Never mind her degrees, undergraduate and graduate, a redundant pedigree that appeared to have led her no further than to housewifery, in the end.

NEWYORKER: Soldier��s Joy

For her, in middle age, politics had been liberation: from housewifery, from suburban life, from the endless train of laundry and perfectly frosted cakes.

ECONOMIST: Ann Richards

She was the lady in the yellow dress, simple, bespectacled, plain not just in her housewifery but also in her demeanour, a contrast in every way to the stylish Imelda, who was still stuffing the boudoirs of the presidential palace with frocks and furs and shoes, shoes, shoes.

ECONOMIST: Corazon Aquino