question

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated Mon, 12 Jul 2004 10:46:19 -0400
Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:

What happens when the pastor is a woman, and married?  Is there a
label for her husband?  (I know the same question would arise for the
husband of a (female) president or governor, and I think the answer
is that there's no such label, because there's no role of "first
gentleman" or whatever, but I just wanted to confirm this intuition.)

When referring to the White House, it is NOT true that the "First Lady" is
the wife of the President.  The FIrst Lady is the official hostess of the United
States government, which means she is the woman who does the formal welcoming
of the guests when the President, in his/her role as Head of State, hosts an
official event (e.g. a state dinner).

If the President is male and married, then by default his wife acts as First
Lady.  If the President is male and single, then some female relative acts as
First Lady.  When the bachelor James Buchanan was President, his niece Harriet
Lane acted as First Lady.

So what happens should we have a female President?  At official functions she
will be the First Lady, as well as Head of State, Chief Executive, and
Commander-in-Chief.  Furthermore, if she is married, her husband will act as the
official host at official functions.  Undoubtedly many journalists will use the
title "First Gentleman", but we will have to wait and see whether it catches on.

                         - James A. Landau