The First Lady.
It's not a job that's actually in the Constitution,
but that's just because in 1787 women hadn't been invented yet.
And even though "First Lady" is not an official role,
they've been important figures in the country
from the very beginning.
NEWSMAN: From the earliest days, America's First Ladies
were referred to as "Lady Presidentress,"
or "Republican Queen."
The term "First Lady" didn't come into use, really,
until Dolly Madison's time.
The fourth First Lady pioneered the practice
of championing social causes.
She helped orphan children and supported women's rights.
NEWSWOMAN: And it's said that at Mrs. Madison's funeral,
President Zachary Taylor eulogized her
as the country's "First Lady,"
the first time that title was ever used.
That's right. Dolly Madison was the first First Lady.
But she didn't know it,
because President Taylor only called her that at her funeral.
If I were Dolly Madison, I would be dead,
but also, I would have been so pissed at Zachary Taylor.
Because before him, people were calling her "Lady Presidentress"
or "Republican Queen."
And those are so much cooler as names.
Then at her funeral, some dude is like,
"No, she was the First Lady."
If I was her, I'd be getting out of that casket, like,
"What'd you say? Bitch, you call me Queen Supreme!
Oh, First Lady! Queen!"
But while the idea of a First Lady
has been around from the beginning,
the job as we know it today
didn't really kick off until the 1930s.
You know, it's like how for years,
Netflix was a company that sent DVDs in the mail,
but that's not what people think of as Netflix now.
And the first streaming on demand First Lady
was Eleanor Roosevelt.
WOMAN: Eleanor Roosevelt really innovated
the First Lady's role as a public communicator.
WOMAN 2: She wrote thousands of columns, 27 books.
She participated in hundreds of radio shows.
WOMAN 3: She felt that her role
was too really reach out to the American people
and to learn from them
about what they wanted in policy.
WOMAN 4: First Lady had taken to the road
and traveled hundreds of thousands of miles.
NEWSMAN: Going right to the source
of the country's pain during the Depression,
meeting miners in Appalachia,
challenging southern Democrats
to support anti-lynching legislation,
and during World War II,
visiting internment camps
where Japanese Americans were imprisoned
simply because of their race.
The First Lady was often alone at the wheel
driving herself cross-country.
Now, that is ballsy as hell.
Eleanor Roosevelt was so politically active,
she visited the Japanese internment camps
that her husband set up.
It's so classic for a wife
to go around cleaning up her husband's mess.
She was probably at those internment camps like,
"I'm sorry, he just gets a little racist sometimes.
"Work has been really stressful.
He's not normally this way. Really, really, he isn't."
And she even took road trips by herself,
which was very gutsy in the 1930s.
There was no phones, no GPS, you know?
Although, I guess it's hard to get lost
when there were only, like, what, two roads
in the entire country?
"Okay, young buck, listen up.
"You want to get from California to the White House,
"pay attention.
"You want to turn onto road... Are you listening?
"You want to turn onto road one.
"And then
"you're gonna drive straight on road one,
and then you'll be there."
And once Eleanor Roosevelt realized
that she could use her position to bring attention
to the issues that were important to her,
every First Lady who followed did the same.
WOMAN: Lady Bird Johnson sought to beautify the nation
and took an active role in the Head Start program
for early child development.
Barbara Bush advocated for literacy,
as did Laura Bush.
NEWSWOMAN: In 1962, Jackie Kennedy Onassis
created the White House Historical Association.
NEWSMAN: Betty Ford was vocal about women's issues.
She supported the Supreme Court's ruling
on Roe v. Wade, which made abortion legal,
and she supported the Equal Rights Amendment.
She openly discussed her breast cancer and mastectomy.
NEWSWOMAN 2: When Michelle Obama was First Lady,
one of her key initiatives
was to push for healthier nutrition
and food choices.
That translated into a change
for public school lunches around the country.
NEWSMAN 2: In the '80s, Nancy Reagan
appeared in a popular sitcom
to boost her "Just Say No" campaign.
What you talking about, Mrs. Reagan?
I'm concerned about drug abuse, especially among the young.
Wow. That is commitment.
Nancy Reagan was so determined to stop drug abuse,
she even went on a sitcom to speak out on it.
Which would be impossible to do today.
I mean, TV shows are so much more adult now.
I mean, it's easy to tell Gary Coleman not to do drugs.
It's a lot harder to try and do that on Euphoria.
"Just say no, Zendaya."
"Bitch, you should have been here season one."
But it's through that activism
that First Ladies get to show who they really are
and how they want the world to change.
You know, Michelle Obama cared about health.
Hillary Clinton cared about children and education.
Melania cared about stopping cyberbullies.
And say what you want, but her agenda got done.
And the thing about being a First Lady
is that they're not just expected
to promote social causes.
They're also expected to be style influencers.
Jackie Kennedy's pillbox hats,
Nancy Reagan's red dresses,
Hillary Clinton's pantsuits
or Pat Nixon's Xena cosplay.
But, of course, all this attention
also means that First Ladies get subjected
to intense scrutiny by the press.
And it's not something that they've been happy about.
NEWSWOMAN: To be the First Lady
may be the most difficult job in Washington.
MAN: Martha Washington famously said
the role of First Lady
can sometimes feel like a state prisoner.
WOMAN: Michelle Obama wore a pair of shorts,
just a regular pair of mom shorts,
and an uproar ensued.
Days of video, uh, commentary
and pictures and debate about whether it's okay
for a First Lady to wear shorts.
MAN 2: Andrew Jackson's wife, Rachel,
was blasted in the papers,
uh, for being a pipe-smoking hillbilly from Tennessee.
WOMAN 2: Jackie Kennedy called the press harpies,
and she hated the constant attention.
MAN 3: Bess Truman felt very uncomfortable,
very ill at ease with all the fanfare
and the attention of the press.
WOMAN 3: There was a famous, uh, incident
where she was doing a christening of a ship,
and she went to break the bottle,
and they forgot to score the bottle ahead of time,
so she's banging it and banging and ba...
And it just won't break.
(indistinct chatter)
She was humiliated. She told her husband,
"I'm not doing another public appearance."
Aw. Poor Bess Truman.
I honestly feel bad for her,
because we've all had that moment
where we just can't open a jar of peanut butter.
But imagine if the entire country
was watching you struggle with that jar.
(grunts) "Almost got it, everybody.
Hold on."
"Try running hot water over it!"
"I tried that already."
If you ask me, the person to blame
is the one who started this whole tradition.
Like, who thought it was a good idea
to christen a new ship
by smashing it with a champagne bottle?
You don't christen a new car
by slashing the tires with a samurai sword.
And honestly, all the First Ladies
are in an unfair situation,
because none of them asked to be in that position.
Martha Washington was right.
It is sort of like a prison.
Although, it's weird to say you feel like a prisoner
when you own slaves yourself.
"Sometimes, I just feel like I can't leave.
You know what I mean?"
"Yeah, Mrs. Massa. I think I do."
But maybe the most fascinating thing about First Ladies
is that even though no one votes for them
and they kind of make up the job as they go,
just by virtue of being married to the president,
they can end up having a lot more power
than many elected officials.
The First Lady is the most powerful woman
in the country because she has the ear,
first thing in the morning and last thing at night,
of the most powerful man in the country.
NEWSMAN: Going back to the very first first lady,
Martha Washington, and the second one, Abigail Adams,
both of them were politically involved.
They were involved in cabinet decisions.
They were involved in campaigning.
These women were political partners.
NEWSMAN 2: Nancy Reagan was pulling a lot of the strings,
calling many of the shots
from President Ronald Reagan's first campaign
for the White House back in 1980
to his Cold War-ending triumph in 1987.
NEWSWOMAN: Hillary Clinton became more involved,
obviously, in policymaking than any first lady before her.
She had an office in the West Wing.
Bill Clinton even ran on the slogan "Buy one, get one free."
NEWSWOMAN 2: In 1919, Edith Wilson
was unofficially running the country
after her husband Woodrow suffered a stroke.
That's insane, man.
Not only have first ladies influenced the president,
Edith Wilson ended up running the government.
And, by the way, that totally screwed the vice president over.
I mean, like, 90% of the vice president's job
is being there in case the president goes down.
So that's like being Tom Brady's backup
and then he gets hurt but then Gisele comes out like,
"No, no, no, I got this. Get back on the bench, loser.
I throw for my husband."
So, as the Biden administration gets underway,
history suggests that Jill Biden
will likely be a major part of it.
Because first ladies always have been.
And if you don't know, now you know.