Not just the nation's hostess: First Ladies as policy actors

Abstract The position of First Lady is typically viewed as ceremonial and a reflection of marital and maternal roles: some combination of “the president's wife,” the “nation's social hostess,” and the “Mom‐in‐Chief.” Yet modern First Ladies often develop their own policy priorities and programs, and the Office of the First Lady is integral to modern presidential administrations. We make a case for studying First Ladies as policy actors by systematically measuring the audiences to which First Ladies speak, the roles they adopt in doing so, and the degree of substantive policy content in their remarks. Using data from public speeches and statements from 1993 to 2022 we demonstrate that First Ladies over the past 30 years have been active in adopting a policy role and speaking to policy‐focused audiences. First Ladies frequently speak to national, organized interest groups and adopt a policy role more often than not across most of their audiences. Our data highlight the importance of studying First Ladies in the policy process.