Did Michelle Obama say something to those girls in London along the lines of 'You too can be like me if you work hard' because if she did is she not saying that......

[moondog]

they too can marry a very important man?

I mean she's not there in her capacity as a lawyer, rather as a First Leady and surely that is not really a valid role to aspire to in itself????

yes, in the USA it is cool to be female and get loads of grade As (in my limited study of one person)
Can't really state any opinions on the rest of the world as have very little experience.
My lovely friend who spent early teens growing up in a middle class area of USA who was popular there as she is a great person, likes playing soccer and also was a high achiever was shell shocked when she joined her local comp back in Oxford when re-locating back here.
She has spent the rest of her life pretending she is not as clever as she is.

Xenia - Cherie Blair only managed to keep her career up when her husband was PM by having her own mother live with her family and assume the role of mother.

Oh, i'm not worried on a personal level, more on a country-wide level
I've never really pretended anything

Cherie Blair, she must have found it so hard keeping her opinions to herself, I can so understand the occasions when her own thoughts just slipped out.

I've never felt that anyone was telling me that being clever wasn't cool, althoguh accept not the case for many kids.Don't think it's confined to women. Don't they say that white working class boys are now faring worse than any other section of society?

Boys and girls equally I think

Andeveryone has to make sacrifices of some sort, not just professional women. My dh has worked abroad for the last 8 years because of the nature of his work which means long periods apart. He doesn't dwell on it though or blame 'society'.

Xenia -- Michelle Obama is working FFS!

She is working her rear end off. I find it borderline offensive that if a woman is not in paid employment, that she is somehow a bad role model?

Xenia, MO is entitled to do with her career what she chooses. What is dreadful is when narrow minded people like you think that one can only be defined by having a career.

I think Michelle Obama is probably going to be a much better role model for women than Cherie Blair ever was! She doesn't seem to share the traits of greed and dishonesty that were so unattractive in Cherie...

dont understand whytwe are splitting hair over who is ettre roel model.both Cherie and michelle are very clever able lawyers

Michelle Obama seems (so far, at least) so much more dignified than Cherie. I could never forgive her for that dreadful 'poor little me, I'm just a busy working mum just like the rest of you' speech after she 'dropped a few balls' when she was buying a flat for her son.

Cherie was far, far too busy to think straight (Carole Caplin, anyone?). Michelle Obama seems to recognise her own human limitations and seems altogether a lot more mature and wiser.

agreed carole caplan was a grade a loon,and quite pervasive influence

Would rather have had M or Hilary C though as President. Women choosing to jack in carrer to be a clothes horse, supporter of her man and to dumb herself down by talking about baking is just entirely the wrong type of role model. Might have been better if she were a 60 year old obese academic in some ways

hilary instead of Barrack.

No Way.

When exactly has Michelle Obama talked about baking? And in what way is baking unfeminist? What is the big issue with bakery products?

What exactly would be better about her being an obese academic?

She keeps being asked about domestic stuff. I remember one item. She is being worshipped for being a housewife who is pretty which is ahuge shame

Hilary Clinton got all domestic at one point too, though, when Bill was President, and at times in her presidential campaign she laid on the domestic stuff thick and hard.

dont think michelle has compromised her integrity.she does what she wants.

good female role model doesnt necessarily have to only equate with employment.it is much deeper

Oh right -- and Margaret Thatcher was such a great role model for ambitious women

What about Bill Clinton? Is he dumbing himself down when he accompanies Hillary?

Look, she has chosen not to work as a lawyer. A choice she made with her husband. Isn't the whole point of education the ability to choose?

It's such a superficial argument that since someone doesn't have a 9 - 5 job that their life is not worth merit...

Surely part of the issue is also that her job was in Chicago. Although Barack was able to commute a bit as a Senator, he wouldn't be able to as President. So her girls would grow up without seeing their father.

Also, Hillary Clinton gave up her job as a lawyer when Bill became President, I believe.

I don't understand why one is mocking skills like baking when most of the famous chefs are men!

Last week, I baked chocolate brownies with my 5yo DTS. If that means I'm dumbing down, despite being well educated and having a career, then tough.

Just because one is not obsessed with having a highly paid career, does not mean that one cannot be viewed as a role model or have anything to offer society, thank goodness.

Xenia's view is peverse. The woman talks about a wide range of issues as evidenced by the subject of the OP. Why should topics such as taking care of her family and baking be off limits though? Please don't take us back to the dark ages.

'perverse'