Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-240) and index.

Must I always be first? Martha Washington -- Do NOT forget the ladies! Abigail Adams -- Presidents who (technically) had no first ladies and why -- Bubbly, bold, brave. Dolley Madison -- Illness, heroic journeys, and Texas. Elizabeth Monroe, Louisa Adams, Anna Harrison, and two very different Tylers -- Letitia Tyler and Julia Tyler -- Ambition versus invisibility. Sarah Polk, Margaret Taylor, Abigail Fillmore, and Jane Pierce -- Civil War breaks out. Mary Lincoln -- And now the "New Woman Era". Eliza Johnson, Julia Grant, Lucy Hayes and Lucretia Garfield -- The modern woman emerges. Frances Cleveland, Caroline Harrison, Ida McKinley, Edith Roosevelt, and Helen Taft -- The artist and the first woman prez. Ellen Wilson and Edith Wilson -- Flying first ladies. Florence Harding, Grace Coolidge, and Lou Hoover -- First lady of the world. Eleanor Roosevelt -- Pink and pretty. Bess Truman and Mamie Eisenhower -- One thousand days -- and beyond. Jacqueline Kennedy -- A millionaire, a Goodwill ambassador, and one who made a difference. Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, and Betty Ford -- The steel magnolia, the iron butterfly and the enforcer. Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, and Barbara Bush -- Developing a thick skin. Hillary Clinton -- The bookworm. Laura Bush -- Serious role model. Michelle Obama -- Glamour to spare. Melania Trump -- Forty women who shaped America.