Michelle Obama, Karl Marx and the secrets of the G20 First Wives' clubMariella Frostrup The Guardian, Friday 3 April 2009 Article history
Michelle Obama at the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Language School in London. Photograph: Jim Young/Reuters
While the men got on with the business of digging us out of our economic and political hole yesterday, the developed world's second most important assembly were left to concern themselves with issues of a more artistic bent.
The conundrum of how to be a modern first lady was apparent when the G20 spouses gathered at the Royal Opera House for a cultural interlude followed by lunch.
My role as "compere", on Sarah Brown's invitation, offered me a glimpse of what this group of intelligent, capable women get up to while their husbands are busy attempting to solve the problems of the known universe.
Academics, economists, lawyers, businesswomen: the qualifications in the room made for a highbrow coffee morning. It was disappointing not to find a few more husbands of presidents and prime ministers in the mix, but clearly miracles don't occur over mere decades in politics.
And politics was definitely not on the menu. Kids and how to cope with the demands of this heavily judged but unpaid job were a pervading theme of the conversation.
Sarah Brown, dressed as soberly as Michelle Obama sparkled, still managed to shine, performing her hostess duties in head-girl style: supporting the shy, standing back for the gregarious, and generally displaying the level-headed backroom diplomacy for which she is becoming appreciated. Brown was the facilitator, but the star was Mrs Obama.
She arrived resplendent in green and turquoise, accepting the attendant fuss with good humour and a discernible slice of healthy cynicism. Distributing hugs and handshakes wherever she moved, she looked like a woman trained in the art of being centre of attention.
When I asked if she'd been prepared for the hysterical reception they had received everywhere, she replied with a girlish grin that nobody could be prepared for such an experience.
Yet conversations such as the one the day before - when she attempted to excite the Obama girls with details of her visit to the Queen, and they preferred to tell mum about their April Fool's antics at home - kept life in perspective. Her mission, she said, was to make sure her daughters, who will still be young when they depart the White House, are equipped for life beyond the bubble.
Another conspiratorial smile radiated from the First Lady's face when we "girls" were asked to move into the auditorium. A description she confided that you loathe in your thirties, and embrace with great enthusiasm after 40.
Michelle's arrival elicited gasps from the kids in leotards and an unmistakable buzz among her fellow "spouses". Yet she seemed remarkably relaxed for someone who had just arrived in a convoy of cars with a full secret service platoon in her wake.
Over our "light lunch", Svetlana Medvedeva, wife of the Russian president, and I attempted a discussion, through her translator, about our love of books. She was proud to reveal that Marx's Das Capital is again a bestseller in Russia, and says real readers, among whom she clearly numbers, are rereaders. She cited Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita as a novel offering fresh insights at each stage of our reading lives.
On my right was the less earnest presence of the Thai prime minister's wife, Pimpen Vejjajiva, a professor of mathematics, who confided that her Eton educated husband is a fan of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, a meal she rustles up for him once a month.
What was most apparent at this once-in-a-lifetime gathering is that, whatever we think of the Masters of the Universe, they have extremely good taste in women. The spouses included grandmothers and mothers, career women and career wives - all engaging with the complicated challenges of taking a back seat while in most cases being qualified to ride upfront.
Maybe one of these days we'll see women like these at the summit, and a few more boys at the sideshow.
