Barbara Bush was a feminist’s nightmare

Barbara Bush, who has died at the age of 92, was a feminist’s nightmare. She dropped out of Smith College, from which the women’s lib movement would later explode, to marry and raise a family. Firmly independent but a dutiful wife, she was a liberal on abortion and gay rights but learned to keep mum for her husband’s sake. She was also tougher than him but ploughed her energy into stiffening his spine. As First Lady, she was content to be the strong woman behind a successful man and was proud to be known to millions of Americans for her clam chowder and chocolate chip cookie recipes. ‘I don’t fool around with his office and he doesn’t fool around with my household,’ she said, drawing an unfashionable line between the personal and political. 

For all she presented as a well-manicured bluebonnet she was fierce as a Texas bobcat, especially in defence of her family.