First Ladies Ranked by Intelligence: What Siena's Experts Scored and Dropped

Which first lady was the smartest? On the only expert ranking that ever scored it, the answer is Eleanor Roosevelt, by a clear margin. In the 2008 edition of Siena College's first ladies survey she scored 4.79 out of 5 for intelligence, ahead of Hillary Clinton at 4.65, Abigail Adams at 4.42 and Jacqueline Kennedy at 4.08. But Siena then stopped scoring intelligence, so there is no ranking of first ladies by intelligence after 2008, none for Michelle Obama, Melania Trump or Jill Biden, and no first lady has a published IQ score. This article gives the full list, what changed between editions, and how to read it.

Which first lady was the smartest? The Siena 2008 intelligence ranking

The Siena College Research Institute surveyed historians, political scientists and other experts, who rated each first lady from 1 to 5 in ten categories, one of them intelligence. The 2008 edition rated 38 women and printed the mean for each category. Ranked by the Intelligence mean, the top 15 were:

• 1. Eleanor Roosevelt: 4.79
• 2. Hillary Clinton: 4.65
• 3. Abigail Adams: 4.42
• 4. Jacqueline Kennedy: 4.08
• 5= Lady Bird Johnson: 3.78
• 5= Rosalynn Carter: 3.78
• 7. Dolley Madison: 3.66
• 8. Betty Ford: 3.65
• 9. Edith Wilson: 3.55
• 10. Edith Roosevelt: 3.48
• 11. Martha Washington: 3.45
• 12. Barbara Bush: 3.41
• 13. Ellen Wilson: 3.39
• 14. Lou Hoover: 3.33
• 15. Nancy Reagan: 3.28

At the other end, Florence Harding and Jane Pierce were level last at 2.97, with Letitia Tyler at 2.98 and Abigail Fillmore and Margaret Taylor at 3.00. Laura Bush was level 21st at 3.15. The table is steep at the top and flat below it: only four women scored 4.0 or more, and 29 of the 38 sit between 3.00 and 3.66. Siena's table has a rank column, but it holds percentages of the maximum score rather than ordinal ranks, so the ranks above are ours, sorted from the printed means.

One detail to know before you quote this list. Siena's 2008 release prints Adams second and Clinton third in intelligence, but the full table of means puts Clinton ahead, 4.65 to 4.42. The release's intelligence list is identical, name for name, to its leadership list, and in the table's leadership column Adams (4.19) does sit just above Clinton (4.17), which suggests a copying slip in the release. We follow the table, because it prints the means.

Did the Siena survey stop scoring intelligence?

Yes. The survey has run six times, in 1982, 1993, 2003, 2008, 2014 and 2020. Intelligence was one of the ten categories in 2003 and 2008, and the 1993 ballot has an intelligence column. In 2014 and again in 2020 the ten categories were background, value to the country, being the White House steward, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being her own woman, public image and value to the president. Intelligence is gone, and the White House steward category took its place. So the 2020 poll, released on 9 December 2020 after a survey of 209 experts, has no intelligence ranking, even though it is the edition most articles cite.

What the 2020 poll does show is the overall order: Eleanor Roosevelt first for the sixth time running, Abigail Adams second, Michelle Obama third, Jacqueline Kennedy fourth and Dolley Madison fifth, then Betty Ford, Lady Bird Johnson, Hillary Clinton, Rosalynn Carter and Martha Washington. Melania Trump entered the study that year at 40th of 40, last in every one of the ten categories, and Siena's director said historians may have judged her partly on their view of her husband. Jill Biden has never been rated: the 2020 survey ran from February to June 2019, before she became first lady, and Siena has published no later edition. The 2014 edition, surveyed in late 2013, is the one that added Michelle Obama, at fifth overall, and it also has no intelligence score.

How the intelligence ratings changed between 2003 and 2008

The 2003 edition, rated by 90 history and political science professors, is the previous intelligence table. Its top ten were:

• 1. Eleanor Roosevelt: 4.88
• 2. Hillary Clinton: 4.86
• 3. Abigail Adams: 4.75
• 4= Rosalynn Carter: 4.21
• 4= Jacqueline Kennedy: 4.21
• 6. Dolley Madison: 4.06
• 7. Lady Bird Johnson: 4.00
• 8= Edith Roosevelt: 3.97
• 8= Lou Hoover: 3.97
• 10. Edith Wilson: 3.95

Letitia Tyler (2.88), Florence Harding (2.90) and Pat Nixon (2.97) were at the bottom. The same 38 women were rated in both editions, which allows a direct comparison. The top three stayed in place, but nearly every mean fell:

• Eleanor Roosevelt: 4.88 in 2003, 4.79 in 2008
• Hillary Clinton: 4.86 in 2003, 4.65 in 2008
• Abigail Adams: 4.75 in 2003, 4.42 in 2008
• Jacqueline Kennedy: 4.21 in 2003, 4.08 in 2008
• Rosalynn Carter: 4.21 in 2003, 3.78 in 2008
• Lady Bird Johnson: 4.00 in 2003, 3.78 in 2008
• Edith Wilson: 3.95 in 2003, 3.55 in 2008
• Laura Bush: 3.43 in 2003, 3.15 in 2008
• Nancy Reagan: 3.01 in 2003, 3.28 in 2008, the one large rise, from 34th to 15th

Across all 38 women the average fell from 3.60 to 3.36. In 2003 seven women scored 4.0 or higher; in 2008 only four did. The 2003 panel was 90 history and political science professors, and the 2008 release does not give its size, so a lower average may reflect a stricter or different panel rather than a change in the women. That is why a 2003 mean and a 2008 mean should not be set side by side as a trend. Our guide to why a score is a range covers the same discipline for test results.

Do the scores follow education? Adams, Roosevelt and Michelle Obama

They do not, which is the clearest sign that the panel was rating reputation and influence. Abigail Adams, third on intelligence at 4.42, received no formal schooling and was taught at home by her mother. Eleanor Roosevelt, first, was tutored and then attended Allenswood Academy near London from 1899 to 1902, and she held no university degree. Laura Bush, level 21st, holds a bachelor's degree in education from Southern Methodist University and a master's in library science from the University of Texas at Austin. Hillary Clinton, second in both 2003 and 2008, graduated from Wellesley in 1969 and Yale Law School in 1973.

The two modern first ladies without a Siena intelligence score have documented degrees. The White House archive says Michelle Obama studied sociology and African-American studies at Princeton and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1988; the Biden White House archive says Jill Biden took a bachelor's in English at the University of Delaware in 1975 and a Doctor of Education there in 2007. A degree is a record of achievement, not an IQ, and our piece on average IQ by education level shows how loose the link is on average.

What is the IQ of Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton and Melania Trump?

None has a published IQ test result. For Michelle Obama our profile gives an achievement-based range of 120 to 135, and for Hillary Clinton our profile gives 130 to 145. Both are our estimates from degrees and careers, labelled as such, not measurements. The 140 that circulates for Clinton, and the 115 and 120 that circulate for Obama, cite no test. Figures well above 150 are attached to Melania Trump on repost sites; the pages we read link neither to a test nor to an original report. Our article on where celebrity IQ numbers come from explains how such numbers start.

A comparison with presidents is useful here. Dean Keith Simonton's 2006 study put a number on every US president, which our US presidents ranked by IQ piece sets out, but no matching peer-reviewed study exists for first ladies. The nearest thing is Siena's rating, and it stopped. For the leaders themselves, see world leaders ranked by IQ.

How to read a "first ladies ranked by intelligence" list

• Who rated, and when? Siena's 2003 panel was 90 professors; the 2014 and 2020 panels were 242 and 209 experts, and neither scored intelligence.
• Is intelligence defined? In the releases we read it is not, so each expert used their own idea of it.
• Did everyone rate everyone? No: in 2020 the share rating each woman ran from 14.29 per cent for Caroline Harrison to 80.48 per cent for Abigail Adams.
• Is the figure a mean out of 5 or an IQ? Siena's numbers are means on a 1 to 5 scale; an "IQ" attached to them is invented.

The bottom line: Eleanor Roosevelt is the smartest first lady in the one expert ranking that scored intelligence, with Hillary Clinton and Abigail Adams close behind, but that is a 2008 rating of reputation by history experts. It is not an IQ, it covers no one who came after, and Siena has not repeated it. To see where a score of your own falls, take the IQ Metrics IQ test and convert the result with the IQ percentile calculator.

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