Just wanted to say that I love Michelle Obama

I do think we have to pay attention to the racial stuff when we look at Michelle Obama's decision to call herself "mom-in-chief" and do her version of the traditional First Lady thing rather than stay in her career or have a policy-field to herself ("Hillarycare" was the way they put it when HRC was a new First Lady, and yes, it was the way the crucified her and it was awful).

Black women, when slaves, had to leave their children with other people to go raise white women's children, or work in their plantations, or clean their houses.
For some black women the right to raise their own kids and be seen putting their children first and being a "GOOD MOTHER" is important in the USA, because there's this hideous racial stereotype that black women aren't good mothers - they're "welfare queens" or "hardass bitches" or "hos" or something like that. So there's this interaction between sexism and racism, and Michelle Obama gets both in the neck. She handles it with aplomb, IMO - I think she's an excellent role model - hardworking, kind, clever, and very savvy politically. I don't think a First Lady should be such a big 'weapon' in a President's arsenal - what about gay Presidents or single ones? Will there never be one? BUT as they are* I think she does it brilliantly.

*I know that SAHM does not equal "good mother" - and arguably the First Lady's role isn't a SAHM one - after all, she's here, isn't she? That's why she asked her Mum to move into the White House.

I still harbour fantasies that Hillary might be president in 2016...

Want2bsupermum - "she demonstrated she was not about women's rights at all" - really? Who knows why she made the decisions she did about her personal relationship? Bill Clinton had a bit of a reputation for women before that - Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, loads more from their Arkansas days - but have we heard about any since? Perhaps that was the deal and he stuck to it. He's been her number 1 supporter throughout her own political career (slightly to her disadvantage in the primaries) so maybe she reckoned she could wink at the adultery if it meant she could still count on him to be there for her.

In any case, how is tolerating adultery setting her against women's rights? If he'd beaten her, and she'd stayed, I might have agreed with you. If he'd belittled and undermined her during her own political career, I might have thought you had a point. But whatever post-Monica deal they struck seems to be working for her, so I can't see how their relationship is anything other than a positive role model for other married couples.

Besides, everyone knows she'd have been just as heavily criticised for 'bailing out' if she had divorced him.

Not going to engage with your bitchiness about Chelsea Clinton.

If I was black I would much prefer my child look up to Mr & Mrs Obama than Snoop Dog and Lil'Kim

Hello? Racial stereotype much?

Black people can be role models to white people too, you know. And vice versa.

dittany Living here in the US it is interesting to hear what Americans say of Mrs Clinton. Basically she should have divorced Bill Clinton after the Monica incident. When she decided to 'stand by her man' she demonstrated that she was not about womens rights at all. Her husband took advantage of a young girl and ruined her future. He knew exactly what he was doing and she stuck around because she wanted a future in politics.

As for Chelsea Clinton..... the least said the better. She got into Oxford because of her parents and hasn't been able to keep a job. The reason she was able to 'help' her mother during the primaries was because she was 'let go' from her job with Avenue.

My neighbour was at Princeton with Michelle Obama and also worked with her after graduating from law school. It was interesting to hear her talk about how focused she was on making something of herself. While Mrs Obama isn't my cup of tea I have a lot of respect for her putting herself out there as a role model. Here in the US there aren't that many black role models. If I was black I would much prefer my child look up to Mr & Mrs Obama than Snoop Dog and Lil'Kim.

I think it's great that MO is using the platform she's been given to speak directly to women and girls about their aspirations and making good choices in their relationships. Regardless of how she came by the platform, these are good and brave messages to be sending out. She could be a lot more timid and uncontroversial - Laura Bush was an advocate for reading and libraries, for example.

RE: HC. I was going to repeat that 'joke' that someone posted above. When she was First Lady, everyone was saying that Bill wouldn't have become President if it wasn't for her. Now that she's Secretary of State, everyone says that she wouldn't have got there if it wasn't for Bill. What more proof do you need that she's a lightning rod for misogyny and not fairly judged for her own considerable achievements.

I suppose my sadness about Michelle Obama is that she would probably make a very good president and that being "someone's wife", however well she does that, and whatever good comes of it is not the same.

Maybe she will run next time?

What I mean is, it is only through her giving up her job (which you would probably do too if your husband was President, it'd be impossible to get on with things normally with the amount of security you'd need around you) that she is free to give talks and being welcomed by the audience.

It's a shame that we don't have more woman like Michelle Obama speaking about this kind of thing. There are plenty of women who are just as inspirational as she is in her own right. I guess they are busy doing those jobs, and don't have time to come and talk to schools and say "hey, work hard, don't take any shit, you can achieve a lot".

The comments about the "Obama baby mama" weren't exactly nice (thanks Fox) either, nor all the 'angry black woman' comments.

OP's original point, about the strength of the messages the current first lady is giving to inner city British schoolgirls this week, seems to have been buried under the commentary about the Secretary of State when she was First Lady.

I had really welcomed what Michelle Obama said. I thought a lot of her points were very important and deserved the airtime. I was glad to see a champion of girls finding their voice, not putting up with second best and deserving places at the top, got coverage on all the main broadcasters.

So it was interesting to see that in the feminist/Women's rights thread, there is a weight of opinion that she isn't admirable because of who she married 20 years ago (before he was even a senator). Her own entire career largely ignored, just because she's taken a break from it. And a thread inviting comment on what she said not really getting much response.

I am still pissed off that Hillary Clinton didn't get the job. I think she would have made a far better president than Obama tbh.

HC has always been a heavyweight, even when she was a law intern in the 70s, always working for equal rights (she was an intern in a law firm in San Francisco which was headed by someone who had been vilified in the 50s and 60s for communist sympathies and civil rights work).

I was only a kid when Bill Clinton came to power but I remember the negativity against her at the time, with the Gennifer Flowers stuff. She has always been castigated for being a distinclty non-fluufy woman with an opinion.

I don't think that being First Lady is a job, though. In the same way as I don't think being Prince of Wales, for instance, is a job.

Quite separately, I think Michelle Obama seems to be a fabulous woman and as I say I think she made the right decision to focus on her children not being completely destroyed by her husband's job (although I loathe beyond words the 'Mom-in-chief' appellation) but that is different from being a First Lady.

Michelle Obama has outstanding qualifications in fact at one point she was earning double what her husband was when he was a senator. So either way she is a woman with experience in powerful positions even before her husbands sudden emergence.

Both can be seen as excellent role models - I don't see why it has to be one or the other. Michelle Obama has done a lot of work, in law, politics, and in higher education, prior to her husband being any major figure in politics. And while she could have remained in her work in Chicago while her husband is president, I do find that she uses the position of First Lady very effectively to get a lot of things done. Unlike with the Bushes, both women are seen as parcel with their husbands. Hilary also worked to get things done as First Lady, and still works towards those now that she can do her work as far outside of her husband's presidency's shadow as she can get.

And while Hilary may have won more votes in many of the primary elections, I don't think the Democrats could let her run as their head person after her racist outburst against Obama (She is the one who started the 'let's see your birth certificate' issue). That divided the Democrats badly, the Democratic Conference wouldn't put forward a candidate that would divide their core voters again after the election before when so many Democrats went Independent due to dislike of the candidate.

And they both married their husband's before they were 'powerful' so I don't think "marrying a powerful man" is part of their message.

I wish I'd seen this ... it also seems to me good to see a black woman speaking in Oxford, given the university doesn't have many black students.

I do agree with Dilys though.

There's a big photo of Bill Clinton in Oxford Blackwells that I go past every time I buy books - I wonder if they'll put one of Michelle Obama up next to it?

OK, I know it's wiki but it contains great deal of referenced material about Michelle Obama, her education (from a relatively poor background to Princeton and Harvard), and then her legal and public service career. She uses her personal experience of education as a means to a successful career (temporarily on hold) very vividly.

Hillary Clinton stepped out of her career whilst First Lady (even changing her name at that point) and it seems Michelle Obama is doing the same. If she isn't doing the right thing by using the attention that inevitably falls upon her now to promote the issues she believes in - what should she be doing instead?

What she has to say - about hard work perseverance, not being afraid to take risks, not being afraid to fail, learning to pick yourself up and continue, to read lots, embrace learning for its own sake, and find what you're passionate about and work to become good at it - are all incredibly positive messages.

I think Michelle is a lovely bright woman, and I'd like to be her friend and I think fwiw that she made the right decision in her own very specific circumstances to quit work but I don't think that marrying a powerful man even if he is terrifically hot is the sum total of the ambitions I hold for my lovely girls, I have to say.