On the one hand, the first lady is certainly a fairly highly regarded position where women have been able to influence politics and affect change for a long time, even before women were really allowed to be in politics formally.

On the other hand, having married happenstance some guy that becomes president is obviously not a feat of any kind. But at the same time, in the old-school patriarchal sense of values, a woman married to a politically powerful man is considered to be above other women. Even in far pettier situations. The governor’s wife, the senator’s wife, hell even a mayor’s wife