As tributes continue to pour in for the former first lady of the United States Rosalynn Carter, who died on Sunday aged 96, the spotlight has been shone on the role of first lady and the women who have held it.
The wife of President Jimmy Carter who held office from 1977 to 1981, Rosalynn has been praised by former first ladies including Michelle Obama, Melania Trump, Hillary Clinton and current post holder Jill Biden.
“She was a champion for equal rights and opportunities for women and girls; an advocate for mental health and wellness for every person; and a supporter of the often unseen and uncompensated caregivers of our children, ageing loved ones and people with disabilities,” said Biden in a statement.
While much of Carter’s advocacy work was carried out after she left the White House, Obama noted in her tribute that the role of first lady was something each holder of the title had to make their own.
“You learn very quickly that there is no handbook or rules to being first lady,” she wrote on Instagram. “Technically, it’s not even an official position. And while there are spoken and unspoken expectations that provide some structure, the role is largely shaped by the passions and aspirations of the person holding it. First lady Rosalynn Carter understood that well.”
Here, we look at the role of the first lady, the women who have held and shaped it and some of the groundbreaking and taboo initiatives they put under the spotlight.
Where does the term 'first lady' come from?
As Obama says, the role that falls to the spouse of the president isn’t an official position. The position of Flotus (First lady of the United States) as she is known (and they have all been women) hasn’t been codified or defined in US politics. However, it is considered an influential one, and first ladies have had to forge their own path while championing their passion projects.
The term “first lady” wasn’t used for Martha Washington, the wife of the first President George Washington (1789-1797) and the first woman to hold the post. She was known as “Lady Washington”, “the President’s wife” or “Mrs President” and was only posthumously called first lady.
The first time the full title of “The First Lady of the Land” was used was for Frances Cleveland, the wife of President Grover Cleveland (1886-1889), who was only 21 when she came into the role for the first of two separate tenures.
Her successor, Caroline Harrison, who held the position from 1889 to 1892, was also called “First Lady of the Republic.” It wasn’t until Lou Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), arrived at the White House that the title was shortened to first lady.
Who established the Office of the First Lady?
Edith Roosevelt, wife of Theodore Roosevelt, who held the role from 1901 to 1909, started the custom of hiring her own staff, bringing in a social secretary to manage her engagements.
It wasn’t until Eleanor Roosevelt took up the post – when her husband Franklin D Roosevelt became President in 1933 – that the office was expanded beyond social and administrative secretaries, when she brought in a personal secretary.
Eleanor’s approach to the post wasn’t without its setbacks. Two days after her husband’s 1932 election win, she told a reporter for The Washington Post that she didn’t like the idea of being called first lady, saying: “I never wanted to be a President’s wife and I don’t want it now.”
The office was expanded further by Jackie Kennedy – first lady from 1961 to 1963 – who was the first to employ a press secretary.
It was under Carter that the role became more official and her staff became known as the Office of the First Lady. Carter organised the department into four sections: projects and community liaison; press and research; schedule and advance; and social and personal. She was also the first to add a chief of staff and to move the office to the East Wing of the White House, where it remains today.
It should be noted that not all first ladies are wives of presidents. When a president was unmarried or a widower, he would often ask a female relative to step into the role.
There are nine instances of non-wives taking on the position, including widower Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809), who asked his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph to take on the role, and Harriet Lane, who was the niece of President James Buchanan (1857-1861).
What does the First Lady do?
First ladies usually seek to champion initiatives that are close to their heart. For Obama, who held the role from 2009 to 2017, childhood health, girls’ access to education worldwide and the Reach Higher Initiative – aimed at inspiring young people in the US to continue their education beyond high school – were her main focus.
Many first ladies tackled issues that were considered taboo at the time, such as Eleanor Roosevelt’s dedication to women's rights and civil rights.
Claudia Alta “Lady Bird” Johnson made environmental development and protection her focus, introducing the Highway Beautification Act, which included planting and maintaining roadside areas.
Betty Ford, whose name is synonymous with the Betty Ford Centre, which she founded, was outspoken on issues such as women’s rights, feminism and equal pay. After undergoing a mastectomy in 1974, she raised awareness about breast cancer. Her advocacy work continued after she left office when she talked publicly about her struggles with alcoholism and substance abuse in a bid to remove the stigma around seeking help.
Clinton, who was first lady from 1993 to 2001, made healthcare, welfare reform and international women’s rights her focus. She even moved her office from the East to West Wing of the White House to be nearer where the political decisions were made.
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What is the Supreme Petroleum Council?
The Abu Dhabi Supreme Petroleum Council was established in 1988 and is the highest governing body in Abu Dhabi’s oil and gas industry. The council formulates, oversees and executes the emirate’s petroleum-related policies. It also approves the allocation of capital spending across state-owned Adnoc’s upstream, downstream and midstream operations and functions as the company’s board of directors. The SPC’s mandate is also required for auctioning oil and gas concessions in Abu Dhabi and for awarding blocks to international oil companies. The council is chaired by Sheikh Khalifa, the President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi while Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, is the vice chairman.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Education reform in Abu Dhabi
The emirate’s public education system has been in a constant state of change since the New School Model was launched in 2010 by the Abu Dhabi Education Council. The NSM, which is also known as the Abu Dhabi School Model, transformed the public school curriculum by introducing bilingual education starting with students from grades one to five. Under this new curriculum, the children spend half the day learning in Arabic and half in English – being taught maths, science and English language by mostly Western educated, native English speakers. The NSM curriculum also moved away from rote learning and required teachers to develop a “child-centered learning environment” that promoted critical thinking and independent learning. The NSM expanded by one grade each year and by the 2017-2018 academic year, it will have reached the high school level. Major reforms to the high school curriculum were announced in 2015. The two-stream curriculum, which allowed pupils to elect to follow a science or humanities course of study, was eliminated. In its place was a singular curriculum in which stem -- science, technology, engineering and maths – accounted for at least 50 per cent of all subjects. In 2016, Adec announced additional changes, including the introduction of two levels of maths and physics – advanced or general – to pupils in Grade 10, and a new core subject, career guidance, for grades 10 to 12; and a digital technology and innovation course for Grade 9. Next year, the focus will be on launching a new moral education subject to teach pupils from grades 1 to 9 character and morality, civic studies, cultural studies and the individual and the community.
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