In 1970, Gloria Steinem said that “housewives are dependent creatures who are still children”;
Betty Friedan said, “No woman gets an orgasm from shining the kitchen floor.”
And so, instead of on-site day care, flexible schedules, parental leave for men and women and a path to the top
that did not punish parents for spending time at home, feminists made their priority the rights of women to get the same education, work the same long hours, earn the same wages and make the same difficult choices between work and family as men.
Yet we’ve expected our first ladies to do it all, without benefit of a paycheck, or even a budget for clothing: While the first
lady’s office has a budget, her role is considered an “office of honor,” which is fancy for “you’ll get nothing and like it.”
Michelle Obama made it look not just glamorous but effortless, and if she was ever peeved that her work went uncompensated, she never complained.
Instead of taking up the mantle of First Hostess and slipping into the role of a landlocked Julie the cruise director without complaint, Melania the Intermittent has chosen to mostly
stay in New York City with her young son, at least through the end of the school year, emerging from her gilded penthouse for a White House dinner here or a sightseeing jaunt there.
The White House is different — it’s not as if Mrs. Trump will be picking up stray Legos, begging, “Can
I please just have five minutes to myself?” while her husband asks if she’s gotten the dry cleaning.
