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????

Michelle could be the next President. This is .... work experience ... for her

I think the depressing thing is not that Michelle O gave up her job and she's part of a team with Barack and talks about baking. It's that I can't yet imagine it happening the other way round.

Mrs T and Dennis? !

obama wouldnt be the president if he hadnt been married to michelle
mrs thacther wouldnt have been prime minister if she wasnt married to dennis
clinton wouldnt have been who he became, if it wasnt for hilary.
no man ever gets anywhere without his wife/partner whatever. and if mivhelle is first lady, its because she worked bloody hard to help her husband become president. she didnt marry the president, she helped make her man president. big distinction.

Reminds me of the joke where Hillary Clinton bumps into an old high school boyfriend who is now working as a garage mechanic. Bill says, 'Just think Hillary, if you had married him you'd be the wife of a garage mechanic!' and Hillary says 'No Bill, if I had married him I would be the wife of the President of the United States.'

can i just add that mrs t was never interested in being a role model for women. or doing anything for women. she just wanted it for herself.
and she made sure she got it. whilst you may despise her, you cannot argue with her success in getting what she wanted.

Might I just add that it was imperative that BO was married to someone who was smart, an achiever, had good values etc. Can you imagine a black man being elected with a wife who was a bit of a dunderhead (or made remarks even as vaguely dull as those of Sarah Palin) or with an addiction to pills or the drink? (recall Cindy McCain and Laura Bush) Noo waaaay Jose!!

Absolutely Anna. Is it too much for people to perhaps think extraordianry men might fall in love with txtraorginary women? Even if they aren't the President of the US.

Its the same with Cherie Blair and Hilary Clinton. They are extraordinary woman in her own right. Both are also married to extraordinary men. All of them are extraoirdinary whetjer you 'like' them or not.

Also I think we are overlooking the fact that the role of the First Lady is one of some significance in the US. I don't profess to know a great deal about American politics but the First Lady has an official role, much in the way that a head of state's wife does in a monarchial society. The President and his wife are a "package" and whilst MO may not have swung many votes for him, an unpopular or contraversial wife would be a significant handicap to presidential ambitions.

I really disagree that these days your spouse makes your career, that if she or he wears the rights clothes at dinner parties and helps you network and ensures your clothes are ironed you will do better.

Anyway just a shames it's a man not a woman there and that the woman is majoring on her clothes and baking skills although her comment that clever is cool was useful. Trouble is the subliminial message is if you look pretty and get an education then a man who will rise to rule might bed you and if you're lucky marry you and you will then benefit from his position - not a very nice message really for 2009.

I think the point about a spouse helping a career is more about the intelligent sparring partner they provide in private rather than the socialising....

May be... it's very dubious. Plenty of people are in marriages with people they loathe which is why they work so hard and are hardly out of the office and when they are home it's just to hear their other half, male or female, shouting at them.

Lots of people in high-powered jobs are very lonely - they cannot share their innermost thoughts about their work with their subordinates or their superiors. So they look to their partner to become their work confidant. Obviously the more educated/intelligent/rational the partner, the more able he/she will be to rise to the challenge.

Michelle gained a first class education, had a high powered job, was the main breadwinner for years while helping her spouse to pursue his political career and took care of her girls. On the strength of this alone, given her working class origins, she could have inspired the girls. No fault of hers that media interest is fashion focused.

I think people need to keep in mind that educated does not equal intelligence in any way, shape or form.

Yes, first class exdcuation etc etc but then gave it all up to be a housewife and clothes horse. What sort of role model is that?

You do not "throw away" your education and past career by stopping working, and revert to some kind of empty-headed, uneducated person. You carry all your past experiences with you. Michelle Obama has not been reduced to a "clothes horse" or a "housewife" because she decided that it would just be far too much stress for her family if she pursued her career while her husband was President of the US. I actually think that that decision is the one of a fabulous role model, and a much more modern and enlightened one than Cherie Blair ever was.

I'll make the point again, as it seems to be being overlooked, that being First Lady of the USA is probably a pretty fulltime job, and there probably isn't much "housewife" going on. She's an attractive young(ish) woman - young for First Lady anyway - and people are bound to be interested in what she wears. That's not her fault. There's nothing liberated about dressing badly in the false hope that people will take you more seriously.

Poor woman couldn't win no matter what she did, and neither can the rest of us. Xenia and her ilk will criticise her for putting her career on hold, Anna thinks any woman who works is a failure as a mother. What happened to choices?

georgiemama - so you think that I think I'm a failure?

You don't work, do you (I mean paid employment, before we get into "running the home is work")? I thought you were a SAHM.

Your view always comes across to me as being that prioritising your family by not working is the most important thing, and that women should not work whilst their children are young.

I work! I'm very lucky because I (by accident) fell into a line of work where there is huge worldwide shortfall of staff. So I can pick and choose how much I do ie can work very part-time and still make a fab hourly wage.

You lucky thing.

I'm sorry, I always got the impression that you were a SAHM and very much against women working when they small children.