Why Michelle Obama inspires women around the globe

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Michelle Obama is ook volgens mij een kei.

Naast haar eigen staat van dienst, herinner ik me ook te hebben gelezen
dat Plouffe/Axelrod/Barack haar de plannen voor de verkiezingscampagne
lieten zien (met volgens Barack het oogmerk haar goedkeuring te
verwerven).
Ze reageerde met ongeloof en maakte duidelijk dat ze pas 'aan boord zou
komen' als het gedetailleerd was uitgewerkt, ook financieel.
Dit dwong de heren een zeer diepgaande planning te maken, met als
natuurlijk gevolg dat de campagne veel beter werd voorbereid ;)

Groet / Cees

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/28/first.lady/index.html?iref=werecommend
 (CNN) -- Heather Ferreira works in the slums of Mumbai, India, where she
has watched thousands of women live under a "curse."

The women she meets in the squalid streets where "Slumdog Millionaire" was
filmed are often treated with contempt, she says. They're considered ugly
if their skin and hair are too dark. They are deemed "cursed" if they only
have daughters. Many would-be mothers even abort their children if they
learn they're female.

Yet lately she says Indian women are getting another message from the
emergence of another woman thousands of miles away. This woman has dark
skin and hair. She walks next to her husband in public, not behind. And
she has two daughters. But no one calls her cursed. They call her Michelle
Obama, the first lady.

"She could be a new face for India," says Ferreira, program officer for an
HIV-prevention program run by World Vision, an international humanitarian
group. "She shows women that it's OK to have dark skin and to not have a
son. She's quite real to us."

Those who focus on Michelle Obama's impact on America are underestimating
her reach. The first lady is inspiring women of color around the globe to
look at themselves, and America, in fresh ways. Photo See photos of past
first ladies »

"She might be the first woman of color that females in male-dominated
countries have seen as confident, bright, educated, articulate and
persuasive," says Barbara Perry, author of "Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady
of the New Frontier."

A symbol for women around the globe

The notion of a woman being a first in anything is alien in many parts of
the world. Millions of women struggle against sexual violence,
discrimination and poverty, several women activists say.

But Michelle Obama offers a personal rebuke to that message. Her personal
story -- born into a blue-collar family; overcoming racism and once even
making more money than her husband -- makes her a mesmerizing figure to
women across the globe, says Susan M. Reverby, a professor of women's
studies at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.

Reverby says this is the first time many women have seen their class and
color reflected in America's first lady. Video Watch how Michelle Obama
has done during her first 100 days »

"This is someone who appeals across the usual divides," Reverby says. "She
is a celebrity you can imagine being, not a celebrity you have to watch
from afar."

A hint of Michelle Obama's global appeal came recently when she spoke at
an all-girls school in London, England. The students came from various
backgrounds: Muslim, Christian, black and white. Yet they all surged
forward, shrieking and even crying, as they hugged the first lady.

Thu Nguyen, a native of Vietnam, wasn't at the London school, but she
experienced a similar sense of elation when Obama became first lady.

In her native country, she says women "are not human beings." But when
Obama became the first lady, Nguyen called her niece and told her that any
hard-working woman could become the first.

Vietnamese women can identify with Michelle Obama, Nguyen says.

"We have a yellow color because we're Asian, so we felt a bond with
[Michelle] Obama when she became the first black first lady," says Nguyen,
who works at a nail salon in South Pasadena, California.

Some women's identification with the first lady, however, goes deeper than
skin color.

Sue Mbaya of Nairobi, Kenya, says the first lady inspires African woman to
assert themselves in their personal and professional lives.

Many African women are conditioned to be subservient, she says. They're
prevented from rising to management positions in the workplace, and their
families often relegate them to taking care of household tasks while
sending their brothers off to school.

But Obama is a high achiever who didn't intimidate her husband, says
Mbaya, a native of Zimbabwe who is the advocacy director for World
Vision's Africa's region.

"I've always liked knowing that she was Barack Obama's supervisor when
they first met," Mbaya says. "He once said that he wouldn't be where he is
without his wife. That really appeals to me."

Women in the West also find inspiration in Obama.

Christine Louise Hohlbaum, who lives near Munich, Germany, says the first
lady impresses German women because she is a powerful public figure who
doesn't seem threatening. German history is marked by charismatic leaders
who wielded personal power for malevolent ends, she says.

"She's the perfect blend of power and civility. That's important in German
culture," says Hohlbaum, author of "The Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save
Time in Our 24/7 World."

How does Michelle Obama define herself?

While other women have defined Obama's appeal, the first lady is refining
her role.

She has talked publicly about the pressures military families face. She
has encouraged healthy eating by planting a White House garden. She's
opened the White House to ordinary people and children. Service to
community and family seems to be her theme.

She recently drew the most attention for what she did, not said, during a
visit to London. She briefly embraced Britain's Queen Elizabeth II,
breaking royal protocol. The Queen, however, according to press accounts,
responded warmly to the first lady's embrace.

Obama has often been compared to another regal woman: Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis. But Autumn Stephens, author of "Feisty First Ladies," says that
Obama reminds her more of former first lady Hillary Clinton.

"But Hillary really downplayed the mom part whereas Michelle has really
played it up," Stephens says. "She is straddling both worlds."

In a poll of first ladies, certain women are invariably cited by
historians as the most noteworthy: Abigail Adams, Lady Bird Johnson and
Eleanor Roosevelt, who is widely considered to be the most influential
first lady, Stephens says.
advertisement

Where would Stephens rank Michelle Obama?

"She's got the whole package," Stephens says. "She's in a class by herself"

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