Women in Power

6     In order to truly understand the ways in which discussions of gender have so often settled into defining Rodham Clinton as a wife, it is important to look in more detail at her own troubled history with that role. The meeting and marriage of Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham has been analyzed in dozens of books, and both have shared their version of these events in their own autobiographies, My Life and Living History, respectively. Both write that they were not thinking of marriage when they met and fell in love, but that the attraction, both physical and intellectual, was intense and thus set their relationship in motion. It is interesting to note that, when she was asked by Bill Clinton to marry him, Hillary Rodham at first said no and, when they finally married, her status as a nontraditional wife was set from the start with her decision to retain her maiden name. Though not an uncommon practice now, retention of one's maiden name was still fairly new in the 1970s and her decision to be addressed as Hillary Rodham created personal and political problems for the couple:

Because I knew I had my own professional interests and did not want to create any confusion or conflict of interest with my husband's public career, it made perfect sense to me to continue using my own name. Bill didn't mind, but our mothers did. Virginia [Clinton's mother] cried when Bill told her, and my mother addressed her letters to "Mr. and Mrs. Bill Clinton" [. . .] it was a personal decision, a small (I thought) gesture to acknowledge that while I was committed to our union, I was still me. (Rodham Clinton 91-92)

Conflict with their respective mothers over her name might have been the first of the problems that Rodham Clinton would have as a wife, but they were nothing compared to the political problems this "personal decision" would create for her husband.

7     In 1980 Bill Clinton ran for a second term as governor in his home state of Arkansas and lost. Apparently, Arkansas voters were uncomfortable with his wife retaining her maiden name for, as Bill Clinton writes in his autobiography, "though it never showed up as a negative in our polls, it bothered a lot of people" (296). Rodham Clinton writes of how friends began approaching her with suggestions that she adopt her husband's last name. One friend told her that "some people were upset when they received invitations to events at the Governor's Mansion from 'Governor Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham'" and their daughter's birth announcement was also "apparently a hot subject of conversation around the state" (Rodham Clinton 92). She recounts a fascinating and telling scenario concocted by another mutual friend in which, to appease voters, "Bill would put his foot on my throat, yank me by my hair, and say something like 'Woman, you're going to take my last name and that's that!' Flags would wave, hymns would be sung, and the name would change" (93). Though the story is recounted with a good-natured tongue in cheek tone, and acknowledged by Rodham Clinton as a "joke," it speaks volumes about the ways in which the public expected her to conform and, in the event that she didn't, the ways in which it expected her husband to exercise his rights as the head of his household and force her to do so. It was the first public battle that Rodham Clinton would have to face regarding her status and role as a wife and, in the end, political pragmatism won the day — urged to "do the right thing: start using Bill's name" (93) she eventually announced that she would be known as Hillary Rodham Clinton.

8     Though the name change signifies a relatively small sacrifice, one she was ultimately willing to make for the sake of her husband's political career, the battle over what she should be called set the tone for the ways in which the public would view her as a wife. Her decision to adopt a married name obviously did not come easily to her, and understanding her discomfort with the decision (as well as her reasoning for eventually choosing to add the new surname) illustrates clearly the first of her many struggles with her role as wife. Today, in the midst of the 2008 presidential race, the issue has come up again as she struggles to find a balance between her personal preference and the expectations of voters. An article in the Albany Times Union notes that she "identifies herself as 'Hillary Clinton' in her campaign press releases and on her campaign website [HillaryClinton.com]" (Powell A1). Though the campaign insists that there is no significance to the change, the article quotes Laurie Scheuble, a scholar of women's maiden name usage, as saying that this "decision to drop her maiden name puts her in sync with the vast majority of married women in America" (qtd. in Powell A1), women who, theoretically, should be her base. Political expedience played a significant role in Rodham Clinton's initial decision to alter her name and obviously continues to do so today: in her presidential campaign press releases she is "Hillary Clinton," as senator of New York she is "Hillary Rodham Clinton," and her campaign bumper stickers and buttons announce her simply as "Hillary." There exists, in the many names of the candidate, something for everyone.

9     The drama over her name may have been the first, but it was most certainly not the last of the trials she would face as Bill Clinton's wife. As his political career took off — fully supported by Rodham Clinton — her husband's long history of infidelities began to be revealed. Rumors of his philandering would continue to grow, coming to light on a national scale in 1992, when allegations surfaced of an affair with Gennifer Flowers, and culminating in the devastating public revelation of his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Rodham Clinton endured growing scrutiny of her marriage and was continuously forced to defend her relationship in front of a national media hungry for information about the inner workings of their household. Especially troubling were the allegations that she, by being so assertive, ambitious, and — even — sexually frigid or uninterested in men, had forced him into these relationships. Infidelity on the part of men often gets couched in terms of how their wives have failed them in one wayor another, and such justifications were gleefully applied to the situation between Rodham Clinton and her husband. For one of America's most famous feminists — the woman who became the very model of the new wife — this justification was made even more problematic by the reaction of feminists and other women who felt betrayed by her decision to salvage her marriage — to "stand by her man."

10     It became an impossible situation. Rodham Clinton had to contend with those who had long lamented the rise of the feminist wife — the woman who did not know her place and put career and personal ambition over the nurturing of her family and the care of her husband — and who used the example of her husband's affair as concrete evidence that feminism had eroded family life. At the same time, feminists and other women criticized her for not divorcing her husband and moving on. Accused of staying with Bill Clinton for her own political agenda, she was further criticized for being so ambitious that she willingly overlooked infidelity and dealt with public embarrassment for the sake of political power. All of these criticisms accuse her of being too much like a man — she is not feminine and nurturing enough to satisfy her husband while at the same time her ambition and hunger for political power — typical of a man — is cited as the reason she decided not to divorce her husband. Complicating all of this is the fact that, despite all of this criticism, her approval ratings began to soar. The more she was seen as a wife — and a jilted wife at that — the more the American public apparently sympathized with her. Rodham Clinton had been shown her place, and the public smugly approved.