nice 61 church 72 as I am 99 (9) level-headed 70 helpful 60 helpful 84 down to earth 55 calm 66 as I am 60 (10) none none 141

After concluding that some of the women wished they could change their roles or at least were curious about other roles, the next question to ask is "Will the women ever change?" Variance scores can help us begin to under­ stand this complex question if we look at both specific variances and overall variances for the groups.

The rule of thumb to follow is that the more uncertain or confused an individual is* the lower his or her variance scores will be. We noted in the previous chapter that

Rylefs research suggested that low variance scores meant an individual was more subject to change than the individual with higher scores. Table 13, following this discussion, showed that the women with the lowest variance scores were the college students. Six of the students have scores under 178. This is understandable if we consider that these women are young enough that they are still in the formulative period of deciding their role within society.

Also, as stated earlier in this chapter, the women are in college, which is a breeding ground for building and chang­ ing ideas. What seems more unusual is the-student whose variance scores reached 506. She had a certainty about herself that was unusual even for the oldest women. We might note that all of her constructs were the traditional ones— wife and mother.

The younger women's group had variance scores somewhat higher than the college students. Ther were only three 142 young women whose scores were under 184, whereas, the college students had six whose scores were under 178.

Thus, we may assume that the young women are less likely to change than the college students. We can attribute the higher scores possibly to not being in college, but not to a more stable role of themselves. Earlier in this chapter we noted that the young women were afraid they could not compete in untraditional roles. If these women are either forced to choose or elect to choose to compete,

I predict they will be changing their ideas about the tradi­ tional roles for women.

The middle-aged women have variance scores similar to the young women, but a big higher. These women ranged in age from middle 40's to late 50's and seemed to have the attitude that they did the best they could in the tradi­ tional roles. They are less likely to change than the younger women, not because some of them do not wish to, but simply because they will not bother to at this late date.

The older women and the women without high school diplomas had the highest variance scores. The older women were the least likely to change, but not just because they were too old to change. These were the women who had the most indoctrination of the traditional image of women because of background, religion, and environment. These same reasons were true with regard to the older women who did not have high school diplomas. However, the women 143 without the diplomas, in their late 20's and 30*s accepted the roles o£ mother and wife, because they believed in them, but also because they felt life would offer them nothing else.

Finally, it is important to note which individual con­ structs would least likely change in their significance to these women's construct systems. From college student to woman without high school diploma, the two strongest con­ structs were honesty and loving. The interpretations changed somewhat from group to group. The college students used the construct loving; young women used the construct concern for others; middleaged women used the construct kind; and the older women, as well as women without high school diplomas, used the construct friendly. Nevertheless, the meanings were quite similar and the variances among the highest. The other consistently strong variance was honesty. These different women also chose different labels to express the same concept. Both college students and young women referred to honesty as genuineness; middle-aged women used the construct sincere; the older women called it no pretense; and those without high school diplomas used the phrase "always the same." Thus, whatever women wish to be or choose to become, we know that part of the defini­ tion will contain caring about others and a lack of pretense. TABLE 13

RANGE OF VARIANCES

College Students Youncr Women Middle-Aged Older Women No High School Diploma

33-125 43-150 53-148 68-160 60-169

29-145 58-165 60-177 61-206 77-216

39-145 52-177 33-190 127-227 52-224

31-157 42-184 . 50-205 62-262 71-245

73-173 30-218 46-212 43-306 66-295

60-178 58-232 48-214 12-340 83-392

49-275 48-235 64-218 66-376 71-496

72-276 34-250 18-220* 177-502 172-620

15-293 77-269 51-278 205-738 478-639

19-506 73-283 53-347 144 145

The Definition of Woman

In conclusion, what picture of woman do we get from

these repertory grids? A woman is concerned with how she

is supposed to act. Her rules about how to act concern

strength (to cope/ but never pushy); communication (to be

extroverted, but never outspoken); light-heartedness (to

be fun, but never unsensible); self-worth (to have a high

self-image, but never without social approval); helpful­

ness (to be dependable, but never for personal gain); honesty (to be sincere, but never showy); mannerly (to be

courteous, but never pretentious). A woman thinks a little

bit about being intellectual, but only in a very limited way. The college students ask if being intellectual is worthwhile. The young women doubt if they can be intellec­

tual. The middle-aged women have used their energies in

different ways. The other groups wonder why a woman would want to be intellectual. Interestinlgy, a woman does not

spend all of her time on emotional issues, as is often

suggested, but she views important emotions as motherli­

ness, warmness, courageousness, and lovingness. Although

physical attributes were mentioned, a woman may not be primarily concerned with how she looks.

As the result of analyzing the grids, we noted women

of differing ages responding with varying grids. However,

the previous definition of woman holds true for all ages;

the differences are noticeable, but not major. Essentially, 146 the younger women feel more confident than the older ones.

Also, the women past middle-age seem least likely to accept a role other than wife and mother. The women with­ out high school diplomas, particularly the young ones, feel more hopeless in their place in society. However, in the categories where education level ranged from high school diploma to doctorate degree, the responses did not change.

In fact, the three single women with Ph.D.'s all believed if a woman had a husband, his wishes should come before his wife's wishesl Just as only major educational differences affected the grid results, only major economic or experien- cial differences affected results. Also most socially elite women in larger cities talked about being a woman in much the same way as the rural women did.

The.construct systems of all the women had constructs and correlations that emphasized a traditional belief in woman as a loving and caring helpmate to someone. The con­ structs of career, success, and ambition were used rarely and used negatively if used at all. Although some woman might wish to be different, we may not expect any rapid change for several reasons: (1) Women have the pressure of older women criticizing any change they make in their roles; (2) Both the younger and middle-aged women are afraid they cannot compete in an untraditional way;

(3) Even the "new breed" of college girls are asking 147

"Is a new role in society worth what one goes through to attain it?"

The Focused Interview

When we turn to the focused interview, we find that the conversations with the women were similar to the repertory grid results, but give more information about how women are reacting to the contemporary issues concern­ ing women's rights. In most cases the college girls were the least "up-tight" of any of the women. Not only did they talk about the grid in terms of being relaxed, enjoying the experience, finding it entertaining, and having fun, but the college girls nonverbally displayed their_excitement while participating in the grid. When we recall the repertory grid, we see that the college girls were asking if non-tradi tional roles were worth the trouble. As they discussed their ideas about being a woman, most of these girls said their ideas were changing and that they were thinking about it all the time. Although two of the students said their ideas had not changed, most of them felt that when they went away to college, they became more mature and realized they had contributions to make to society. Several of these girls talked in terms of feeling that they were women who were ready to deal with being a woman in ways other than romance, sex, and motherhood. They concluded that when they had been small, babies and marriage were all they 148 thought about, b.ut this was no longer true. These college women think more comprehensively about what it means to be a woman and do so as often as several times a day. They are wondering if the advantages are greater than the limi­ tations, if they are living up to their potential, and if such thinking gets them anywhere.

We get more insights into the college students if we consider their discussions about women's groups. Nearly all of the girls were in favor of the Equal Rights Amend­ ment, but they felt some women were "too pushy" about getting it passed. They found the subservient philosophy of the Total Woman ridiculous, slavery, and a farce.

These women strongly believed that Betty Friedan was correct in her assessment of American women's frustration as house­ wives. Most of the students related Friedan's philosophy to the fact that their own mothers did not get out of the house enough, but were happier when they did. In discussing the Women's Liberation Movement, the college women disliked the terminology, not the philosophy behind the terminology.

They felt that the language of the movement made it sound stronger than it actually is. The students, like most of the women interviewed, felt the main priority of the move­ ment was equal job opportunities. Most of the women were quick to point out that they did not want the movement to mandate complete role reversals, thus making women into men and men into women. Finally,these college students truly 149

supported the Martha Movement and its idea that a woman

may choose to be homemaker or career woman, be happy in

either, and even be able to do both at once. The students

said it was the perfect answer and was highly possible.

These college women also spent much time talking about

their future plans and the people who had shaped their

lives toward those plans. It is interesting to note that

nine of the 10 women said that in five years they would be

involved in careers. Although several students said they

wanted to be teaching in grade schools, two hope to teach

in college. Although one woman planned to be an airline

stewardess, one girl hoped to do environmental work for the

government. There was very little discussion of marriage.

Thus, we may assume that today's women of college age are

less likely to be marrying immediately after school as once

was the expectation. When the college students spoke of what they would be doing in 10 years, they still talked about

careers; several mentioned advanced degrees, and many of the women added that they probably would be married. Most of

these women seemed to feel neither pressured to get married

nor to have children. In terms of who influenced the stud­

entsthe mostas to how they viewed themselves as women,

nearly all of them said their mothers of older sisters had

shaped their concept of women. Here we note a turn-around

from all the previous discussions. These women said that

their mothers taught them to be loving, understanding, and 150

confident. These women said nothing about their mothers

influencing their definitions of a role in terms of careers.

Yet, nearly all the students said they tried to be like

their mothers in personality (loving, understanding, etc.), but they were different from their mothers because their

goals in life were not centered around being a homemaker.

We see once again, as we did with the repertory grid, the

strong emphasis on personality traits, but where did the women get the motivation for goals other than their mothers?

The college students had trouble deciding who had influenced

them to obtain career-goals, but they nearly all concluded

that they knew they could not find all answers for self- fulfillment within a home. In conclusion, we might note

that the college students talked more about an untraditional role than their repertory grids indicated they felt, but if we add the information from the focused interview to the grid results, there is reason to believe that these college

age women will at least "try out" new roles to see if they

like them.

While the college students were having fun deciding what it means to be a woman, the young women in the mid 20's

to late 30's were finding it much more frustrating to define

their roles. First of all, they found the grid experience difficult. Most of the young women felt confused, insecure

about the results, and pressured. Several of the women said

that they felt guilty about labeling people. Others found 151

it diffiecult to categorize people. Although the women

admitted it was an interesting experience, they made the

task more difficult than it was. Their reactions were in

keeping with the grid results which suggested that these women are afraid they cannot do things well. Most of the

young women said that they had become more independent, but

basically their ideas about being a woman had not changed—

they centered around being a homemaker rather than being a

career woman. These young women said they spend very little

time thinking about being a woman. Several women said there

was no point in dwelling on it, because then women only got

more confused. Several women (both those wo worked in the

home and those who worked outside of the home) said they

did not like thinking about being a woman because then they

felt guilty for not being better housewives. From listening

to these women as they discussed not thinking about being a

woman, their defensiveness and hesitancy suggested more of an

insecurity about the issue than a lack of thought concerning

it.

As we look at what these young women said concerning

women's groups, we see somewhat more diversified answers

than we did with the college girls. Only young women

supported the Equal Rights Amendment. Several said that ERA

was OK, but not necessary because women were already equal.

And, a few of the young women were very opposed to the ERA

because it would be the downfall of motherhood and 152

evenutally of the whole family. When discussing the

Total Woman philosophy, most of the young women did not

take it seriously, but were not bothered by Mrs. Morgan's

suggestions. The majority of the young women talked at great length about how easy it was to become frustrated as

a housewife. However, these women believed a woman made her own frustration and it was up to a woman to keep her­

self from feeling this way. The fact that these women did

not seem to know the solution to the problem of frustration

suggests one reason why they seem less sure of themselves

than the college girls. These young women chide themselves for not knowing how to resolve problems that they believe

the "ideal" woman could solve. Underlying their whole belief about themselves is the idea, "If I cannot be happy

at home, how can I cope outside the home?" Also, these women did not have many positive things to say about the women's movement. They associated it with such things as women burning bras and girls playing "male" sports.

Generally, these young women said the movement was bad,

they were tired of hearing about it, and it had helped no

one. Several women felt that the equal job opportunities were all right, but not if it meant giving up being treated

as a woman. Finally, most of the young women thought the

Martha Movement sounded ideal, but they wondered if it were not too ideal to be realistic. These women simply did

not feel that there was likely ever to come a time when 153

they would be appreciated by society and considered worth­ while , no matter their choice of life style.

The young women were less likely to talk about what

they would be doing in five or 10 years than the college

students were. Although several of the young women worked

outside of the home, nearly all of them said that in five years they would still be homemakers. Next to being home­

makers, they said they would probably have another child.

Only one of the young women (who also happens to be a wife

and mother) talked about her future in terms of teaching

and research. When talking about the plans for the next 10

years, some young women said they would still be homemakers.

However, most of the young women spoke of starting a career

in 10 years. Some planned to return to school, others planned to teach, and others wanted to return to office work. It is interesting to note that these women put off

serious responsibilities outside the home both because the women want their children to take up all their time and because the dreams of a career seem more realistic if the

career is in the future.

Finally, who influenced these women as to how they

felt they should behave? The young women spoke of only one person— their mothers! The women felt the reason their

mothers had so much influence was because they had spent so

much time around their mothers. Once again we see how 154 confused these young women are about their roles. On the one hand, the women admired their mothers because they had high standards, discipline, consideration, and honesty. On

the other hand, however much they admired the personality

traits of their mothers, they were also aware of having goals different from their parent's generation. The young women said they were more independent than their mothers and

also more idealistic. They seemed, however, to feel guilty because they were not, for instance, "good housekeepers"

like their mothers and they worried about considering a career outside the home. As the result of the previous dis­ cussion, we get more insight into the grid results that suggested the young women seemed somewhat frightened that they could not compete in a world outside their home.

As we look at the focused interviews with the women in the middle-aged group, we see that these women are different from the other two groups. The middle-aged group of women were more serious than the college students, but more content than the young women. We see this serious and content nature in the way they talked about the repertory grid exper­ ience. The middle-aged women felt the grid was a mind opener, interesting, and thought provoking. Several women made the point that they were rarely asked to express them­ selves and that participating in the grid made them feel that their opinion mattered. Some said that their ideas had changed about how a woman s.hould be. One woman said 155 that as her husband's job caused them to travel around the

United States, she learned to see women in roles other than wife and mother. Another woman said that after she had children, she realized that she. would never have time again for herself. This had surprised the woman, because she had not expected motherhood to cause such feelings.

One woman admitted that as more and more of her friends left their homes to get jobs, she felt pressured to do likewise and guilty that she had not. However, most of the women said their ideas about being a woman had always centered on being a housewife and had not changed, even though they had seen a great many changes in the world. Nearly all of these women said they did not spend time thinking about what it meant to be a woman. The two exceptions were a woman whose daugh­ ters had encouraged her to think about it, and a woman who taught Family Living in a high school.

Not only do the middle-aged women have little frustra­ tion about being women, they have definite answers to issues proposed by the women's groups. These women neither analyzed ERA as the college students did,nor did they fear it as the young women did. Most of the middle-aged women felt the ERA was-long overdue and that it was needed if only for the statement it made. Interestingly, they only mildly opposed the philosophy of the Total Woman, because most of these women said that women often followed such a philosophy as an easy way out. Whereas, the young women 156 felt that they had failed if they were frustrated house­ wives , the middle-aged women admitted that being a house­ wife was frustrating, but that most of life was frustrat­ ing. As for the women's movement, the women, for the most part, were turned off by it because of how radical, in their eyes, the movement had become. However, many of the women discussed how they supported the philosophy behind the movement, particularly equal job opportunities. Such philosophical support suggests why these women were so much in favor of the ERA. We must note here that although the middle-aged women felt the Martha Movement was a wonderful idea, they also felt it was more for the younger generation of women. The women in their late 40's and 50's felt they had done the best they could with their lives and now it was up to younger women to further define the meaning of womanhood.

When these women in the middle-aged group were asked what they would be doing in five! or 10 years, their answers covered a lot of area. The ones who had jobs said they still would be working and the women who worked only at home said they would still be housewives. However, all of the women said in 10 years they hoped "to be taking it easier." The working women wanted to be retired and the housewives wanted to have less to do around the house. The women spoke of wanting to be more self-indulgent. Such remarks suggest not only are these women tired because they are growing older, but also because of the strong and coping role they have assumed for so many years. Many of these women talked about their grandmothers as the women who most influenced them, usually because the grandmothers were so easy to talk with and so understanding. In the group of middle-aged women, was the smallest number admir­ ing their mothers or admitting similar personality traits to their mothers'. The middle-aged women often said they did not want to be like their mothers, because their mothers were never open to change. If we consider that these women, in their 40's and 50's, were children during the depression, grew up in during a world war, and matured during the space- age, it is not surprising that flexibility is valued by the middle-aged women. It is because of this flexibility that she coped with whatever was going on in the world around her and she became strong. Although her strength to change roles may be lessened because of this flexibility, she accepts the possibility of new roles forwomen, but says they are for the new generations of women.

For the most part, the older women had a calm accept­ ance about their place within society. They seemed more sheltered and protected from the world than were the middle-aged women. The older women had the same doubts about their capacilities that the young women had, but the older women were proud of their doubts. They spoke about having husbands who cared for them as though they 158 were children. And, the older women were having fun with life, as'did the college students, but the college students felt more responsibility about the direction of their lives. We can see some of this light-heartedness of the older women when we consider their reactions to the grid experience. The women talked at length about what a great game it was, how much fun it was, and how easy it was.

Also, they admitted to not really taking the grid seriously.

Several of the women said that in 65-70 years they had never looked at themselves in relationship to what kind of women they were. The only woman who said she thought about what it meant to be a woman was a single college professor who said that within the last five years she had begun to realize she did not have to apologize for never marrying. All of the older women said that as long as their husbands had given them enough money, they never questioned what it meant to be a woman. Also, most of the older women grew up think­ ing they would take care of the children and the husbands would take care of them. Only two women said they had changed their ideas about what it meant to be a woman. One was the- woman who finally decided it was acceptable to be a career woman instead of a wife and mother, and the other was a woman who spoke in great detail about deciding to have money of her own that was not her husband's. The decision came after she had been left a small inheritance. She felt 159

that keeping this money in her own account was the biggest

decision of her life.

As would be expected, most of the older women were

opposed to various organizations trying to change women's

role within society. The older women were against ERA

because they felt women were already superior to men.

Women were delicate, fragile people whom men cared for

and cherished. The ERA would only lower woman's place in

society. Surprisingly, these older women did not favor

Marabel Morgan's philosophy of the Total Woman. They felt

Mrs. Morgan did not give enough credit to the partnership

of a marriage. For the older women the partnership was

50/50 deal— the women took care of the children and the

husband took care of the wife. The older women agreed that

Betty Friedan was correct in pointing out how many American womev were frustrated as housewives. However, these women

did not agree with what Ms. Friedan saw as the problem.

These older women felt that "in their day" women were

happier because they knew what their place was in society

and they did what they were supposed to do. However,

today's women have been influenced by the Liberation Move­

ment and no longer know what they want. Thus, these older

women were very much opposed to the Women's Movement.

They talked emotionally about women not needing to be

liberated and that, unfortunately, the pre-liberation days

were when women had it good but did not realize it. The 160 two women who said the movement had a few good points

(equal pay. and acdeptance of single women) were quick to point out that they did not wanyone to know they found anything good in the movement. Although many of the women in the other groups favored the Martha Movement's philo-

\ sophy of being happy both as a career woman and/or a house­ wife, the older women did not recommend such a philosophy.

Most of the women felt that a choice had to be made clearly— a woman is either a career woman or a housewife, never both. The woman,who tries to do both,ends up doing a poor job with both, and the woman, who chooses the career, can never be truly happy.

It is interesting to see that while the middla-aged women talked about their future in terms of being able to relax and to retire from life, the older women said they would be doing the same things in five years or 10 years that they were doing now— helping people. These older women talked at great length about the help they gave to family, friends, and church. We might expect older women to continue to want to be useful to prove to themselves and others that they are still needed by society. However, if we look at the influence they said their mothers had on them, we get another dimension of the usefulness. Most of the older women spoke of their admiration for the courage and strength of their mothers who had often run large house­ holds without any help from a husband. These women seemed 161

almost apologetic that their lives were so much easier

than their mothers' had been which suggests that they want

to be known today as women who are good helpers. Can we

not wonder that possibly the struggles of many women today

remind these older women of the struggles of their mothers

and make them question their own comfortable lives?

Finally, let us consider what we can learn by looking

at the focused interviews of the women without high school

diplomas. When they talked about the grid experience,

their answers were not unique because of their lack of edu­

cation, but corresponded to the answers given by women of

their own age group. Thus, their feelings ranged from f|, confused young women to happy-go-lucky women. However,

there is a sense of hopelessness as these women discussed

their ideas about womanhood. Although the women said they

rarely thought about being a woman or had changed their

idea about being a woman, most of them resented being a

woman* and they felt it meant they had been given a "raw

deal" in life because they were women. Being a woman meant

they were last in importance in a family, they had to stay

at home all the time, and they never had any help with the

chores. Several of the women said that it wasgetting

harder to be a woman, because men left you alone more than

they used to.

* Although these women talked vividly about how unhappy

4 they were, they still opposed organizations urging more 162 rights for women. They were against the Equal Rights

Amendment for two reasons: women cannot perform as well in the world as men because they are not as intelligent as men and woman cannot do a job as well as men because they are not as strong as men. Most of the women without high school education supported the Total Woman philosophy because they believed that a husband is total ruler of the household. Instead of connecting any of their unhappiness with the frustrations of being a housewife, these women blame problems on the lack of money. They reject Fridan's philosophy as well as the Women's Liberation Movement because

God meant women to be housewife and mother. Many of these women quoted Biblical scriptures supporting a woman's place in the home. As for the Martha Movement, these women had no perceptions of themselves as career women. It was totally impossible because these women work only to have money to live. Their dream is never have to work.

We can see how exhausted these women are (much more so than the middle-aged women discussed earlier) as they talk about their plans for the next five or 10 years. All of these v/omen said that in five years they hoped to be work­ ingless and relaxing more. The woman 35 was just as exhausted as the woman 65. It should be noted that although many of the women said the person who had most influenced their beliefs about being a woman was their mother; several v/omen said they were most influenced by 163 a minister's wife. But, whether it was a mother or a minister's wife, the woman was a model of hard work and sacrifice. Many of these women said that their mothers taught them that a woman has to work hard in life just to get along, but that hard work was no guarantee for happi­ ness.

In summary, the focused interviews provided a format for many kinds of women to talk about the special situation they were faced with— defining what it means to be a woman.

I tried, as much as possible, to not interpret the discus­ sion, but to present these women's own interpretations or their views about womanhood. Also it is important to see how eager the women were to talk about the issues. It would be a mistake to think that each woman fit exactly into the group she represented. However, those who did not were the exceptions, not the rule. The repertory grids suggested that the core to a woman's personality is behaving like a traditional woman, yet the focused interviews suggested more specific ways women are talking and thinking about the traditional role. College women are questioning if the less traditional role for women is worth the trouble. How­ ever , while they are deciding if it is, these girls are excited about the search that awaits them. Once again, we see how frightened young women are that they cannot compete, but we learned that careers are what they are dreaming of in the future when the children are older. From the focused 164

interviews we become aware that the middle-aged women are more sympathetic towards women's right than their grid

scores indicated, but these women were simply too tired to be excited about the struggle. The older women represented women who have been well taken care of, have liked it, but have some defensiveness about so soft a life. Lastly, the women without high school diplomas remind us all that when

a person is poor, her self-worth takes an even greater beat­

ing, and often strong religious beliefs offer the only hope for a better future elsewhere.

With each group pf women, except the group without high

school diplomas, the focused interview suggested more opti­ mism for a larger variety of role possibilities than did

the repertory grid results. The Kelly theory allows us to consider the fact that women may be thinking and talking

about roles they do not yet feel ready to assume. As rhetoricians who believe in the power of words, we must be encouraged by these focused interviews in which women dis­ cussed the possible merits of new roles. The rhetorical implications are covered in depth in Chapter VI. We now

consider what the repertory grids and focused interviews

suggested concerning the First Ladies' possible impact on what it means to be a woman. 165

The Relationship Between Grids, Interviews, and Rhetorical Visions Presented by First Ladies

In looking at the repertory grid sheets, several factors

about the First Ladies seem evident. First, the women who were the most comfortable with the grid tended to rank the

First Ladies as if they knew them personally. These women would simply make the statement that based on what they had read or seen about a First Lady, they believed her to have certain personality traits. Then the women gave no more thought to the First Ladies as unique people. This was par­ ticularly true with the college women and the older women.

Second, the women who were-confused about the grids were constantly worried that they might give a wrong answer, were afraid to make a statement about the First Ladies. These women were usually in the young women's group or the group without a high school diploma. They repeatedly made comments such as "I do not know these First Ladies personally so I do not know what they are like." These women were the ones who tended to lump all the First Ladies together and rank.them together. Third, the purpose of the grid'was to see how women defined themselves (not how they defined the First

Ladies) and the First Ladies.were included as elements only to offer one option for the women to talk about First Ladies.

Most of the women talked a great deal about the First Ladies.

Even the women who were afraid to make statements about these famous women made a habit of referring to the latest magazine 166 articles concerning the First Ladies. As 1 looked around their homes, I could see that nearly all of the women

(except those without high school diplomas) subscribed to various women’s magazines and from their conversations dur­ ing the grids, I believed that they read the articles con­ cerning the First Ladies. Thus, the grids served the secondary purpose of being one method by which women expressed views about the First Ladies. Fourth, the First

Ladies very rarely ranked high as people whom the 50 women either wanted to be like or considered themselves to be like.

The way the women talked about the First Ladies in the repertory grids was generally the way'they were dis­ cussed during the focused interviews. Although we might note that almost every woman said she had not been influenced by the First Ladies, she spoke with strong feelings when she discussed the White House women. For the most part, the First Ladies were positively proclaimed if a woman saw in a First Lady a trait she admired. As in all the previous discussions, the various groups of women admire different traits and this was reflected in what each group chose to say about the First Ladies.

The college women praised the Ladies who were indepen­ dent and strong and frank. Their favorite First Ladies were Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter.

They admires Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Carter because these 167 women were busy with complex problems centered in the environment and mental health. The college women admired

Betty Ford, not just because she seemed to understand the contemporary morality of the college students, but because this First Lady was never afraid to say what was on her mind. Although many of the women said they felt sorry for Mrs. Nixon, they spoke of her with pity, not with admiration.

However, the young women admires First Ladies who were courageous, particularly Pat Nixon. Several of the young women talked for a long time about Mrs. Nixon and how brave she had been throughout the Watergate Affair. The young women seemed certain that they could never have been so brave in a similar situation. These young women also admired Rosalynn Carter for the courage it took to be so active a First Lady when she has such a shy personality, a young daughter, and a simple education. Finally, the young women admired Betty Ford, not so much for her frankness in supporting controversial issues that appealed to the college women, but for her courage in admitting and fighting breast cancer and her addiction to drug's and alcohol.

The middle-aged women favored the First Ladies with whom they could identify as "ordinary" women. We may best understand what these women meant if we note that several of them did not admire Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis because she was too "flashy." Nevertheless, many of the women 168 admitted to feeling differently about her before she married Onassis. These middle-aged women preferred Mrs.

Johnson, Mrs. Carter, and Mrs. Eisenhower. They commented that both Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Carter cared more about the average citizen than bringing artistic culture to the socially elite. Mrs. Eisenhower was admired for being the kind of woman anyone could communicate with. While the middle-aged women wanted the First Ladies to be "ordinary," they still held them in esteem because of their high posi­ tion.

For a First Lady to be admired by the older women, all she had to do was be "nice." The women in this group most admired Mrs. Eisenhower, Mrs. Nixon, and Mrs. Carter.

These women were perceived as nice because they are quiet, smile a lot, and care openly about their husbands. Lady

Bird Johnson and Betty Ford, however, were First Ladies who either did too much or said too much.

Finally, the women without high school diplomas reacted differently to the First Ladies, as has been the case with most of their responses. These particular women knew who the First Ladies were, but made only the vaguest comments about them. If there was a favorite First Lady, it was

Rosalynn Carter because she was connected with farm life.

Conversely, if there was a least favorite, it was Jacqueline

Kennedy because she was connected with wealth. The fact that these women possessed very few magazines and apparently 169 read little, may suggest that they were more removed from the First Ladies than the women in the other groups. Also, their lower financial status meant they had neither the reference points nor the time to think about the far away world of the White House.

At the conclusion of Chapter III, the question was raised, "Did the rhetorical vision projected through the print media have meaning for the variety of women who exist today?" For the most part, the answer is yes.

Strength, courage, simplicity, and niceness were traits women admired in the First Ladies, in other women, and in themselves. Also, these were part of the vision created by the First Ladies as to what a woman and a First Lady should be. Age made a difference only in the emphasis a woman puts on a particular aspect of woman's role, not to the whole definition of the role. Education made a difference only in the extreme instances of no high school diploma; also economic factors were creating some of the reasons for the differences. We might note that political preferences made little difference in the way women accepted or rejected a

First Lady. Finally, we must take note that the women seemed predisposed to like the First Ladies, as long as these Ladies had some trait the women admired. That was the reason why Mrs. Carter, for instance, could be admired by each group— the college students like her involvement; the young women liked her courage; the middle-aged women 170

liked her simplicity; the older women liked her quietness;

and the women withou high school diplomas liked her rural background.

If we pay attention to the fact that most of the women

said they had not been influenced by the First Ladies, we may become confused. However, as stated earlier, the women

do read and talk and think about these famous women. How­

ever, the fact that the frequent comment that the First

Ladies had not influenced the women suggests that all women,

to some degree, feel far removed from the people in the

White House. Since most women do not feel as remote from

Washington as the group without high school diplomas, there

is the hope that future First Ladies can build on the ever­ present interest women have about them and thus help all women to better understand their choices of roles. I Summary

The overall statement about women suggested by the repertory grid was that women of varying ages, education,

and background admire a traditional role of mother and wife

and gentle person. However, both the grids and the focused interviews presented the different groups of women accept­

ing the traditional role in varying degrees. In particular,

the focused interviews described some of the thinking taking place on the worth of less traditional roles. We noticed

that women are changing their minds about following ideas 171

passed on from their mothers and from other women in their

past. Although the women admired and talked about the First

Ladies, the women did not consciously feel aware of any

direct influence on their lives.

The repertory grids and focused interviews complemented

each other, as well as the rhetorical vision material. How­

ever, it is necessary to note at this time some thoughts

about such a method. First, the investigator using the reper­

tory grid and focused interview combination must be prepared

for however long it takes to complete each experience. A

minimum of two hours is needed, because neither the grid

nor the interview can be rushed. Unless there is a gradual »

feeling of trust developed to let"the story" unfold from

each individual, the amount and depth of data will be

limited. No matter how hard an investigator tries, there

will be that one time where he feels he rushed the process,

which was the case with this interviewer. However, with a

•conscious effort to devote the time to each session, the

rewards are fruitful. Second, in the case of this study,

it was beneficial to devote nearly a month to interviewing

the people. I did nothing else for nearly four weeks, and

I feel a momentum developed which helped me get the most

from the 50 women. Third, I did as much of the writing

during the grids as possible, so that all the women had to

do was talk. Also, the particular make-up of the grids

is so "game-like" that in many instances it intrigued the 172 women and encouraged their involvement. Fourth, the major- ity of these women, in their grids and particularly in their focused interviews, shared very deep and private parts of their personalities. During the interviews I tried to support the women to make the experience profit­ able one for them. At no time in reporting the data have

I deliberately included private and unique problems. The purpose of the study was to present the results of what the women had in common. I feel a deep responsibility for what happened during the interview whether it was a woman who shared her innermost thoughts or a woman who nearly asked me to leave her home. Fifth, as the result of this responsibility I feel dissatisfied with my de-briefing of each woman. Not only was it too rushed, but I could not give the women the information they most wanted— what does all this mean? Not only did. I not know what the immediate results were, I was afraid to get caught up in predictions for fear I would pre-determine the results. For many women the experience of expressing themselves was enough, but the unsure women needed more than being told that their answers were good ones and had helped me. After this study is completed, I plan to share with each woman as much informa­ tion about the study as she wishes to know.

Turning to the issue of a rhetorical vision with more insight concerning some of the kinds of things going on 173 in the minds of women today, we face the question, Can

First Ladies offer women more concrete help in dealing with their place in society? Where is Rosalynn Carter in relationship to the needs of today's American woman? Is it meaningful to use the First Ladies in an attempt to understand the contemporary woman? CHAPTER. VI

ROSALYNN CARTER— AN EXAMPLE OP A NEW KIND OF FIRST LADY, THE NEW MEDIA TREATMENT OF FIRST LADIES, AND A NEW KIND OF WOMAN

What she is doing goes far beyond the usual decora­ tive functions of a White House hostess and spon­ sor of worthy charities. She may be recorded in history as the first presidential wife to have the political sensitivity and experience,, and the know­ ledge of government to qualify for the unique role she is now playing, as the president's closest confidante and aide in many substantive affairs of state.1

Just look at her. She's got ice water in her veins, she's one tough lady. I hear this presi­ dential thing was her idea in the first place. These southern women can fool you; they are soft on the outside, solid steel inside— steel magnol­ ias .2

These two quotes are perhaps representative of the range of comments written about Rosalynn Carter. In the previous chapter the claim was made that women were increasingly con­ sidering the benefits of roles other than wife and mother.

Rosalynn Carter is an example both of a woman who has roles other than wife and mother and the new media treatment of

First Ladies. As we-turn once again to a rhetorical study of the present First Lady and past First Ladies, let us look at their most immediate impact on today's woman. The purpose

174 175 of this chapter is to question: (1) Who Mrs. Carter appears to be; (2) What is Mrs. Carter's communicative style; (3) What rhetorical vision is created by Rosalynn

Carter; and (4) How has the print medium coverage of pres­ ent First Ladies changed from the coverage of past First

Ladies.

Rosalynn Carter— Who She Appears to Be

According to the consensus of the political analysts, contemporary American politics has never experienced a family quite like Jimmy Carter's. Rosalynn Carter is an intricate part of this family. During the long presiden­ tial campaign, the Carter family seemed to be everywhere, etching images into America's consciousness: a white-haired mother campaigning from a rocking chair; a pretty wife speak­ ing softly but working hard; a pig-tailed daughter running a lemonade stand; a grandson bouncing on the candidate's . knee; a fun-loving brother turned serious to walk through 3 the peanut fields.

However, the idyllic images of togetherness, down-home friendliness, and old-fashioned extended White House family did not last long. In less than one year after JimmyuCarter

0 became president, the newspaper, magazine, and television reports of the First Family suggested that there was jealousy, exasperation, discord, and bitterness among the various members of the Carter family. Mrs. Carter seems caught in 176

the middle of family quarrels, and apparently she spends a great deal of time explaining the less than harmonious relationships. The result is often a less than favorable reaction from the press toward the First Lady.

One of the most sensitive subject in the White House was the status of Chip Carter's marriage. Mrs. Carter resented the frequent questions about the marriage which con­

tinued from the press even after her son and his wife moved

from the White House into the Carter home in Plains to work

at the family's peanut warehouse. On one occasion, Mrs.

Carter angrily denied accusations that the President had

thrown his son out of the White House. The First Lady usually remained guarded when asked questions about her son's marriage and admitted only that he grew more and more frus­

trated while living in the White House. According to the

First Lady, the major problem was that President Carter had

asked his son to work for the Democratic Party at $8,000 a year instead of the $16,000 he had been offered. She added

that, although the President had wanted to give his son any

extra money he needed, his son felt degraded to ask his 4 father for money.

Whether or not the President asked his son Chip to

leave the White House, Jeff Carter and his wife Annette

frequently expressed their anxiousness to leave the mansion

and the political spotlight. Some of their unhappiness with

the White House life began over photography. The Jeff 177

Carters, interested in photography, sent publishers some samples of their work with a letter on White House station­ ery, but the negative publicity which resulted caused them to postpone the project. Once again, Mrs. Carter spoke of her irritation with the press' treatment of her family.

Even Jack Carter, the son who has never had and never wanted anything to do with life in Washington, has criticized his mother saying, "I think Mom is a problem. She takes every 5 affront to Dad personally. She's a lot worse now."

Mrs. Carter is a First Lady who admits to getting upset.

Not only was she irritated by.the photography episode involv­ ing Jeff (she felt he had done it so innocently and without thinking about using the White House), but Mrs. Carter was unhappy because the media and government investigators seem constantly to be "poking" into the family's business and financial affairs.

They won't find anything wrong, but it still casts suspicion on us. That kind of thing really bothers me. Sometimes I get very upset— especially when I know we've done everything we could to be exactly right. We've tried so hard to do everything exactly right.6

We might note also that Mrs. Carter's reaction to questions concerning their daughter Amy have been curt. Mrs. Carter snapped a quick answer to a reporter who had asked "Howcan the press ignore Amy, as you have asked, when you constantly take her to public places?" The First Lady retorted sharply that she and the President had always taken their daughter places and specifically took her to State dinners because they wanted Amy with them. Mrs. Carter added that when

Amy saw her get dressed in a long gown, she, too, wanted to attend the dinners, but she needed to take a book along to 7 keep from getting bored. Nevertheless, the press has continued to criticize both Amy's presence at the formal dinners, as well as her habit of reading during the dinners.

The public exposure by the press of the less than idyllic family even carries over to the members of the

Carter family less directly connected with the White House.

One may wonder how Miss Lillian, Brother Billy, Sister Ruth, and Sister Gloria affect the credibility of the President and the First Lady. The impression is given that Miss Lillian is reluctant to visit the White House too often, not just because she is too old to travel the distance from Plains, but mainly because she does not get along well with her daughter-in-law. Jimmy Carter's election as governor reportedly led to a decisive showdown between the two women over who would assume the role of First Lady of Georgia.

Although Rosalynn Carter quickly made it clear that she was to be the First Lady of her state, there has been a detect- g able coolness between the two women ever since. Billy

Carter is known throughout the United States for his not-so- subtle barbs at his brother. When asked if he made more money than the President, Billy replied, "I'm not so sure of that. I've never known a politician yet I trusted." 179

Other comments typical of Brother Billy are: "Bert Lance was the best man in Washington" and "I'm a George Wallace

Democrat who voted for Jimmy Carter because he's my only 9 brother." Carter's political advisers publically call

Billy Carter a political asset, but some' would say.the younger brother demeans the high office at times.

Besides Miss Lillian and Brother Billy, there are the two Carter sisters, Ruth Carter Stapleton and Gloria Carter

Spann. Not only are the President and First Lady's deeply religious convictions well-known, but so are the convictions of his faith-healing evangelist sister, Ruth Stapleton.

She admitted that being the President's sister brought pros­ perity to her religious cause. Mrs. Stapleton's audiences have increased, as well as the sales of her books on inner healing, including a paperback edition with the President's picture on the cover.'*'® Although Gloria Spann had appeared on television to promote the book Away From Home: Letters to My Family, which she compiled from Miss Lillian's corre- pondence when she served as a Peace Corps volunteer, she is most closely associated with the fact that her son is serv- , ing a term of "from ten years to life" for armed robbery committed while under the influence of drugs. In the January

1977 issue of Good Housekeeping, Mrs. Spann wrote, "The

Heartache of a Son Gone Wrong"— her first and last public statement about her son. Soon after the article was pub­ lished, her son contacted Good Housekeeping and asked to 180

tell his side of the story. William Carter Spann wrote of

the frustrations of being the nephew of the President, the

problems that lead to his imprisonment, and the fears of

the future since he has no family contact.

Because I am in prison and I am the nephew of the President of the United States a lot of people are interested in me. Some of them have even written about me. Unfortunately, those articles have presented only one side— the nega­ tive side. . . . I have always had a problem communicating with my mother— with my family— with the kinds of people who read this magazine. . . . I love my mother. I have always loved her— but .1 have not seen her since 1969. We have spoken on the phone since then, the last time was in December 1976. That conversation was not very satisfying. We didn't agree on anything. She was concerned about the past. I was worried about my future. Since then I have written letters, but I have had no response from anyone in the family.1 1

In the midst of her children's problems, her brother-in-

law's problems, her nephew's problems, and, not to mention,

her husband's problems, it is possible frequently to lose

sight of Rosalynn Carter. One writer who interviewed Mrs.

Carter only a few days after her husband had been elected Presi-

. dent,' Claire Crawford, made several predictions about the

kind of First Lady Rosalynn Carter would be. According to

Ms. Crawford, unlikd many First Ladies who came to 1600

Pennsylvania Avenue reluctantly, as prisoners of their hus­

band 's careers, Rosalynn Carter would bring to the White

Hpuse her own measure of resolve and ambition. Also, Craw­

ford wrote that the political writers who have dubbed the

new First Lady, the "Steel Magnolia" are correct in their 181 assessment of the woman, because even Mrs. Carter accepts the terminology. She told the interviewer that she did not mind being called tough because she knew she was strong, that she had definite ideas and opinions, and if tough meant she could take a lot, it was a fair description. Ms. Craw­ ford argued that the wife of the newly elected President had little interest in social extravagance. Mrs. Carter did not want a White House in which poor or middle-class people would feel uncomfortable. There will be little "white tie," if any, and lots of street clothes. Finally, above all else,

Rosalynn Carter would be a power in the White House— not merely an ornament. The world would know she had a fine mind and lots of energy and drive. "She will be an abso- 12 lutely dynamite First Lady."

We also can get a view of Mrs. Carter as First Lady if we turn to Howard Norton, her only biographer at this time.

Norton described Rosalynn Carter after nearly one year as

First Lady as a team-member, a learner, a diplomat, and a moralist. In his book, Rosalynn: A Portrait, Norton observed that Jimmy Carter had been in office less than three months when the word began to spread that somehing new was afoot in the White House. For the first time a president and hxs wife were operating on the highest governmental level, almost as a team. This woman seemed to have more authority than a cabinet member. The President said that when Rosalynn comes to him to talk seriously about something 182

Hamilton Jordan or Jody Powell had brought to her, he considered that to be the ultimate approach to his con- 13 sciousness. Mrs. Carter is always looking for a way to improve herself. Early in her marriage a correspond­ ence course was accidentally delivered to the Carter home.

Mrs. Carter opened it by mistake, but she and her husband stayed up all night studying the course before sending it 14 the next day to the person who had ordered it. It is with this kind of desire to learn that the busy First Lady finds time to study tennis from a professional-teacher, to practice violin with Amy, and to study Spanish and French 15 with her husband. Rosalynn Carter diplomatically chose

a more down-to-earth style for the White House mansion than had been done by previous First Ladies. Parties are

"more American" and generally more relaxed and enjoyable.

The First Lady from Georgia did away with the trumpeters who used to signal the arrival of the Presidential family and their guests. "Hail to the Chief" is played only on the arrival of the Presidential family and foreign heads of State, and then only the first few bars instead of the whole piece. White House menus are written in English now, not mixed French and English. A duckling, when served at the White House, is no longer a "canard," but just a plain duckling. The First Lady even seats her dinner guests at

a room full of small, round tables with no head table— a 16 democratic plan that appeals to both the Carters. 183

Finally, Rosalynn Carter is a moralist. The First Lady says that she does and says what she thinks is right and if she has prayed about it first, she can be sure it will be right. Her public statements and speeches are laced with references to the long history of devout Christian 17 faith in the Holy Spirit and the unity of family life.

Finally, a Los Angeles Times reporter described who the First Lady was by writing that she had the qualities of a "muted but rather lovely gem." Ms. Geyer wanted to know how this charming, pretty, no-nonsense, simple woman had come out on top with both love and power without being

Mata Hari or Catherine the Great. From Mrs. Carter's own conversation, Ms. Geyer concluded that the success of

Mrs. Carter was the fact that her marriage was not only that of two complementary, synergistic people, but one of two people who, a lot of the time, left each other alone.

I do things on my own all the time. I can't remember when I even went on a trip with Jimmy. Even on the campaign, I always ran my own things. . . . Ydu see, the reason we have such a close relationship is that he is inter­ ested in what I'm doing and I'm interested in what he's doing. Then at the end of the day, we come back together and talk. . . . I have always had my area of responsibility in the busi­ ness. He always asked me, 'How much money are we making?' That was my area. Jimmy gives people responsibilityhand then leaves them on their own. . . . When I started taking care of the books, is just developed.18

In conclusion, Rosalynn Carter, although at.times criticized by the press, stands apart from most of the « 184 controversy surrounding the Carter family. Some critics speculated that she planned to be the first woman Vice 19 President. Some critics negatively used the term

"steel magnolia." However, most writers marvel at all the responsibility she is attempting to take on as First Lady.

Specifically, people wonder how a woman born on the

"wrong side of the tracks" could rise to the summit of power 20 in only a half century of life. Whether we praise or blame this First Lady, Rosalynn Carter is an unsual power in the White House.

Rosalynn Carter— A Believer in Collective Action

Although much has been written about the Carter team in

... • , the White House— Jimmy and Rosalynn— we get only a surface impression of the newest First Lady if we start with this

aspect of her. Instead a deeper impression may be gained if we begin our study of Mrs. Carter by looking at her style of

communication. Much of today's society functions around the

idea that "two heads are better than one," and Mrs. Carter is no exception to this idea. As a practical and no-nonsense woman with the short permanented hair and drip-dry suit she

apparently believes that the best way to get anything done

for the country is to unite the many people who are willing 22 to help but do not know what to do. In communication

terms, Rosalynn Carter seems to be a First Lady who believes

in the power of collective action and in her position to 185

23 excite people to move. in an address to the National

Press Club (the first Presidential wife'to speak to this audience since Eleanor Roosevelt), Mrs. Carter took issue with exiled Soviet author Solzhenitsin's derogatory remakrs about the western culture and declared that our national virtue is helping people through group efforts.

There is a pervasive desire among Americans to live a useful life, to correct the defects in our society, and to make our nation even greater than it already is. It's not possible to work with the most vulnerable among us and be indiffer­ ent to those unresponsive institutions which are failing to serve. But I can tell you the peoples of this country are not weak, but cowardly, and not spiritually exhausted. . . . We know that the government cannot meet all our needs, cannot answer every question, cannot solve every prob­ lem. We realize that there must be a partnership^, among the different elements of American society.

Not only does Mrs. Carter believe in the desire of the

American people to collectively solve problems, as First

Lady, she is participating in programs that encourage group efforts in concerns such as mental health, aging, and educa­ tion. Rosalynn Carter promotes a stand on mental health that encourages health care dof people near their homes and to remove the "taboo attitude" on the subject of mental health. As honorary chairman of the President's Mental

Health Commission, she travels around the country to meet with professionals, parents of mentally afflicted children, and with the children themselves. Throughout her travels the First Lady hopes to encourage professionals, parents, and all interested people to work together on legislative 25 proposals for her husband to implement. Also, the First

Lady specifically attends group meetings to discuss mental health care projects. In her talk to the panel during one

Commission meeting, a reporter noted that Mrs. Carter was softspoken, but displayed a steely determination as she almost imperceptibly took over the direction of the meeting.

We see another example of Rosalynn Carter's group behavior if we look at a recent hearing the First Lady attended on mental health. It was noted that throughout the hearing

Mrs. Carter listened attentively to a wide range of propos­ als and complaints. She asked several questions and particu larly was interested in a project for more funding of dance and music for therapy in mental health programs. As chair­ man, Mrs. Carter not only demonstrated her power by strongly expressing her opinions, but by limiting each speaker's time 27 to eight minutes.

Although Mrs. Carter's main project is mental health, she is also concerned about aging and education for the less privileged. The First Lady hosted a White House Conference on Aging to personally spotlight the problems of elderly people in America. The format was a roundtable discussion involving the issues of forced retirement of the elderly, the high cost of health care, and government programs that 28 do not reach people. Late in 1977 Mrs. Carter went to

New York City to visit the Village Nursing Home and to discuss the conclusions reached by the conference. The 187

First Lady had been impressed by this Nursing Home in par­

ticular because of the accounts of how the Caring Community,

a coalition of village groups, raised the money in a few 29 weeks to keep the home running and operating.

Finally, we see Mrs. Carter's belief in the persuasive possibilities of groups if we look at an educational program

she supported. The First Lady met with a small group of

school officials to examine a program used in a Harlem

school. She listened to the experiences of this group of

educators and added information she had collected from pro­ grams she had participated in while First Lady of Georgia.

The Harlem program promoted the bringing of health, welfare,

and recreation into schools because the schools are the only positive institutions left in the community. Also, the program suggested that a group of individuals meeting a variety of student needs was more successful than one indi­ vidual attending to all of the specific areas. Thus, the

combined talents of teachers, social workers, and youth workers produced a school environment where students do 30 more than run from one class to another.

Although she used the small group style of communica­

tion, Rosalynn Carter has had very little success with any

of the group projects she has undertaken. Mrs. Carter's

critics suggest that the reason she has not been successful

with the group projects has been because she preferred

closer contact with the political operations of the White 188

31 House. However, Eric Berne's theory concerning games individuals play in groups can shed some light on the ques­ tion of Rosalynn Carter and her faith in collective action.

Berne's theory suggests that individuals seek out groups to‘ join because of six basic needs.

1. As we mature we accept symbolic forms of strok­

ing instead of the actual biological need of

touching.

2. Individuals of our culture psychologically need

their time structured. Berne calls this being

"structure hungry." It simply means that we

cannot sit still and do nothing.

3. As human beings we desire satisfaction which

comes from intimacy with other people.

4. In the midst of our needs for personal inter­

actions, we all have unconscious life plans

which we expect others to help us with.

5. Much of how we expect to act with individuals

of a group is determined by what experiences

have happened to us in the past. However,

we try to function through associations with

our most recent past.

6 . Through adaptability and flexibility we learn 32 to adjust and "fit into our groups.

Rosalynn Carter needs the acceptance of belonging to a group as much as anyone does. We might wonder if maybe she 189 needs it even more than most people as the result of nega­ tive press reports her family continues to receive. Also,

Mrs. Carter is described by all who claim to know her well as painfully shy and self-concsious of the fact that she's 33 from the South. Not only did Mrs. Carter want to prove that a southern woman was capable of being First Lady, she wanted to completely use all her days and weeks as First

Lady. From the first days after her husband became President, the new First Lady spoke of wanting to be a very active person while she was in the White House. She modeled her­ self after Eleanor Roosevelt, who, the First Lady said, 34 never had a free moment. Mrs. Carter squeezes her work day into so tight a schedule that she is often seen going to the theatre in the same office clothes she has worn at her 35 desk only 30 minutes earlier. This particular First Lady, then, seems to be searching for acceptance by having her time tightly structured by various groups surrounding her.

Although Mrs. Carter needs her group affiliation as mentioned earlier, the groups are accomplishing very little.

A recent article said that Mrs. Carter had become dissatis­ fied with her project groups and would be returning to work more closely in the White House with her husband on poli- 36 tical issues. One reason the First Lady may have become dissatisfied with her group projects is that people within the groups did not give her any intimate satisfaction. It ✓ is not likely, because of her cool personality, that one 190

gets close to Mrs. Carter, let alone close to her when she

is in the role of First Lady. Another problem was that in

the groups of people Mrs. Carter met with, there was con­

stant confusion as to her role. Is Rosalynn Carter a First

Lady or a political stand-in for her husband? During a •

wide variety of circumstances, people who encounter the First

Lady must try to balance these essentially incompatible 37 concepts. . Also, in most interviews with Mrs. Carter, she

bases her expertise as First Lady on what she accomplished

as First Lady of Georgia, in the terminology of Berne,

Mrs. Carter cannot expect so much similarity between her

present situation and experiences long ago in Georgia.

Finally, Mrs. Carter has the tact and the diplomacy

needed to adapt to new groups, but we must question if she

has the flexibility to modify or sacrifice any of her

beliefs for the adjustment to the groups. Mrs. Carter cer­

tainly did "participate" with her groups because she did

not withdraw, and she even went further than "involvement,"

because she did not just sit in on the Mental Health Commis­

sion in only a passive role in another person's game. Her

action in the group was "engagement." This means she ini-

.tiated her own games, she had her own plans and hopes.

Yet she never "belonged" to the group. She never made the

necessary adjustments to incorporate herself into the

groups, to become one of the group acting for the best of

all, not the White House. I argue that because Mrs. Carter 191 used the groups to play a game seemingly for the benefit

of the White House, she was destructive to her image and

the image of the various groups with which she associated.

So as Mrs. Carter moves toward election year, we probably will see her move further away from group projects

and closer to political issues. In fact, the aides who say

that she has better political judgment than her husband may be correct. For instance, the strongest parts of The Presi­ dent's State of the Union Address were written by Mrs. 38 Carter. Mrs. Carter intuitively knew that she needed the interactions with the groups of people for emotional support, and also because it was a politically sound idea-

touching many kinds of people is the Carter philosophy. Also with group projects, Mrs. Carter could fill her time without

the main brunt of decision resting on her. Most of all, there was more political security in group behavior than in indi­ vidual behavior. Such need for security may tell us why

Mrs. Carter withdrew her individual telephone campaign to

Senators asking for support of the ERA when the calls bought public criticism. In place of the telephone calls, she sub­ stituted membership in a group of women known as the 39 ERAmenca. An outsider may never know the answer to the question of who is really running the White House, the

President or the First Lady. Nevertheless, Mrs. Carter's choice of a communication style based on collective action seems as much a key to her personality as Jacqueline 192

Kennedy's style of "mystery" is to her personality. Collec­

tive action, no doubt, was a politically good idea for her

image if not a workable idea for solid achievement. Rosa-

lynn Carter, like Jacqueline Kennedy and Betty Ford, used

the role of First Lady to satisfy her needs. None of the

First Ladies included in this study seem to have the deep- rooted need, to make the world a better place as did Lady

Bird Johnson. No matter the degree of success, Rosalynn

Carter's presence at the group projects was one kind of sug­ gestion as to the power she gave the role of First Lady. Now

let us turn to the vision of womanhood presented by Mrs.

Carter as a powerful woman?

The Rhetorical Vision Created by Rosalynn Carter

Rosalynn Carter represents a variety of views as to how

a woman can participate within a society. As we look at the many aspects covered in the women's magazines, we should recall the complex responses given by the women during the repertory grids and focused interviews. Mrs. Carter's rhetorical vision of womanhood is equally complex. The vision covers every aspect of womanhood from the value of motherhood to the part she plays in White House decisions.

In the magazines' interviews Mrs. Carter frequently spoke of the significance of being close to her family. Her ulti­ mate dream is to see all of her children happy, and parti­ cularly to see Amy keep an unassuming attitude about who 193 she is. The First Lady said a few days after her husband took office that she wanted to involve all the children in the White House. She stated that she thought all women want their children close-by. Also, Mrs. Carter emphasizes that she does not feel that Amy is neglected because of her mother's position and that Amy would continue much the same schedule that she did when they lived in the governor's mansion. The First Lady added that Amy would aiso continue to be a good, well-adjusted and bright child.

I do think it is going to work. When Jimmy was Governor it worked well-even with the traveling we did then. I had to be home every morning and eat breakfast with Amy before she went to school. I always told her goodnight before we left home so that the mansion would seem like home to her. . . . The presidential campaign has helped her to grow up, and she's come through the attention w e l l .4 0

The First Lady spends a great deal of time talking about her mother, Allie Smith. Mrs. Carter speaks with admiration of her mother's transformation after her father's death from a very sheltered woman used to having everything done for her into a strong, independent person able to cope with the demands of raising a large family by herself. Mrs. Carter sadi about her mother, "She learned and I learned through 41 her that you can do anything you must do." The First

Lady is still very close to her mother whom she calls the most gentle and kind woman she has ever known, and says that she very much misses the pre-White House times when they 42 cooked, sewed, and shopped together. 194

We see another traditional aspect of the rhetorical vision if we consider the number of articles concerning

Rosalynn Carter as a White House hostess. One such article covered in detail the kind of Thanksgiving dinner the 43 "superb hostess" would have. In an article written by

Mrs. Carter, she described her method for taking Southern hospitality to the White House. She defined Southern hos­ pitality, not as magnolias and leisure, but as "a genuinely warm welcome to anyone who drops in. " She added that people in the South really enjoy having company, even when it is unexpected, and because the Southerners truly enjoy it, people always feel welcome. The First Lady believed that

Southern women were just like women anywhere else trying to balance the demands of a job against the real pleasure of a home. She concluded that the house may not be straight and the children may not be neat, but the only thing to do 44 is just relax and make everyone else comfortable. Mrs.

Carter is a woman who likes to entertain and to have all the comforts of home including flowers from her garden for special occasions. It is interesting to see that one of

Rosalynn Carter's favorite memories of the presidential cam­ paign was the entertaining she did in Plains for the pro­ spective Democratic candidates for Vice-President. At such times the candidate and his wife would stay for several days 45 at a time. 195

However, the newest First Lady presents a less tradi­ tional vision of woman when we consider the partnership she

and the President have developed in operating the affairs of government. The Carters have many discussions about White

House matters and the discussions are open and direct, but do not always end in agreement. In fact, the President commented about his wife, "She never loses an argument. . • .

When I think an argument is over and I have won it— a week 46 or a month later the argument revives itself." Political figures commonly refer to their wives as "partners," but

Jimmy Carter means it. Not only does Mrs. Carter attend many Cabinet meetings as well as ceremonial functions, she also is briefed on foreign affairs and assigned diplomatic duties. One such occasion was her Latin America trip where she held in-depth talks with the leaders of seven countries.

Prior to the two-week trip, she was given intensive briefings in Latin-American policy . ^ 7

Rosalynn Carter credits her ability to do so much with the self-discipline she learned as a young girl when, as the oldest of four children, she supervised the home after her father's death in order for her mother to have time to 48 work. The Carter sons recognize their mother's role in their father's presidential campaign. They said she was totally involved and participated at every level. There was no particular thing that she did, but it was like hav­ ing two candidates equally attractive. Even the President 196 later said that his wife was the one who kept in touch with everyone else. If there was a problem, she was the one with whom they could exchange ideas, who could correct mistakes, and from whom they could get answers to compli- 49 cated questions. Although we saw earlier that the First

Lady's group effort on behalf of mental health has not been too successful, all we have to do is read her account of what she accomplished with mental health in Georgia to feel the power in her use of the pronoun "we" when describing Carter1s term of governor.

We made some changes when Jimmy was Governor of Georgia. When he was elected, we stopped build­ ing mental hospitals. We studied the situation and decided that the institutions shopld not outweight the community. We so divided the hos­ pitals we already had into geographic sections, so that everybody from a certain area would be in one wing of a hospital. . . . Then we arranged it so that the staff in each geographic section of a hospital would also work with people in the community.50 0 Mention is made in most of the magazine articles of the hard­ working First Lady. The Ladies Home Journal included Rosa­

lynn C.arter in its awards for 1978 Women of the Year. She * was chosen because of the social responsibility she brought to the White House position— as honorary chairman of the

President's Commission on Mental Health, and as the Presi­ dent's emissary to Latin American countries. The editors commented that although Mrs. Carter is an activist First

Lady, most people do not realize the degree of involvement and hard labor she puts into her work. They noted that she 197 has participated in seminars, workshops, and hearings con­ cerned with all aspects of mental health, and in her travels she speaks on issues of substance in a manner that demon- 51 strates more than an "honorary'* involvement. However, there are few detailed accounts written about the kind of work Mrs. Carter does. Whether this lack of coverage is because of her participation in the projects is to meet her need to keep busy or because the magazine editors choose not to print it or because there are no details to print, the rhetorical vision presented by Mrs. Carter is one less of an indepenent woman attempting to better society and more one of a strong woman who would to to any lengths to help her husband.

Rosalynn Carter always talks of her husband's resigna­ tion from the Navy as a turning point in their lives. As the oldest son, Jimmy Carter felt an obligation to manage the family's peanut-farming business. The First Lady recalls that she hated the idea because she loved the closeness of the present situation (Navy) with her husband and children and feared in Plains that both of their mothers would inter­ fere with their lives. Roslynn and Jimmy Carter violently argued the matter; it was a difficult time. Nevertheless, 52 it was decided that they would return to Plains. Another example of Rosalynn Carter's molding herself to be whatever her husband wanted was how she handled the role of First

Lady of Georgia. They had worked so hard to get Jimmy 198

Carter elected governor of Georgia that his wife said she had had no time to think of anything else. It was after knowing total fear of the overwhelming aspects of her posi­ tion at the Georgia mansion that Mrs. Carter, through a religious experience, knew she could be all her husband needed.

All of a sudden I woke up one day and I was scared to death. There was so much I wanted to do . . . to help Jimmy with his big reorgani­ zation efforts— and I still had this thing about thinking my hair had to be perfect, my nails polished, Amy had to be clean and dressed right whenever the mansion was open. . . . That's when I came to the conclusion . . . that a person can't do it all alone— you've got to have some help,- some strength from the L o r d . 53

According to Rosalynn Carter and the magazine articles about her, she has begun to conquer her fears. She has come to terms with her looks, her stage fright, and her inability to make "dazzling small talk." Nothing comes close to the per­ fection she wanted, but she has managed to be a gracious hostess and she has tried to make others aware of social issues such as mental health care. However, Rosalynn Carter emphasized that the strength and determination that enabled her to learn and to accommodate a public life came from her 54 husband's encouragement and her prayers.

Once again we must be aware that whether or not Rosa­ lynn Carter is the leader and the President the follower as her critics suggest, it is not possible for an outsider to know. But the vision created by Mrs. Carter is one of a 199 strong woman, able to face hardships. She is often compared to the pioneer women who faced up to their experiences, terrors, and hardships of a wilderness, but survived the ordeal. Yet, the vision is not one of a strong calculating woman telling her husband what to do, because Mrs. Carter plays down such an image and always is quick to point out,

"Jimmy is a very strong person and I couldn't tell him what 53 to do." Rosalynn Carter is simply a woman and a First Lady who is struggling to keep her own identity, not just for her­ self, but as she says,"The more I keep my own identity . . .

i the more I can help Jimmy."

• In summary, what can we conclude about the rhetorical vision of womanhood presented by Mrs. Carter?' The vision is not a clear cut one, as were the ones presented by past

First Ladies. Rosalynn Carter projects a view of the ideal woman as one who values her role of mother, wife, and enter­ tainer. However,if we recall her presence at cabinet meet­ ings and her partnership with the President, we see a less traditional vision of womanhood and of a First Lady. The accounts of Mrs. Carter in the women's magazines seem con­ fused as to which vision Rosalynn Carter presents— gentle political help-mate or dogmatic political boss. Considering how defensive Mrs. Carter has become about "not telling the

President what to do," one wonders if Mrs. Carter is not confused about her own vision of womanhood. Nevertheless, this confused vision that includes family life, husband's 200 needs, hard work, and political power is a vision not unique to the First Lady. In presenting these complicated aspects of Rosalynn Carter, the magazines offer today's women an understanding of the confusion they feel about their place in society.

The Changing Print Medium Coverage of Past and Present First Ladies

Mrs. Carter's views and actions about being a woman are in keeping with the ones discussed in Chapter V for her age group. She is talking about a more liberated attitude then she actually feels. For instance, she used words such as "self-identity" and "independence," and she supports the

ERA. However, she is not comfortable with a too public stand on ERA, just as the middle-aged women discussed in the previous chapter disliked a close association with the Amend­ ment. Also when she uses liberated terminology, such as self-identity, it is so she can be a better wife. One vision she offers women different from the other First Ladies dis­ cussed is that as a woman she works full time in her office.

Lady Bird Johnson worked equally hard, but rarely commented on it, and is credited with accomplishing more while First

Lady than Mrs. Carter has at this point. Perhaps the . one thing that Rosalynn Carter has done which seems unique to her is the question she raised as to whether she is a major power to be "reckoned with" in the. White House. But that this is a considerable question considering how unlikely it 201 would have been to say such a thing about most of the previously discussed First Ladies.

Perhaps the impact Mrs. Carter has had on most American women is minor. The significant impact rests with the recent coverage of all First Ladies showing how they have to with­ stand complex and often painful stays in the White House and usually with husbands who, at best, were disinterested in them. As discussed earlier, many of the things written about

Mrs. Carter and her family have not been complimentary. There has not seemed to be an air of awe surrounding Roslynn

Carter as there apparently was around previous First Ladies.

Part of the reason can be found in her particular personality as well as the fact that she does nothing to ingratiate her­ self with American women. However, the main reason is simply the growing awareness that the First Lady's position is no fairy tale experience. In a recent article an author noted the idea "once a First Lady, always a queen," should more accurately be, "Once a First Lady, always a morbid public 57 curiosity." For some reason the wives of Presidents Eisen hower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford have all suffered either illness, scandal, or deep disappointment upon return­ ing to private life. The historic trend that has reached a poignant climax in Betty Ford's admission to a hospital for treatment of her drug and alcohol dependency. None of these women have retired to a serene and tranquil life. All have had troubles that make headlines and all have had to react 202 with their usual courage and grace .58 instead of wondering why their lives-were so unhappy after they left the White

House, the focus can realistically turn to their lives while they lived in the White House and thus understand the recent public awareness of the troubled First Ladies.

If we look at the latest books and magazine articles on the First Ladies, we see a whole new kind of vision about the lives of these women. In her book, Special People. Julie

Nixon Eisenhower devoted a chapter to her grandmother,

Mamie Eisenhower. Julie Eisenhower wrote of her feelings when Mrs. Eisenhower accompanied the Nixons in the inaugural parade for her father's second term as president. The grand­ daughter said that she could not help feeling disappointed that all the people saw that day was her cheery smile and her big wave, little more than she had revealed during her eight years as First Lady. Mamie Eisenhower had devoted her life, as well as her day as First Lady, to the emotional support of her husband. According to Julie Eisenhower, the country never knew the strength and endurance of Mamie Eisen- 58 hower. Throughout her marriage to Dwight Eisenhower, the former First Lady accepted the fact that his credo was duty, honor, country and that she filled a place far below that credo. In biographies of President Eisenhower and in the

1300 pages of his two-volume memoirs there are few references to his wife. When Mrs. Eisenhower talks about her marriage, she paints no rosy, unrealistic picture. She told her 203 granddaughter, "There were a lot of times when he broke my heart. I wouldn't have stood it for a minute if I didn't 59 respect him so much."

In response to Kay Summersby's memoirs which revived rumors of a wartime romance with General Eisenhower (the memoirs of Summersby and discussion of them were covered in major women's magazines), McCall1s magazine published a collection of the General's wartime letters to his wife.

Although these letters were written before he became presi­ dent, they suggest the personal relationship with which the

Eisenhowers entered the White House. The letters were often written in an exasperated almost scolding tone which at times were defensive riposts to to his wife's possessive and des- 60 perately lonely remarks. But then, once the Eisenhowers entered the White House, they represented the model marriage and many women worried because their own husbands did not

"adoringly gaze" into their wives' eyes. What a relief it would have been to American women to have had a more real­ istic picture of this famous couple.

When Jacqueline Kennedy became First Lady, she, too presented an unrealistic image which made American women feel inferior about theirown lives. Although the purpose of this section is not to detail the sordid love affairs of past presidents, it is interesting that Jacqueline Kennedy has had to endure the clamorous publicity over her husband's 204 involvement with Judith Exner (a woman known for her affairs with Mafia leaders) just as Mamie Eisenhower endured the publicity of Kay Summersby's claims. Accord­ ing to the book, Jackie Oh! by Kitty Kelly, Jacquleine

Kennedy's outwardly calm and her composure covered up deep inner turmoil. People who know the First Lady well felt that her "black moods" were the result of attention she 61 craved from her husband, but never received.

In recent articles on the former president and his wife, we see numerous examples of John Kennedy's insensi­ tive behavior toward his wife, both before and after he became President. Particularly poignant are the accounts of Jacquline Kennedy's miscarriages and in one case near death during which times her husband was vacationing and 62 chose to rest rather than be with his wife. The times when there were any signs of affection between the President * and his First Lady were so tew that people who saw any evi­ dence of affection remembered them. Artist Aaron Shekler described his portrait of Mrs. Kennedy as a one-dimensional image of a woman who wanted a serene exterior to give no indication of the "gnawing inner tension, the emotional turbulence, the insecurity, and the restlessness" that had 63 haunted Jacqueline Kennedy.

Unfortunately, the post-White House coverage of Lady

Bird Johnson has revealed that her publically known devotion to the President frequently had its painful times. Books 205

and articles have marked Lyndon Johnson as an outrageous

flirt, a man who took pleasure where he found it. Frank

Cormier, who covered the White House for AP, saved this

Johnson quote for posterity, "Now boys, you may see me at 64 times coming out of the wrong bedrooms. ..." In his book, Wheeling and Dealing. Johnson aide, Bobby Baker, wrote

not just of the President's womanizing, but of the rigid

control Lyndon Johnson exerted over his wife. It was common behavior for Johnson to ridicule Mrs. Johnson, no matter who else was present or how small the issue. Baker recalled one occasion when the President brought tears to the eyes of the

First Lady as she modeled new clothes by telling her,

. • don't wear that. You look short and fat." Lyndon

Johnson treated his wife like he did everything around him— if it was there he ran it, commanded it, shaped it, and 65 took charge of it. It was a few years ago on the "Today

Show" when Lady Bird Johnson showed her taste— and charity— by responding to a question about her husband's philander­ ing, "Lyndon was a people-lover, and people is a word that 66 includes women."

None of the previously mentioned First Ladies, or any others, for that matter, received as many public rebuffs 67 from her husband as did Pat Nixon. No better statement of the way Richard Nixon feels about his wife exists than the way he ignored his wife during his resignation speech.

As Nixon began a moving tribute to his late mother, whom he 206

called a saint, his son-in-law pushed Mrs. Nixon forward 68 to await her praise— praise that never came. Bob Pier- point, CBS White House correspondent, wrote that for the 10

year preceding his resignation, the President and his wife were trapped in a situation where the best Pat Nixon could

do was not to hurt him. Pierpoint added that they tried to play the game of being the perfect husband and wife, but 69 it came through as transparent— phony and unrealistic.

The examples of the President ignoring his wife are so numer­

ous that Lester David devoted a chapter to them in his book

Mrs. Nixon. One typical example occurred in Nashville.

Upon flying home from a six-day trip to South America, Pat

Nixon learned that the President planned to celebrate his wife's birthday at the opening of the New Grand 'Ole Opry.

That evening, exhausted from the 5,000 mile trip, sick with

the flu and running a fever, Pat Nixon went to Opryland only

to be humiliated by the President.

At the mike, Roy Acuff asked the President to play the piano and the audience to sing 'Happy Birthday' to Mrs. Nixon. When the song ended, Pat rose and came forward, her arms extended to hug Nixon. He turned away from her. Her hands dropped to her sides and she went back to her chair. Nixon had a yo-yo in his hand. . . . For ten minutes, the President stood . . . before 4400 people, trying to make a yo-yo spin up and down a string. Pat, flushed with fever and embarrassment, sat and watched him.7°

However, the First Lady had problems other than the

lack of love from her husband. Jo Halderman wrote of the

Presidential staff's desire to hide Mrs. Nixon from the 207 public. The lonely woman was trapped in the White House 71 long before the Watergate days. Dr. Joyce Brothers sug­ gests that the stroke Mrs. Nixon suffered was an inevitable end result of the pressures and traumas Pat Nixon has encoun­ tered during her .30 years of political life with Richard 72 Nixon. In fact^ it is because of all the pressures of her life with Richard Nixon that one friend stated that only the birth of a grandchild could make Pat Nixon believe any

"better days lie ahead!

We see that it was not until Betty Ford admitted her drug dependency that the abundance of articles appeared dis­ cussing how painfully unhappy recent First Ladies have been.

Betty Ford never kept as many thins secret as previous First

Ladies had before her. After her husband was defeated for

President, she made no secret of the fact that she was glad 74 to soon have her husband more to herself. According to

Ron Nesson, Press Secretary Gerald Ford, all the White House staff knew how unhappy Betty Ford was. Nesson characterized

Betty Ford as "frugal and jealous wife." He reported that

Mrs. Ford was jealous of any woman to whom the President showed any. attention. The list of women, who sent Mrs. Ford into jealousrages, included singer Vicki Carr, actress 75 Raquel Welch, and journalist Phyllis George. Nesson's book is written with a definite partiality toward the President, which we must keep in mind in considering his report that

Betty Ford so desperately wanted out of the White House that 208 she was emotionless when told of an attempt on her hus- 7 6 band's life. Also we might note once again a President who ignored his wife during a dedication service. The night before election day, Gerald Ford dedicated a mural in a Grand Rapids airport depicting highlights of his life.

It will mean much to me because of the name Gerald R. Ford and Dorothy Ford, my father and mother. I owe everything to them and to the training, the love, the leadership. And what­ ever has been done for me in any way whatsoever, it is because of Jerry Ford, Senior and Dorothy Ford. And that is what that mural will always mean to me in the years ahead. 77

The women's magazines offer a more favorable picture of Mrs. Ford than does Nessen. In their accounts of Mrs.

Ford's recent struggle we learn that President Ford had once said that if he could relieve the tension by being home more, the First Lady's physical .pain would be less. It is also suggested that when Ford's promised "retirement" did not materialize, it was too much for the former First Lady. We get further insight into the situation from Susan Ford's constant comments that she never would marry a politician 78 because she had seen her mother go through too much.

Although Betty Ford insists she and her husband still have a close relationship, her friends report how hurt she was when her husband played golf in a charity match on the day she entered the rehabilitation center— even though her deci- 79 sion had been planned by the family two weeks earlier.

At best, Betty Ford seems in conflict on the subject of her 209 often absent husband. A psychiatrist is more definite about the subject of Gerald Ford: “A change in Gerald

Ford's life style seems imperative if Mrs. Ford is ever to 80 solve the problem she has so honestly and bravely faced."

This preceding discussion of the tribulations of the

First Ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to the present First

Lady, Rosalynn Carter, may be the beginning of defining the role of the First Lady in the most realistic way possible.

Only time will tell if redefining will occur, however, for now the question is— what possible effect do these discus­ sions have on American women reading the articles?

Summary

After reflecting on the previous discussion of the lives of these First Ladies, the nagging question exists, "Are the times today such that people want to find unhappiness in the lives of public figures?" There is little doubt but that political events such as Watergate have caused the press to view the family in the White House more closely. For instance, the press has not encouraged the public to build the kind of love for the Carters that it encouraged for the

Kennedys. Also, changes today exist in the American media.

Journalism entered a "let it all hang out" period in the 81 late 1960's, and the new honesty spares nobody. Finally,

Americans today are less inhibited, more curious, and agreat deal less reverent; nothing shocks us any more. People are 210 more sophisticated and more cynical. If they have less 82 respect for privacy, they also have fewer delusions.

Certainly it is not the purpose of this dissertation to emphasize the alleged affairs various men have had while they were President. Nor is it the purpose of this paper to condone the media's printing the details of the secret lives of Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy. However, I feel that somewhere between sensationalism and idyllic fantasy there exists a realistic picture of the woman liv­ ing in the White House. If Shulman is right, as- I believe he is, women turn to the First Lady for guidance in their own lives, but it need not be a fairy story to interest and guide most women. In fact, the reason that many women in this study said they did not feel the First Ladies influenced them directly was because they are so far removed from the interviewees' problems. This media image of the perfect wife and mother is too hard to live up to, as well as impos­ sible for most women, including the First Ladies. Also, if the media portrayed the First Lady less as wife and mother and more as an involved person in the White House, women could see the strength and capabilities of the famous lady without the more private and personal details. Maybe the time is coming when the First Lady is judged for her contri­ butions apart from her husband. If it does come, we can be sure women everywhere have more options in their defini­ tion: "I am woman." 211

Although it would be a climatic ending to say that

Rosalynn Carter entered the white House as a brand new kind of woman, we cannot say a thing. However, she emphasizes more of her role in terms of "working" person than in terms of wife and mother and fashion model. She is a new kind of woman in that she admits the close political interaction between herself and the President, even though for political reasons she plays it down at times. Women's magazine

articles cover more of the traditional things about Mrs.

Carter, such as family and entertaining, but for the first

time since Eleanor Roosevelt, the articles discuss the work of a First Lady in the White House. Most importantly, Rosa­

lynn Carter has proved that a woman can achieve much power even without higher education, social class, and elitist roots. As many people want to see Mrs. Carter each day as 8 3 want to see the President. Women and First Ladies have come a long way since the days when President Eisenhower said, "Here's my Mamie" and his wife stood and smiled. It is not important that political critics argue whether

Mrs. Carter is the partner to the President or controls all

of his actions. What is important is that the involvement

of a First Lady is so great that the question must be consid­

ered. In the final chapter we look at future implications

for women in general and First Ladies in particular. 212

Notes

^"Howard Norton, Rosalynn; A Portrait (Plainfield, New Jersey: Logos International, 1977), p. x.

The New York Times. January 22, 1977, p. 1. 3 Gaylord Shaw and Marlene Cimons, "One Man's Family," The Louisville Courier-Journal, Sun., Nov. 13, 1977, Section G. , p . 1.

4 Trude B. Feldman, "The Young Carters' Crisis," McCalls, January 1978, p. 18. 5 Saw and Cimons, "One Man's Family," p. G-l. g Shaw and Cimons, "One Man's Family," p. G-l. 7 "Mrs. Carter Says that she tells the President, 'What I think,'" The New York Times, March 10, 1977, p. 18.

g "The Leap From Plains to Pennsylvania Avenue: How Rosalynn Will Do It," People, Nov. 15, 1976, pp. 25-26. g Gloria Carter Spann, "My Two Sons," Ladies Home Journal. August 1977, p. 34.

'L0Jessamyn West, "Jimmy Carter's Sister: How Faith Can Heal," McCalls, April 1977, p. 40.

■^William Carter Spann, "What Happened to me is my Fault . . . The President's nephew writes about the life that led him to prison," Good Housekeeping. Oct. 1977, p. 46. (Also, on the Good Morning Show, William Spann was interviewed at prison during the month of February. He covered much of the same kinds of things as in the article in Good Housekeeping.)

12 "The Leap from Plains to Pennsylvania Avenue," pp. 23, 25, 26.

13 Norton, pp. 89-92. 213

■^Norton, p. 106.

15 Ann Blackman, "A 'My Day' for Rosalynn Carter," The Louisville Courier-Journal and Times (Sunday edition), March 26, 1978, p. G-4.

1 6 •Norton, pp. 121-123.

^Norton, p. 199.

18 Georgie Anne Geyer, "Rosalynn Carter Self-Determined," The Columbus Dispatch. August 11, 1977, p. B-2.

19 "Michigan Papers Refused Orders to Publish Reports Concerning Carter's Wife and Staff," The New York Times. June 26, 1977, p. 15.

20 Norton, p. 220.

21 Kandy Stroud, "How Jimmy Won," The New York Times, March 20, 1977, Section vi, p. 19.

22 Marjorie Hunter, "Mrs. Carter at Work in Presiden­ tial Partnership," The New York Times. Feb. 14, 1977, p. 20.

.^3 Stroud, March 20, 1977, p. 19.

^4Ann Blackman, "Mrs. Carter says US not Materialis­ tic," The Louisville Courier-Journal. June 21, 1978, p. A-10•

25 "Mrs. Carter says that she tells the President what she thinks," The New York Times. March 10, 1977, p. 18.

26 Marjorie Hunter, "Mrs. Carter's Mental Health Drive Has Tight Budget," The New Yokr Times, April 22, 1977, p. 19. ■■ ■■ ■

27 James Clarity, "Mrs. Carter at a hearing opposes sending mentally ill to institutions," The New York Times. May 23, 1977, p. 11. 214

28 Nancy Hicks, "Mrs. Carter plans White House Confer­ ence on Aging," The New York Times, April 19, 1977, p. 16.

29 Aril Goldman, "Mrs. Carter to Examine Program in Harlem School," The New York Times, Dec. 11, 1977, p. 63.

30 Goldman, Dec. 11, 1977, p. 6 8 .

31 "Rosalynn Carter," The Louisville Courier-Journal. Aug. 29, 1977, p. 2.

32 Eric Berne, "The Games People Play in Groups," Small Group Communication (New York: Random House. 1973) p. 180.

33 James T. Wooten, "Mrs. Carter Sees Role Widening," The New York Times, March 15, 1977, p. 1.

34 Bernard Wemraub, "Mrs. Carter Cool and Intense on Day of Triumph for Her, too," The New York Times, Jan. 22, 1977, jp. 3-4.

35 Kandy Stroud, "How Jimmy Won," The New York Times. March 20, 1977, Section VI, p. 19.

3 6 "Rosalynn Carter— First Lady," The Louisville Courier- Journal, August 24, 1978, p. 2.

37 Linda Charlton, "Rosalynn Carter: Balancing Roles," The New York Times, Nov. 6 , 1977, p. 1.

38 Marjorie Hunter, "Mrs. Carter at work in Presidential Partnership," The New York Times. Feb. 14, 1977, p. 20.

39 Kandy Stroud, "How Jimmy Won," The New York Times. March 20, 1977, p. 19.

40 Lynda Johnson Robb, "Amy Carter," Ladies Home Journal. Feb. 1977, p. 162.

41 "Life with Mother," Ladies Home Journal, May 1977, p. 12. 215

^Trude B. Feldman, "Rosalynn Carter: My Extraor­ dinary Mother," McCalls, May 1977, p. 209.

A O "The Carters Gather to Celebrate America's Bounti­ ful Holiday," Ladies Home Journal, Nov. 1977, p. 109.

44 Rosalynn Carter, "How We Entertain in the South," McCalls. Feb. 1977, p. 152.

45 Rosalynn Carter, McCalls, Feb. 1977, p. 230. 46 Feldman, "Rosalynn Carter at 50," McCalls, August 1977, p. 126.

47 Feldman, McCalls, August 1977, p. 126.

48 "Life with Mother," Ladies Home Journal, May 1977. p. 1 1 2 .

49 Feldman, McCalls. August 1977, p. 198.

50 "Rosalynn Carter and Margaret Meade: A Meeting of the Minds," Redbook, Oct. 1977, p. 207.

51 "Women of the Year 1978," The Ladies Home Journal, June 1978, p. 92.

52 Phyllis Battelle, "The Jimmy Carters' Untold Story," Good Housekeeping, Oct. 1976, p. 186.

53 Battelle, "The Jimmy Carters' Untold Story," Oct. 1976, p. 187.

54 Charlotte Curtis, "What Kind of First Lady Will She Be?," McCalls, January 1977, p. 26.

5 5 Curtis, "What Kind of First Lady Will She Be?," p. 2 2 .

56 Feldman, "Rosalynn Carter," p. 198. 216

57 Harriet Van Horne, "The Painful Price Our First Ladies Pay," The Ladies Home Journal. July 1978, p. 75.

Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Special People (New York: Random House, Inc., 1977), p. 193.

59 Julie Eisenhower, p. 203.

SO John S. D. Eisenhower, "Ike's Wartime Letters to Mamie," McCalls, January 1978, p. 93.

®KitiyKelley, "Jackie: The Haunted Lady," Ladies Home Journal, Sept. 1978, p. 170.

go Stephen Birmingham,"Jacqueline," Good Housekeeping, Sept. 1978, p. 178.

6 3 Kelly, p. 192.

64 Van Horne, "The Painful Price First Ladies Pay," p. 136.

g c Bobby Baker, Wheeling and Dealing (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1978), p. 272.

^^Van Horne, p. 138.

67Van Horne, p. 138.

68 Lester David, The First Lady of San Clemente (New York: Thomas Crowell, 1977), p. 185. ' .

^David, p. 186.

70 David, p. 188.

"^Thomas Thompson, "Mrs. Halderman Speaks Her Mind," La*dies Home Journal, March 1978, p. 47.

72 Dr. Joyce Brothers, "Pat Nixon's Hidden Story," Good Housekeeping, Oct. 1976, p. 80. 217

^3Joan Barrett, "Pat Nixon's Happiest Night," Good Housekeeping, May 1978, p. 288.

^Trude B. Feldman, "Gerald and Betty Ford: It's Not the End of the World," McCalls, January 1977, p. 28.

75 Ron Nessen, It Sure Looks Different from the Inside (New York: Playboy Press, 19 73), pp. 24-25.

76 Nessen, p. 187.

77 Nessen, p. 311.

78 Myra MacPherson, "Betty Ford: The Untold Story," •McCalls, July 1978, p. 20.

79 Elizabeth Pope Frank, "Betty Ford's Secret Strength," Good Housekeeping. June 1978, p. 92.

80 MacPherson, p. 144.

ft 1 Van Horne, p.- 140.

82 Van Horne, p. 144.

8 3 Discussion with Linda Peak, assistant to Jody Powell, Press Secretary to President Carter. Note Appendix B for the details of my futile attempt to interview Rosalynn Carter. CHAPTER VII

CONCLUSION

This study originated for the purpose of considering

the relationship between the image a First Lady holds of

her position and the image American women hold of their

place in society. The study was centered around four ques­

tions: (1) What kind of public communicators are the First

• • • Ladies? (2) How have the First Ladies contributed to a

rhetorical vision of what it means to be a woman? (3) What

image of womanhood represents American women's general view

of daily life? (4) In what direction is the vision of

American women and the influence of First Ladies headed?

From the results of this study, we may make the following

claims in response to these four questions.

The First Ladies, particularly Jacqueline Kennedy,

Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter, have

been visible and influential public communicators. However,

each of these women definitely had different communication

styles. Mrs. Kennedy's was unusual in that her style was

almosttotally nonverbal. Mrs. Johnson's was more tradi­

tional since she used public speaking to acquaint the

218 219

the nation with its problems. Both Mrs. Ford and Mrs.

Carter have communicated in styles less easily categorized

than the previously mentioned two women. In her "off the

cuff" remarks, Mrs. Ford projected an interpersonal manner

which encouraged people to feel she spoke only to them.

For the most part, Mrs. Carter's communication is directed

toward small groups of people concerned with her special

projects. We have seen women develop new interests, parti­

cipate in important projects, and acknowledge health con­

cerns as the result of the influence of the First Ladies.

With the exception of Lady Bird Johnson, the First Ladies

often chose communication styles for what appear to be

•self-centered reasons. Jacqueline Kennedy withdrew from the

public because she feared people; Betty Ford spoke to the

public becsuse she was promoting her personal problems;

Rosalynn Carter interacts with small segments of the public

because she personally and politically desires group

acceptance.

In looking at the kind of vision of womanhood the

First Ladies have presented to American women, we saw a

gradual change from Mamie Eisenhower's total dependence

upon her husband to Rosalynn Carter's acknowledged partner­

ship with her husband. Nevertheless, the vision of devoted

mother and political wife permeated throughout the media

discussions of all the First Ladies, even the more indepen­

dent Betty Ford and Rosalynn’ Carter. The results from the 220

Repertory Grids and Focused Interviews suggested that

although American women are beginning to consider partici­

pating in society in less traditional ways, their emphasis

also is on behavorial concerns (strength, helpfulness,

honesty, manners), not intellectual or philosophical

concerns. However, I have argued that both future genera­

tions of women and future First Ladies may be soon redefin­

ing their images. College women, the youngest group of

women interviewed in this study," are less bound to tradi^.

tional expectations of marriage and motherhood than were

their mothers and grandmothers. And, with the recent recog­

nition of the troubled lives of the past First Ladies, as well as the acknowledged accomplishments of the more active

First Ladies, the position of First Lady may, in the future, be defined outside of the private sphere of wife and mother.

Perhaps the truly activist First Lady can serve as a more realistic model for the American women than can the image of the First Lady as a divinely happy wife and an all­ knowing mother.

Having now concluded a general summary of the study, the rest of this chapter is devoted to the implications of the study for theory-building, women's groups, and future

First Ladies. 221

Implications for Theory Building

Throughout this study, the term image has been used

simply as a "picture in the head" that determines how a

woman behaves. Yet the result of the study suggests a

deeper understanding of the concept "image." With the help

of Kenneth Boulding, we can both better understand this

study and the concept of image. In his book, The Image.

Boulding suggests several properties of an image. The public image, the essential- characteristics which are shared

by the individuals participating in the group, is the essen­

tial bond of any society. This public image is divided

into several smaller images: spatial, temporal, relational, personal, value, affectional, and certainity.

1. Spatial image: the picture of the indivi­ dual's location in the space around him.

2. Temporal image: one's picture of the stream of time and his place in it.

3. Relational image: the picture of the universe around him as a system of regularities.

4. Personal image: the picture of the indivi­ dual in the midst of the universe of persons, roles, and organizations around him.

5. Value image: the ordering on the scale of better or worse the various parts of the whole image.

6 . Affectional image: the way by which various items in the rest of the image are imbued with feeling.

7. Conscious image: the division of the image into conscious, unconscious, and subconscious areas. 222

8 . Certainity of image: the dimension of certainity/uncertainity and clarity of vagueness.1

Messages are what give images their meanings; and the messages represent, not facts, but a filtering process of value systems. A message, as well as human interaction, is so abstract because of this filtering process with value systems. According to Boulding, the important thing is not how accurate our understanding is of abstract images, but how much we know about the process of an image's develop­ ment.^

As we look at the issues concerning women's images sug­ gested by this study, we see the kind of process that interested Boulding. In the late 1950's-most women had a simple, factual concept of themselves as wife and mother.

The women accepted the representations handed down to them by their elders in an unquestioning and unselfconscious . spirit. The concept of womanhood did not become an image

(Boulding finds factual images insignificant) until women began to question their place in society. Boulding was careful not to label the "reason" people begin to question accepted ideas, and most of the women in this study could not be specific about what had made them begin to question beliefs about womanhood. Although groups isolated from the public community can develop their own images, Boulding emphasized that man's image is characterized by "a phenomenal capacity for development independent of messages 3 received from the outside." Based on discussions with the women, my claim is that the women's movement may have instigated development of an image of womanhood, but the brunt of awareness was an internal process not totally understood by the women. As the concept of womanhood moved from the factual sphere to a value image, the image developed neither quickly nor clearly. Nevertheless, Boulding might expect the present stage of the public image of womanhood to be chaotic. The public in general resents an issue changing from one they perceive as factual to one of value-image.

Also, as women question womanhood in terms of their personal image— their relations with people— they, too, seem resent­ ful of the confusion. Women must now decide if it is better to be homemaker or career woman, or if a middle ground exists

As the women question the various benefits of wealth or power they find that no simple formula exists to predict success.

The fact that formulas cannot predict success, and that images do not always fit together are two more reasons

Boulding suggests that in a society the process of develop­ ing images is always chaotic. Thus, we can understand the confusion a woman feels about combining the roles of a wife, a mother, and a worker outside the home. Women and men will eventually work out a more solid image of womanhood, because 4 we use our images to bring organization to our lives.

Women in 1978 are not so much changing an image as beginning to develop an image. The move from an unquestioned 224

acceptance to a questioning awareness has taken place.

Only time will tell how the image will be defined, but

for now women are questioning what they want their lives

to be. X argue that it is the image which allows a choice

that has the impact on social-development that concerned

Boulding.

The second implication for theory building is for

social movement theory. Most of the women interviewed

feared any association with the Women's Movement. In a

recent article Betty Friedan wrote that the Women's Move­

ment is failing for a combination of reasons. She wrote of

a man who told her "Don't you understand? The Klan's dying

out; it doesn't work any more to burn crosses on our lawns, paint swastikas on synagogues. So they're using women to 5 whip up a new hate movement." She added that too many young women were scared of the "real world" and wanted to get married and be taken care of. She wrote that the movement

made a mistake in the early years when it ignored women who wanted equal rights but enjoyed the role of housewife.

Finally, she wrote that in the reaction .against passivity

the movement encouraged women to be too hard.

Do we really have to make ourselves, tough female imitations of male machismo, denying the softness, gentleness, tenderness that is certainly part of our nature. . . . Do women really have to want to, deny our own need to love, and be loved by men. . . . Do we really mean to deny the powerful impulse 225

in women that does express itself in mother­ hood, the power of our bonds with our children, our need to nuture them? 6

If we recall Boulding's argument that a social change is rarely effected because a group finds it difficult to develop a central image, we can then see how unlikely it is for a radical conflict movement, particularly, to develop a central image. The conflict movements of the 60's may have stimulated an awareness of issues, but is there not a back­ lash to them in the 70's? The Supreme Court says companies do not have to pay women disability benefits for maternity leave. The California courts argued that graduate schools and universities do not have to take "affirmative action" to undo the discrimination that has kept blacks and women out of schools. The New York Times reports that the wage gap between woman and men is greater than before the Women's

Movement began. According to Betty Friedan, "the things we fought so hard to win are, one by one, being whittled 7 away." This author argues that the conflict style of the

Women's Movement in the 60's did not create: a new image of womanhood. The conflict style only added more confusion to the inevitable chaos of developing an image.

Smith and Windes argued in their article, "The Innova­ tion al Movement: A Rhetorical Theory," that the agitation- conflict movements of the 1960's cannot succeed in the

1970's,' because problems are different in the 1970', and 226 the conflict of the 1960's had exhausted society. The 70's are about to come to an end and this author argues that any group attempting to influence an image and influence social concerns can profit from the Smith and Windes theory.

Their innovational strategies suggest a denial of conflict, emphasis of weak institutions, and creation of a dialectic

Q between the scene and the purpose. These kinds of strate­ gies offer a more long range impact on images than did the conflict styles of the 1960's. Idealistically, we will see more of these kinds of innovational strategies in the 1980's than we have in the 1970's and associated with all move­ ments, not just the Women's Movement. Nevertheless, speci­ fically considering the Women's Movement, the previous dis­ cussion of why Betty Friedan felt the Women's Movement was failing adds support to the Smith and Windes claim that a movement must play down the element of conflict between itself and society. Later in this chapter we will look at the Martha Movement, a successful movement based on the

•lack of conflict between itself and society._

The third implication for theory building concerns intercultural communication. The study of intercultural communication is popular today because of the general belief that the world is getting smaller. However, scholars of intercultural communication, such as Edward Hall, K. S.

Sitaram, and Roy Cogdill, suggest that study of other cultures and sub-cultures helps us to better understand g our own. Not only do we need to know how women of other cultures view their place in society, but we need to con­ sider the significance the First Ladies have in other cul­

tures. Two women seem appropriate for such study—

Mrs. Sadat and Princess Grace. In this past year, 60

Minutes has carried several interviews with Mrs. Sadat and in each of the interviews she discussed how worried she was because of the lack of liberation of the women in the Arabic cultures and how she specifically hoped to make the women in her country more aware of their individual worth .■L0 Also,, it would be interesting to look at the impact Princess Grace has had on women in her small country of Monacco. She is a woman born in this country, married to a man from a differ­ ent culture, and who receives constant publicity from the press of both cultures. In an article for McCalls. Princess

Grace admitted to being a feminist at heart because she thought women could do whatever they set their minds to do.

She'added, however, that in a man-woman relationship, the man should be head of the family and unchallenged by the women.In wondering how much women from different cul­ tures question or accept their place in society, we could view the process of image development from other perspec­ tives. Image development and also the issue of womanhood are not concerns unique to the United States.

If we look at the total method of this study, we see one final implication for theory building. In each case, 228

Kelly, Bormann, and Bulding discussed ways to understand how people determine their place in society. For Kelly, it was a process of making sense of the world by organizing experiences around significant constructs. Each indivi­ dual's constructs suggest the place he or she will find in society. Bormann looked at the ways people choose a vision about themselves in relationship to who might instigate a vision and how the vision is presented. In Boulding's works we see a foundation for understanding why the develop­ ment of an image may be so chaotic. Each of these ideas could easily have been a separate study, bu.t together they complemented each other. Not only was the repertory grid research more suggestive because it was preceded by the study of rhetorical vision, but the grids helped to develop a deeper understanding of the visions. Such a method describes and analyzes rhetoric more completely than does a focus mainly on evaluation. This kind of an idea was suggested by

Roderick Hart. He wanted the critic to produce a solid descriptive analysis to which hypotheses could be drawn and 12 later tested by the communication theorist. However, the method for this particular study shows qualitiative and quantitative methods can be joined for answering critical questions. The combination of the two is pleasing not only to this researcher, but it is the basic principle of a humanistic approach according to George Kelly. Such a combination described the status of womanhood, particular 229 influences on it, and a new concept about image. I argue that image should imply choice, change, value, and develop­ ment. The unquestioned image is static, predetermined, and factual. It may cause less chaos, but also represents little impact on society and is less important to the rhetorical scholar.

Also, the method of this study was unusual in that it allowed for a significance to be placed on magazines.

Susan Koppelman Corinillon wrote in the introduction to

Images of Women in Fiction, that new directions in the understanding of women are possible when reading the fiction 13 written about them. Magazine articles allowed the same understanding suggested by Ms. Cormillon, but are more available to women than are books. Also, Boulding dis­ cussed the special image-building effect the mass media 14 forms have on millions of people. Our popular magazines mirror in detail the mood of their readers and of the times.

Implications for Women's Groups

In the midst of the uncertainty of the Equal Rights

Amendment, the future of the Women's Movement and the reactionary groups led by Marabel Morgan and Phyllis

Schlafly, many women are turning to the Martha Movement.

An indepth look at the Martha Movement is needed not only because most of the 50 women interviewed in the study found it ideal, but also because the movement is so successful an 230

example o£ a group that denies conflict between itself

and society. The movement was started by a woman who

was having difficulties being a fulltime homemaker, even

though she loved her husband and children. Jinx Melia,

founder of the Martha Movement, said she was depressed and

felt isolated and completelh unimportant. Her problems

began in the 1960's when the great upheavals took place

in the United States. She said she kept house, but that

nobody ever listened to her because there was no place

for her to information important enough to be listened to.

This woman simply sat home and read about the 1960's in

. the paper and watched it on television. Restless, unhappy,

and unwilling to continue as an unfulfilled homemaker,

Jinx Melia's marriage floundered and ended. Ten years

later, after a second marriage and two children, Ms. Melia's

life was still incomplete. When she tried to serve on a

county committee studying sex bias in schools, the low

esteem in which homemakers were held became even more evi­

dent to her.

At the meeting, the chairman in charge of creating the committee asked interested volun­ teers whom they represented. One said the League of Women Voters. She was appointed. Both the woman from the teachers'association and the one from the local school board were chosen as well. When the chairman came to me, I said X was a homemaker. X was told that I had to be a delegate from a 'bona fide' organization. I quickly replied that I was a representative of NOW. Actually I was only a member, but I was put on the committee.15 231

There were other incidents besides the committe exper­

ience and each deepened her realization that society saw

little value in the homemaker.

Slowly the idea began for Ms. Melia to create a

national organization that would benefit the homemaker.

rt. • Such an organization would see that the skills of the home­

maker and overall contributions to society were recognized.

In the spring of 1976, four women came to the Melia home,

sat around the kitchen table, and drew up the plans for

the Martha Movement. The five founders pooled their money

and rented a small suite of offices in Burke, Virginia.

Eleanor McGovern, whom Jinx Meili had met the year before,

helped open doors for the women and within a few months 16 they received public and private support.

The names Martha was chosen because of the Biblical

story which illustrates the world's perceptions of two

types of women: those who go outside the home to work, and

those who stay within the home as homemakers only. Each woman chooses to serve in her own way; each way is equally

important. Members of the Martha Movement make it clear

that despite the name, the movement is not a religious one.

The movement differs sharply from the "Total Woman" philo­

sophy which teaches wives to devote themselves to their

husbands' happiness. Also, the Marthas are not opposed to

the Women's Movement. Jinx Melia feels that the feminist 232

movement is the most significant social force of the

decade, but it simply has failed to include the neglected

homemaker.* ^

The goal of the Martha Movement is to improve the.

status of homemakers. One way to go about this is to try

to find role models other than the ones who exist on soap

operas or situation comedies, which usually reinforce passiv- 18 ity among homemakers. Another way that Ms. Melia and her

staff hope to meet this goal is through a monthly newletter

called Martha Matters. Along this same line, they have set

up a Speakers Bureau of Marthas to address men's organiza­

tions, community groups, and homemakers on the importance

of the role. Even though the goal of the Martha Movement

is to improve the status of homemakers, the philosophy of

the movement never attacks the career woman. Eleanor

McGovern, a board member for the Martha Movement, told

interviewers that the professional or career woman has an

important role in our national life and must obtain the 19 freedoms and rights she deserves. We might note here

that not only does Jinx Melia advocate that no woman spend

all her time in and around the home, she puts in a 1 2 -hour day,five days a week, at the Martha Movement main office.

The Martha Movement is slowly growing and spreading

across the United States. The previously mentioned goals

of the movement denied the possibility for conflict between

the homemaker, and created avenues for discussion of the 233 present situation with relation to the Martha philosophy.

Such an approach suggests to all groups interested in influencing women in particular and society in general, that the innovational kinds of strategies proposed by smith and Windes merit serious consideration. The direction of womanhood indicated by Rosalynn Carter, as well as the women interviewed for this study, indicates that women prefer an image that says either choice— homemaker or career woman— is acceptable. This-author argues that the public image of womahood will have become less chaotic and will contribute the most to society when women are free to choose which life style they wish. This freedom to choose an image that meets one's needs is the ultimate in image development. As long as the element of choice is available an image exists at its best. Should the image become a

"fact image" that is no longer questioned, but simply passed down from generation to generation, this author argues that we no longer have the significant societal tool about which

Boulding wrote. We must wonder if the seemingly new images of issues, for example, race, are still only the unques­ tioned factual concepts that fall short of Boulding's selfconsciously dynamic images.

Implications for First Ladies

Just as Jinx Melia believed that the American homemaker needed a strong model to follow, all American women need 234 strong models. Although this study has not declared a clear-cut-relationship between the First Ladiesd and American women, I contend that the First Lady is the most visible woman to influence a public image of womanhood. The politi­ cal ramifications of her position would demand that she follow a style closer to conflict denial than one of agita­ tion conflict. My study suggests that future First Ladies set an example for a woman to be a whole person. In the 20 past we have had First Ladies who were "Heroines" — a

"sugar and spice 'n everything nice" kind of woman who saw no choice in her concept of First Lady besides being a good wife. Mamie Eisenhower and Pat Nixon were examples of such

First Ladies. Also we have had First Ladies who were 21 "Invisible." This did not mean that we never saw them, but that the women were essentially extensions of their husbands, not individual persons. We are not as aware of these women being defined as "nice," only that they are defined in relationship to their husbands. Jacqueline

Kennedy and Lady Bird Johnson are to examples of such women. Mrs. Kennedy was known as the beautiful, artistic wife of President Kennedy, while Mrs. Johnson was called the tamer of the wild President Johnson.

The time has come to offer a different choice of woman- 22 hood as First Lady— the "hero." This woman would be a whole person, one in the process of creating or discovering her wholeness, of finding an existence that is humanistic 235 and not just for men, martyrdom, or selflessness. Such a

First Lady would be revealed as working, being political, being alive, adventuresome, self-determined, growing, mak­ ing significant choicesd,questioning, and finding viable answers and solutions, of being; in other words, total human beings. A First Lady has the opportunity to be such a woman; a First Lady has the power to be recognized as such a woman; a First Lady has even the duty to be such a woman.

Perhaps no greater task awaits the First Lady than to rhetorically offer a choice of a kind of womanhood not yet communicated from the White House. Betty Ford and Rosalynn

Carter may have attempted such a definition, but they seem to have fallen short.

The purpose of this study has not been to present an ultimate answer of what it means to be a woman in 1978.

Future research may never present the ultimate answer, but we do have a great need to learn more about what that image will be. The next step for this study is to interview a group of men using the Repertory Grid and Focused Interview techniques. In such a study we might consider how men defined their own images, as well as the images of women. I speculate that men are as uncertain about these images as women appear to be. However, the first step in understand­ ing today's woman (or man) is to accept this confusion as preliminary to public recognition of the choices of images available in a healthy society. Although a First Lady is 236

not alone in her effect, X argue that her communication has a special influence as to what men and women invision

their place in society to be. In the Introduction I wrote

that Helen Reddy's definition of a new kind of woman did not reach very far into society. However, as the result of this study, I now feel differently.

I am woman, watch me grow. • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • But I'm still an embryo with a long way to go until I make my brother understand.

Helen Reddy

Women are growihg, loving, and making their audiences under­ stand, but there is much to be done before understanding can be more complete. To those who have participated in this study, who have discussed this study, and those who will read

this study, I hope for a better understanding of the issue—

"I am woman." 237

Notes

^"Kenneth Boulding, The Image (Ann Arbor: The Univer­ sity of Michigan Press, 1956)", pp. 47-48.

2 Boulding, p. 175 3 Boulding, p. 26.

4 Boulding, p. 19.

5 Betty Friedan, "Where are Women in 1978?," Cosmo­ politan, August 1978, p. 208. g Friedan, p. 209. 7 Friedan, p. 196. O Ralph R. Smith and Russel R. Wendes, "The Innovational Movement: A Rhetorical Theory," Quarterly Journal of Speech, 9 K. S. Sitaram and Roy T. Cogdell, Foundations of Inter­ cultural Communication (Columbus: Charles E. Merrill Publish- ing Co., 19 76), pp. 5-15.

^Interview with President Answar Sadat on 60 Minutes, Dec. 4, 1977.

■^"The Fair-Tale Marriage 20 Years Later," McCalls, March 1978, p. 136.

12 Roderick Hart, "Theory-Building and Rhetorical Criticism: An Informal Statement of Opinion," Central State Speech Journal, Spring 1976, p. 75.

13 Susan Koppelman Cornillon, ed., Images of Women in Fiction: Feminist Perspectives (Bowling Green: Bowl­ ing Green University Popular Press, 1972), p. x.

1 4 Boulding, p. 114. 238

1 *5 Lester David, "Jinx Melia: Crusader for Homemakers," Good Housekeeping, June 1977, p. 176.

1 6 David, p. 176.

1 7 David, p. 154. Ip David, p. 176.

19 Koppelman, p. X.

20 Koppelman, p. XL

21 Koppelman, p. XI. APPENDIX A

GRID SCORE MATRIXES REPRESENTATIVE OF EACH OF THE FIVE GROUPS OF WOMEN

239 M I—> _ motherly OV VJI VO VO VJI O

(-• V>) I I encouraging »-< vji o ov o vji

l ^ l l v-» aggressive vji ro m o ov v o

I I I M outspoken VJI Vd O H» O VO

I I m ro friendly O O vj) ro vji vji o 33 w w hardworking vji vji I-* o\ oC/1 Q I t M I-* V>1 I loving Vji 00 VJI O VJI o > ■8 VO M I I H feminine M Vj J O O CM VO

I -P“ I honest H N U1 tactful M

I A I H* M O ro M 240 , , ^ thoughtful v—’ O vji ro

I I I wise ro ro ro

l o VJI organized VJI I H1 K-* independent VO M VJI

I I reliable ■ ro o ro o w t—' I M talkative ro v o ro S o fc> cn I o o I I vji A. > unselfish m O o Cfc <0 V>1 o I I not dependable ro ro X l ro l M helpful ro Vd VO A CTV

i v>r concerned a> -f* V>J

f-> ro VJI VjJ

I (So ro v o 241 vn m i-* 1 0 on vn healthy vn vn on vn i—* J-* o vn I-’ vn O

vn t—1 -c* r-j i—’ vn t—’ vn strong wife OOOCDvn-OrorovnioONvn

10 i ^ Vn likes to entertain oo-i*>oovnvnroi-'oro

i I l i t - * M good cook IO IO O ON o to vn o «-* vn vn

on f-* ro vn M vn on education rororovocoo-JOvntoroo RD CR MATRIX SCOREGRID

ro m on I Vn I—* w motherly H* M Ul A H o —3 ro vn ro o m 0 1 H H M W ON vn I -f* likes people -o ro rorovni-j i-j o . p » o o v n M Ct} © SCO s - m i-> ro ro I -r* husband first vn vn o ro o H* CO -3 O vn M Nj3

M M vn M M ro M limelight -o-O-r^oroM^vooNOCOM

ro ro ro on v n public MMO-CfcOvnvnroO-P^ovja ON as I am OM-JvnroMroroOOvn

M 1 8 m m M I _ _ as I wish I were M-3vnroMroroOOvn ro ro I I i m *—’ i—■ ro —1 i l I unopinionated Mvoro-f»--P»tovoa>ovO vn O

vn -o I m I I V>J M sweet vn 4* O voCDMv>J-P»roOvn

to ro vn vs -t* ro I o\ vs 1 nothorly VDrO-JVSVSCTVVS-^-P^OlOO

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II lllro t i l l husy OCDOM-^-M-^OM-f^VSCO RD CR MATRIX SCOREGRID III III ’ i—* i—’ ro ro ro I m % sensible vnovovno-r^vnvsMvo 3

I vs m I ov go m i -pa- i—> rv> not status concerned roroOro-p»ovnM0 3 cncoro > <0 o< J \ m m vn 03 m | •-& vs m only one way to do it 0DCT»M0 3 O - f ^ O - P > - & W ID A fun 03-ovnoooroovMovv>i-4^I vn o\ m | vn vn m

_ roI roI l strong vo O vn vn o o —a o ro

vs I ro as I am Ol o O —3 ^ to i> 5 «o vn ro vo

v>i m vs l l vn as I wish I were OONvooocorocnovsvovnM ro js» CO vn —3 level headed M 0 ro-Jcpovna).p>a>roo

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vn vn -J w > ^ ui cp cp thoughtful ocpo\vno\ro-40vnow down to earth vn ro cpi-’ vocovooovn-J-P*

vn cp m w ^ co v>i vn vn v>j calm COOVvOfO-JMH*OOOvn03 a o RD CR MATRIX GRID SCORE a*(-!• s(0 rovnMvnvnvn CO M p vn p©} goes out of the way VnvOMV»fOh-*OHJ vO-3-«3'jJ a* w for others 8 8 a* © o c* m p h ro v>i vn p vn p vn p o knows your needs vnOvovDCPOMMCoro—30 t - > I © > p. m CO © vn cn .p^ vn vn vn vnp vn cp vn P -0 status o\o~JMoo>ro^Jvocr»c\o\ H-cf CO O a -J cp vntv>vncp-p.-j

M M - p H-1 M vn M fashion vnvnovn-JvoMvocpcppjtv}

cp v-* cp cp p vn cp p as I aa oovnooovoovrovn CP

^S^^-Jvnrorovnvnvncpvn as I wish I were OOvncpcpvnvnoavnooM PO APPENDIX B

NOTES ON ATTEMPTING TO REACH ROSALYNN CARTER

o •

245 246

July 19, 1978

Ms. Linda Peak Office of Jody Powell Press Secretary to the President The White House Washington, D. C.

Dear Linda,

Thank you for our recent phone conversation. Let me explain as briefly as possible my need to see Mrs. Carter.

I am a 29 year old women who teaches at a private col­ lege in Indiana, Hanover College, and am a doctorate candi­ date in the Communication Department at Ohio State. My dissertation is on the public communication of First Ladies from Mamie Eisenhower to Rosalynn Carter. Not only are

First Ladies in unique communication positions, but they are heroine figures for many American women, as suggested by yearly polls.

.It is not hard to understand that compared to all the press people wanting to see Mrs. Carter, I seem very insig­ nificant. However, I think the dissertation is unique because it recognizes, for the first time in a scholarly fashion, the historical impact these women have had, not just in shaping the country, but specifically in influencing women. From my studies, I suggest that the average American woman decides the role she will play in society according to how the First Lady defines her own role.

I need to see Mrs. Carter to add the stamp of validity to the dissertation that only she can give it. Also, 247 because she is the current First Lady, her responses are more valuable than responses of First Ladies in the past.

Thus, one chapter is devoted to Mrs. Carter and will carry more weight if I do not have to depend upon reporters who quote her, possibly incorrectly. My questions are differ­ ent from the usual ones. I am not looking for "news," and the study is certainly not a critical one of her role as

First Lady. I would like to ask her questions about her position concerning communication effectiveness and impact on women.

Finally, at the risk of sounding arrogant, I think

Mrs. Carter would be interested in both my historical analysis of the First Ladies' impact on society and of the hundreds of hours I have spent talking to American women about their views of First Ladies and of themselves as women. Although I know Mrs. Carter is busy, I honestly believe that because of her openness to a variety of public needs, she would feel this worthy of her time.

A few years ago when I did my master's thesis on

Bernadette Develin, the British Parliament's rebel and youngest female member in history, I had great difficulty reaching her. When she finally granted me the interview in her brother's home in London, she told me it was partly because of my persistence. Please believe me that I feel the same desire to see Mrs. Carter and have tried many, 248 many less direct methods. However, in this situation, I feel an even greater sense of urgency because I am talking to and writing about the women of my own country.

Thank you for whatever help you are able to give me.

My home phone number is (812) 8 6 6 3899. I can also be reached at my parents' home, (502) 732 5329.

Sincerely,

Barbara Oney Garvey

Box 423

Hanover, Indiana 47243 THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON

August 22, 1978

Dear Ms. Garvey:

Your letter to Linda Peek has been referred to me for consideration.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid it won't be possible to arrange a meeting for you with Mrs. Carter. However, perhaps if you submit questions we can try to obtain answers to them. I can't premise you anything at this time, but we will certainly try.

We appreciate your interest in Mrs. Carter and wish you success with your dissertation.

Sincerely,

C o i l l r\s Faith Collins Deputy Press Secretary

Ms. Barbara Oney Garvey Box 423 Hanover, Indiana 47243 DEMOCRATIC ■ , NATIONAL COMMITTEE JG25 Massachusetts Ave>, N. W. Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 797*5900

■ October 6, 1978

Mary Nell Oney Rt 1 Box 122 Carrollton, KY 41008

Dear Ms. Oney:

Thank you for your note about your daughter's problem in contacting the First Lady.

We are not kidding about calling you when the President or Mrs. Carter are in your area. In most cases, however, £his will not involve the possibility of the sort of lengthy discussions which would seem to be needed by your daughter's.. effort.

However, we would be glad to be of assistance in putting her in touch with a member of the First Lady's staff who might help in this area. We would need to have more information on the nature of the dissertation for this purpose.

Even though the White House is more open than it has been in the past, it remains physically impossible for the President or the First Lady to meet all of the requests made of them. There are simply not enough hours in the day for them to talk to all those who wish to talk to them — and with whom they would love to discuss the state of the nation.

Let me take this opportunity to thank you for being a Sustaining Meniber. Your support has been truly helpful to us and has had a great deal to do with what now looks like a great and stunning victory in November.

Sincerely,

Deputy Treasurer

TSjbb 251

Box 423 Hanover Indiana 47243

October 16, 1978

Ms. Faith Collins Deputy Press Secretary 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C. 20000

Dear Ms. Collins

After completing the rough draft of my dissertation, the following are the questions I would like to have answered by Mrs. Carter. Please note how important her responses are to this dissertation. The final copy must be'completed by December 1.

(1) Who has most influenced who you are as a woman? How? (2) What is your definition of the phrase "I am woman?" Has your definition ever changed? (3) Do you think about what it means to be a woman? If so, how often? (4) Where are women in 1978 headed as to a definition of womanhood? (5) What kinds of options do you wish for Amy as she matures into a young woman? (6 ) Which First Lady most influenced your concept of the position of First Lady? How? (7) How do you define the role of First Lady? Do you have specific goals as First Lady? (8 ) How has the role of First Lady changed? How do you see it changing in the future? (9) Is it possible for a First Lady to be a role model for the definition of womanhood? Would you choose to be a role model for American women? Is it politically impossible?

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely

Barbara Oney Garvey BIBLIOGRAPHY 253

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Buck, Pearl S. The Kennedy Women. New York: New York and Cowles Book Co., Inc., 1970.

Carpenter, Liz. Ruffles and Flourishes. New York: Double­ day & Company, Inc., 1970.

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Hughes, Arthur. Richard M. Nixon. New York: Dodd, Meade, and Co., 1972.

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Jensen, Amy La Follette. The White House and Its Thirty- Pive Families. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. 1970. 254

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Johnson, Lady Bird. A White House Diary. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1970.

Mazlick, Bruce. In Search of Nixon: A Psychological Inquiry. New York: Basic Books, Incw, 19 72.

Nessen, Ron. It Sure Looks Different from the Inside. Chicago: Playboy Press, 19 78.

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Parks, Lillian Rogers, and Leughton, Frances S. It Was Fun Working at the White House. New York: Fleet Press Corporation, 1969.

Shaw, Maude. White House Nannie. New York: The New Ameri­ can Library, 1966.

Shulman, Irving. Jackie: The Exploitation of a First Lady. New York: Trudent Press, 19 70.

ter Horst, Jerald F. Gerald Ford and the Nature of the Presidency. New York: Joseph Okpapu Publishing Co., Inc., 1974.

Thayer, Mary Van Rensselair. Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years. Boston: Little, Brown, and Compamy, 1967.

Thomas, Helen. Dateline: The White House. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, Inc., 1975.

West, J. B. Upstairs at the White House. New York: Coward, McCann, and Geoghegan, Inc., 1973.

Scholarly Research

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Bitzer, Lloyd. "The Rhetorical Situation." Contemporary Theories of Rhetoric: Selected Readings. Bdited by Richard L. Johannesen. New York: Harper & Rowe, 1971. 255

Blakey, Wm. A. "Everybody Makes the Revolution-Some Thoughts on Racism and Sexism." Civil Rights Digest. Spring 1974.

Bormann, Ernest G. "Fantasy and Rhetorical Vision: The Rhetorical Criticism of Social Reality." The Quarterly Journal of Speech, 1972, p. 398.

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Cathcart, Robert, ed. Small Group Communication. Eric Berne, "The Games Individuals Play in Groups." Dubuque: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1970.

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Hart, Roderick. "Theory-Building and Rhetorical Criticism: ' An Informal Statement of Opinion." Central State Speech Journal, Spring 1976, p. 75.

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Rosenwasser, Marie T. "Rhetoric and the Progress of the Women's Movement." Today's Speech, Summer 1972, p. 54.

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Ryle, Anthony, and Breen, Dana. "Change in the Course of Social Work Training: A Repertory Grid Study." British Journal of Medical Psychology, 1974, p. 139. 256

Ryle, Anthony, and Breen, Dana. "A Comparison of Adjusted and Maladjusted Couples Using the Double Dyad Grid." British Journal of Medical Psychology, 1974, p. 375.

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Related Literature About Women

Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. New York: Dell Pub­ lishing Co., Inc., 1973.

Inukai, Mickiko. "Japanese Women Raise the Rice Spoon of Revolt." UNESCO Courier. August/September 1975.

Jacobs, Sue-Ellen. Women in Perspective. Chicago: Uni­ versity of Illinois Press, 1576”.

Kinzer, Nora Scott. "The Beauty Cult." The Center Magazine, Nov./Dec. 1974.

"Liberated Women— How They're Changing American Life. Two Views." U.S. News and World Report. June 7, 1976.

Mead, Margaret. "Working Mothers and Their Children." Manpower, June 1970.

Meyer, Pearl. "Women Executives are Different." Dun's Review, January 1975.

Morgan, Marabel. The Total Woman. New York: _Gulf a__ Western Corporation, 1973. 257

Morgan, Marabel. Total Joy. New York: Berkley Publish­ ing Corporation, 19 78.

Wills, Gary. "Feminists and other Useful Fanatics." Harpers, 1976.

Periodicals

Adier, William. "The Common Sense Wisdom of Three First Ladies." Good Housekeeping, March 1966, p. 94.

"America's First Ladies Honor Charles Lindbergh." Good Housekeeping, June 1977, p. 72.

Barrett, Joann. "Pat Nixon's Happiest Night." Good House­ keeping. May 1978, p. 152

Battele, Phyllis. "The Jimmy Carters' Untold Love Story." Good Housekeeping, October 19 76, p. 109.

Birmingham, Stephen. "Jackie Kennedy Onassis' Life Story." Good Housekeeping, September 1978, p. 122.

Block, Jean L. "The Betty Ford Nobody Knows." Good House­ keeping, May 1974, p. 138.

Brothers, Joyce. "Pat Nixon's Hidden Story." Good House­ keeping . October 1976, p. 80.

Byers, Margarey. "The Girl He Chased." Life, October 11, 1968, p. 42.

Cadden, Vivian. "A Minister's Farewell to Plains." McCalls, July 1977, p. 115.

Carpenter, Liz. "Rosalynn Carter: Her Toughest Challenge." Redbook. April 1977, p. 70.

Carter, Rosalynn. "How We Entertain in the South." McCalls, February 1977, p. 152.

Cassini, Igor. " H o w the Kennedy Marriage Has Fared. " ' Good Housekeeping, September 1962, p. 183.

Clark, Ed. "A Rare Picture Visit: The First Lady at Home. Mrs. Eisenhower Fulfills Many Roles." Life, October 20, 1958, p. 60. 258

Crawford, Clare. "The Leap from Plains to Pennsylvania Avenue: How Rosalynn Will Do It." People, November 15, 1976, p. 22.

Curtis, Charlotte. "What Kind of First Lady Will She Be?" McCalls, January 1977, p. 22.

David, Lester. "I Gave Up Everything I Ever Loved." Good Housekeeping, August 1978, p. 113.

David, Lester. "Jinx Melia: Crusader for Homemakers." Good Housekeeping, June 1977, p. 154.

Eisenhower, John. "Ike's Wartime Letters to Mamie." McCalls, January 1978, p. 93.

Feldman, Trude B. "Gerald and Betty Ford: It's Not the End of the World." McCalls, January 1977, p. 28.

Feldman, Trude B. "Mrs. Nixon Tells How She Brought Up Tricia and Julie." McCalls, March 1967, p. 74.

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Feldman, Trude B. "Rosalynn Carter: My Extraordinary Mother." McCalls, May 1977, p. 209.

Feldman, Trude B. "The Closed Family in Washington." McCalls. May 1978, p. 94.

Feldman, Trude B. "The Young Carters' Crisis." McCalls, January 19 78, p. 18.

Frank, Elizabeth Pope. "Betty Ford's Secret Strength." McCalls, September 1978, p. 84.

Freeman, Jean Todd. "Mrs. Billy Carter Has Her Hands Full." McCalls, May 1978, p. 18.

Friedan, Betty. "Where Are Women in 1978'?"* Cosmopolitan. August 1978, p. 196.

Ford, Betty. "The Times of My Life." Ladies Home Journal. October 1978, p. 117.

Gibson, Barbara. "The Rose Days: My Years As Rose Kennedy's Secretary." Ladies Home Journal, April 1978, p. 64. Good Housekeeping Poll Results. "The Ten Most Admired Women." Good Housekeeping, January 1970-78.

Hatch, Alden. "Red Carpet for Mamie." Ladies Home Journal, May 1954, p. 137.

Hinds, Susannah. "The Martha Movement." Lady's Circle, April 1978, p. 21.

Hoffman, Betty Hannah. "What Is It Like to Marry a Kennedy?" Ladies Home Journal, October 1962, p. 60.

"How Faith Kept Us Together: Prince Rainier and Princess Grace." Good Housekeeping, November 1976, p. 104.

"Inside Princess Grace's Fairy-Tale Palace." Good House­ keeping , April 1978, p. 136.

Johnson, Lady Bird. "Christmas in the Southwest." Redbook, December 19 77, p. 99.

Johnson, Lady Bird. "The Pioneer Spirit." McCalls, April 1976, p. 74.

Kelly, Kitty. "Jackie: The Haunted Lady." Ladies Home Journal, September 1978, p. 169.

"John' F. Kennedy, Jr." Good Housekeeping, October 1976, p. 1 1 2 .

"Life With Mother." Ladies Home Journal, May 1977, pp. 12, 112.

Louchiem, Katie. "Her Interest in People." Ladies Home Journal, March 1969, p. 126.

Louchiem, Katie. "The Spotlight Shifts in Washington." Ladies Home Journal, January 1964, p. 55.

MacPherson, Myra. "Betty Ford: The Untold Story." McCalls, July 1978, p. 18.

MacPherson, Myra. "Keeping Up With Betty Ford." McCalls, November 1977, p. 206.

MacPherson, Myra. "The Blooming of Betty Ford." McCalls, September 19 75, p. 122.

Mead, Margaret. "A New Kind of First Lady." Redbook, February 1962, p. 6 8 . 260

Mead, Margaret. "Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson: A New Kind of First Lady." Redbook, July 1965, p. 12.

Mead, Margaret. "Rosalynn Carter and Margaret Mead: A Meeting of Minds." Redbook, October 1977, p. 207.

Montgomery, Ruth. "What Kind of a Woman Is Our First Lady?" Good Housekeeping, June 1964, p. 40.

Pepper, Curtis Bill. "The Fairy-Tale Marriage 20 Years Later." McCalls, March 1976, p. 98.

Quinn, Anthony. "Onassis and Me." Ladies Home Journal, June 1978, p. 56.

Reed, .W. A. "Jimmy Carter: Salesman for God." Good House­ keeping , May 1978, p. 158.

Robb, Lynda Johnson. "Amy Carter." Ladies Home Journal. February 19 77, p. 162.

Schreiber, Flora. "Pat Nixon Reveals For the First Time, •I Didn't Want Dick to Run Again.'" Good Housekeeping, July 1967, p. 138.

Spann, Gloria Carter. "My Two Sons." Ladies Home Journal. August 1977, p. 34.

Spann, William Carter. "What Happened Is My Fault." Good Housekeeping, October 1977, p. 44.

Stapleton, Ruth Carter. "Christmas with the Carters." Ladies Home Journal, December 1977, p. 74.

Stapleton, Ruth Carter. "The Message of Easter." Ladies Home Journal, April 1977, p. 107.

"The Carters Gather to Celebrate America's Bountiful Holi­ day." Ladies Home Journal, November 1977, p. 109.

"The Common Sense Wisdom of Three First Ladies." Good House­ keeping , March 1966, p. 94.

"The Tale of Two Jackies." Ladies Home Journal, October 1977, p. 28.

Thompson, Thomas. "Mrs. Halderman Speaks Her Mind." Ladies Home Journal, March 19 78, p. 46. 261

Van Horne, Harriett. "The Painful Price Our First Ladies Pay." Ladies Home Journal, July 1978, p. 75.

Wallace, Robert. "They Like Mamie Too." Life, October 13, 1952, p. 149.

Ward-Hanna, Elaine. "Perfect Little Dinners From the White House." Ladies Home Journal, November 1962, p. 82.

West, Jessamyn. "Jimmy Carter's Sister: How Faith Can Heal." McCalls, April 1977, p. 40.

"Women of the Year." Ladies Home Journal, June 1978, p. 91.

Newspapers

Fiess, Mary. "Crusader De Crow Leaves Job as NOW President." The Columbus Dispatch, 1 May 1977, p. J-15.

Geyer, Georgie Anne. "Rosalynn Carter Self-Determined." The Columbus Dispatch, 11 August 1977, p. S-2.

Rosenthal, Harry F. "Our Former First Ladies." The Columbus Dispatch. 20 March 19 77, p. G-8 .

Blackman, Ann. "A 'My Day' for Rosalynn Carter." The Louis­ ville Courier-Journal and Times, 26 March 1978, p. C-4.

Guindlen, Anna. "Growing Ms. Foundation Decides to Involve Public." The Louisville Courier-Journal, 15 November 1978, p. 12.

Robertson, Nan. "A Voice from Home . . . Martha Movement Speaks for Housewives." The Louisville Courier-Journal 6 November 19 77, p. G-4.

Robertson, Nan. "NOW's Drive to Push ERA Stand." The Louisville Courier-Journal. 12 March 1978, p. 20.

Shaw, Gaylord and Cemons, Marlene. "One Man's Family." The Louisville Courier-Journal. 13 November 1977, p. G-l.

Ward, Joe. "Opposites May Distract." The Louisville Courier-Journal. 17 November 1977, p. 1.

Whitt, Richard. "Emotionalism Over the ERA Won't Die After House Votes." The Louisville Courier-Journal, 15 March 1978, p. 1. 262

Apple, R. W., Jr. "Betty Ford Beats Nancy." The New York Times, 26 June 1976, p. 1.

Asbury, Edith. "Betty Ford Offers Prayer." The New York Times. June 10, 19 75, pp. 1-2.

"Betty Ford's Briefinqs." The New York Times, 8 February 1975, p. 10.

"Betty Ford Would Accept 'An Affair' by Daughter." The New York Times, 11 August 1975, p. 16.

Charlton, Linda. "Rosalynn Carter: Balancing Roles." The New York Times, 6 November 1977, p. 1.

"Equal Rights Plan Faces Illinois Test." The New York Times, 2 March 1975, p. 1.

Ford, Betty. The New York Times Magazine, 8 December 1975, p. 64.

Howard, Jane. "Forward Day by Day." The New York Times Magazine, 8 December 1977, p. 36.

Hunter, Marjorie. "Mrs. Carter at Work in Presidential Partnership." The New York Times, 14 February 1977, p. 2 0 .

Klemesrud, Judy. "Mrs. Ford Helps Remember the Ladies of Revolutionary Era." The New York Times, 30 June 1976, p. 43.

Klemesrud, Judy. "Wives in '75 Campaign Find the Campaign Difficult." The New York Times, 12 April 1976, p. 24.

Kneeland, Douglas. "The Equal Rights Amendment: Missouri is the Target." The New York Times, 7 February 1975, p. 7.

Lelyveld, Joseph. "Normally Proper GOP Women Come Out Fighting Over ERA." The New York Times, 17 August 1978, p. 36.

Lelyveld, Joseph. "President's Latest TV Commercials Portray Him as Father Figure." The New York Times, 29 September 1976, p. 40.

Martland, Leslie. "Betty Ford Named Fellow of Academy." The New York Times, 10 October 1975, p. 10. 263

"Mrs. Carter Says That She Tells the President 'What I Think'" The New York Times. 19 March 1977, p. 18.

Reed, Roy. "Betty Ford Greeted on Trip to Florida." The . New York Times, 27 February 1976, p. 10.

Roman, Thomas. "Betty Ford is GOP Woman of the Year." The New York Times. 21 March 1976,. p. 45.

Stroud, Kandy. "How Jimmy Won." The New York Times, 20 March 1977, Sec. vi, p. 19.

Voirst, Judith. "Pat Nixon is the Ultimate Good Sport." The New York Times. 13 September 19 70, p. 25.

Weinraub, Bernard. "Mrs. Carter Cool and Intense on Day of Triumph for Her, Too." The New York Times t 22 January 1977, pp. 3-4.