Watching America : Where Did All the Boys in the White House Go? — This is an interesting article. In fact all the recent Presidents (except Reagan/Bush I) have only girls. And we see the results. (No letters please!). The Chinese are preoccupied with this since they have limits on number of children they can bear.
At least in one aspect, U.S. President-elect Obama did not bring change to the White House. Like Presidents Bush, Clinton, Nixon, and Johnson—Obama will spend several years in a White House with no boys roughhousing inside. In the 80 years before Obama, only President Kennedy brought a boy to the White House.
The 19th Century White House Teemed with Boys
In some countries of the world, not having a son is still seen as almost a kind of deficiency, especially for leaders. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has two sons, as does Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi. French President Sarkozy has three sons. Even Letsie III, the king of Lesotho, a country in Southern Africa, has a son.
Evidently, in determining who is fit to be a national leader, American voters transcended this overly simplistic concept very early on, but in the past, it was not this way at all.
In the 19th century, White House rulers had lots of sons. President Lincoln had four sons. Ulysses S. Grant, the Civil War Union Army commander who later became America’s 18th president, had three sons and a daughter.
