It is
still shocking to the majority of Americans to learn that President Wilson had
a massive stroke in office. But to tell people that his wife, Edith Wilson, was
the acting President for almost two years is unbelievable. The motivations
among historians and the people at the time is simple. If you say Edith Wilson
was President from 1919 to 1921,then you diminish the impact Woodrow Wilson had
on the country and his legacy.
Power is given to those who can act upon it,
and President Wilson, who remained in bed only to be wheeled out for movies and
some fresh air, could not act upon anything. The question then is; who was
Edith Bolling Wilson? Was she a woman singularly gifted enough to run the
country and nurse her husband back to health; or was she a woman doing the best
she could in a world of men who saw women as little more than second citizens? Now almost a hundred years later, we ponder
the very relevant impact of our First Woman President again.
Excerpt
She was from the South
and had two years of formal schooling and wrote like a child. She married a quiet man from Washington and
her baby died after three months. Her husband then died and left her with a
failing jewelry company that was severely in debt. She turned the company around
while taking almost no salary. She bought an electric car and was issued the
first driver’s license given to a woman in the District of Columbia. She married a President who had been recently
widowed. In four years, the President would have a severe stroke, and leave her
to run the Unites States Government and negotiate the end of World War I.
She was our First Woman President.
