Thread by @Telegraph

🇺🇸 Today, Kamala Harris became the first female, the first black and Asian-American vice-president of America

But she isn’t the first woman to hold the reigns of power in the White House...

That honour belongs to Edith Wilson, the second wife of Woodrow Wilson, and a woman some people consider to be the first female president of the United States.

Although, as you’ll see, it’s complicated!

Let us rewind & explain

⭐ Edith Wilson was born in 1872 in Virginia and was a descendant of Pocahontas.

⭐ She was a woman who had been taught to make a home, not run the White House.

⭐ When she married Woodrow Wilson in 1915, she was a widow and had lost a child in infancy

By 1917, the 28th president had won his second term in office, and the US had entered the First World War

In many ways, Edith was like most First Ladies; she introduced meatless Mondays at The White House to support the country’s rationing efforts and started a Red Cross sewing group

But Edith was also given access to the president’s classified document drawer and secret wartime code, she sat in on all of his meetings and denied his advisers access to him

Today, you might call her a feminist, but there was no love lost between Edith and the suffragettes.

When female demonstrators protested outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she called them “those devils in the workhouse"

In 1919, after travelling to France to sign the Treaty of Versailles, Woodrow suffered a stroke, which left him bedridden and partially paralysed.

He never fully recovered

Instead of resigning from office, his wife picked up the baton.

Edith took on what she called a 'stewardship' role and acted as his proxy.

As she put it, she decided “what was important and what was not” and chose “when to present matters” to her husband

Edith even acted independently and removed Secretary of State Robert Lansing after he conducted a series of Cabinet meetings without the president

This charade continued for 17 months.

The country had largely cottoned on to the fact the First Lady was working overtime.

And they weren’t happy about it

This was an era before women exercised political agency.

American women weren't granted the right to vote until 1920.

One senator accused the United States of being run by a ‘petticoat government’

Luckily, no major crises unfolded during her de facto presidency, and she kept the cogs of the political machine well oiled until the end of Woodrow’s term

Not bad for a woman with less than two years of formal education under her belt

Would you consider Edith Wilson to be the first female president of the United States? 🇺🇸